Costa Rica Guy

The Matrix Revealed

January 22, 2014 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

The American Dream.

Is it real?

Are dreams ever?

Well, they may not be real, but I believe they do have meaning.

And often they are meant to warn us.

In the First World there exists this altered state of reality that feels so real as to supplant reality itself.

It is the economic reality that is the topic of many a good talkings to.

Son, the economic reality of things is this…you get you a good education, a good job, settle down with a good wife, have a family, keep your nose to the grindstone for 30 or so years, and then you can retire, play golf and spoil the grandkids…you can be me!

A cog in the machinery of first world progress.

So that’s pretty much what the majority of first worlders do.

It is a reality that largely revolves around and is fueled by economics, or money…

and comparison…

to that fictitious Jones family who seem to have it all, but who in reality…

don’t even exist.

Throw a monkey wrench into the works, like job loss, divorce, addiction, reckless risk taking that results in perceived economic failure and the wheels come off very easily.

I have some experience here.

The fragility of the dream is revealed. Dreams are always fragile since they tend to go poof when you wake up from them and can’t even remember much about them.

Time for another good talking to.

About how you just ain’t doing it right…according to the dream.

But wait a minute…let’s step back away from the fray and examine this so-called “reality.”

A reality based on economics? Is that really the one I want to adopt for myself? For my life?

Couldn’t there possibly be some alternative state of reality that might be a tad more fulfilling and a hell of lot less stressful?

Less fragile?

One that is really…real…for me.

Concrete, hard and durable.

Yes there can, but first you must wake up from this dream state…which in reality is a nightmare.

Open your eyes and shake off those cobwebs of collective first world consciousness.

See this reality for what it truly is. A broken place and largely broken due to the dream-like state that its inhabitants are scurrying around in…scurrying around to generate more and more of these little pictures of dead notables that can be exchanged for the dream life…the matrix revealed!

As in the movie, could there be some super intelligent machine-like being responsible for this reality?

No we are responsible. We created it.

And it is largely fueled by self-interest, greed, and indifference.

We created this vast network of functional and rejected cogs, both operating from a standpoint of self-interest.

And the rejected cog’s feigned sense of helplessness emanates just as much from self-interest as the greediest of the functional cogs.

Remove yourself from the matrix.

Become a misfit who adopts a different mindset.

Who refuses to take either the red or the blue pill.

You don’t need either one to see things for what they are.

Move up to a higher dimension…a higher plane of consciousness.

Living in the third world has been an eye opening experience for me. One that has introduced me to that altered state. One that has awakened me from the dream.

I no longer buy into the advice of my dad that I must be a cog in the machinery of first world progress.

That is not the key to happiness.

So, what is really real? Life in which impact is the impetus…not economics. That’s what the universe yearns for…not more cogs in the matrix.

Now, am I suggesting that the matrix of economic reality doesn’t exist?

Oh no, it exists alright.

We created it.

But I don’t for a second believe that it is the way the real and created reality of the universe is meant to be.

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The Secret to the Good Life

January 21, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Was Jesus god?

I don’t know.

And, if truth really be told, neither do you.

I can believe, have faith, that he was…but it can’t be proven as fact…at least, not yet.

Oh yea he said some things that seemed to point in the direction.

But was he being sarcastic, was he parable-izing to make a point, or was he really stating a literal fact?

Jesus often said things in fiction to make a factual point…those statements were called parables.

But there are a few unmistakable facts about this real historic figure named Jesus…

He was a radical…a revolutionary even…
And a misfit…
And a great teacher…
Who taught primarily that the secret to the good life is love…
And he was a legendary impact mindfulness practitioner…

I am a Jeff Goins fan. If you don’t know who he is check out his blog at www.goinswriter.com.

Now, Jeff would more than likely take issue with the opening to this post, but that’s OK.

I just finished his watershed first book, Wrecked.

I loved it, especially the following quote…

If we want to understand the secret to living a good life – to loving people like this – we have to be willing to do the unthinkable. We have to get dirty. We cannot be afraid of the cost, of getting stained with someone else’s filth. We cannot avoid the walls that divide us – the superficialities and prejudices that separate the “clean” from the “unclean.” All those need to fall down, to disappear, if we are going to stop playing around and actually do this. Otherwise, we should just stop kidding ourselves.

Thank you Jeff…for the above quote that fully supports each and every pillar of impact mindfulness.

I love it when famous people agree with me…not that I have an ego problem or anything…

I particularly like that very first sentence. Because within it the secret to living a good life really is revealed.

Do you see it? It is between the “guiones” (Spanish, and sounds like Goins), or hyphens…

Because you see the “secret” to living the good life truly is “loving people like this.”

And that is exactly what Jesus taught us to do.

To do the unthinkable. To turn the other cheek. To not be afraid of getting stained with another’s filth…literally and figuratively.

Jesus was all about breaking down walls that divide us. That divide us from ourselves and from god…or from the good life.

Because the “good life” is really more about loving than it is about living.

Hmm, that sounds confusing…let me elaborate…

Why? Because it (the good life) gets in the way of the living…of the doing it our own individualistic and self-actualization-seeking way.

Jesus proclaimed to be the way, the truth and the life. Most say that was an indication of his deity.

I say it was an exhortation to love like he did.

For that is the way…and the truth…and the secret to the GOOD life.

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A World Without Borders

January 19, 2014 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

Okay all good things must come to an end. It’s time to leave Colombia and head back north to Costa Rica

…woe is me, right?

This almost month long Colombian working vacation has been the best yet. And to cap it off, I just returned from four days in the Colombian Amazon.

The place that I visited is Leticia…it is the southernmost point of Colombia and it borders Brazil and Peru.

But what makes it all the more interesting is that there’s really no “border” at all. You can travel back and forth to Peru and Brazil without any official crossing.

This makes for a rich cultural experience to say the least.

And what about the Amazon itself? Breathtaking in its immensity is a phrase that immediately comes to mind.

The second longest river in the world, but by far the largest in overall water-flow, my first look at this vast expanse of “river-sea” was awe inspiring.

And its banks contain the most bio-diverse tropical eco-systems on the planet.

Did I swim in it? You betcha I did.

Now, mind you, taking a dip in the Amazon is not like taking a dip in the “crick” back home. There are many dangers lurking in that murky water.

Like the Candiru, a tiny razor thin catfish that can actually swim up a urine stream and lodge itself with sharp backward pointing barbs into a man’s penis. The only way to remove it…amputation!

And then there is the fish that inspires horror even in 007…the voracious flesh eating Piranha. But in reality you don’t have to worry much about them unless you enter the water bleeding.

So, bottom line, keep your bodily fluids inside when taking a dip in the Amazon.

The cultural experience of a world without borders was amplified by the presence of diverse indigenous groups in the area. In fact, the entire area is largely populated by these groups.

I write often about the evil inspired in our world by the existence of these fictitious geographical lines in the sand called borders. But in this place, I actually got to experience a world without them.

And it was refreshing.

I saw cooperation. I saw people trying to understand the differences between them, rather than allowing those differences to inspire hate. Leticianos seemed proud of this unusual inclusiveness. In fact, they are using it, successfully, as a tourism attraction point.

Many people told me how dangerous it would be down there. That there would be people who would want to harm a gringo…that a gringo would really stand out and be at risk.

But I neither felt nor experienced the slightest trace of danger, well, other than the Piranhas and Candirus.

It was as peaceful a place as I have visited in Colombia, indeed in all of Latin America.

And what made it all the more pleasant was the presence of Don (or Tio) Medardo of the Hotel Pirarucu. The slogan of the hotel is “su casa en el Amazonas,” or your home in the Amazon.

And Don Medardo made it feel like exactly that.

Oh, by the way, the Pirarucu is the name for South America’s largest freshwater fish, which frequent the waters of the Amazon River.

I felt a slight sense of justification as we traveled seamlessly from Colombia to Brazil, Brazil to Peru, then back to Colombia. No border agents to harass. No requests for documentation. And no feeling as if there was some pent-up nationalistic rivalry that existed making those on one side peer over to those on the other with fear and loathing.

I felt justified because that’s the world of the Big US. The one impact mindfulness speaks of. It may be a Utopian and entirely unrealistic concept…but at least in this little corner of the globe…it actually exists.

I have created a 10 minute video of my Colombian Amazon experience and it is embedded below.

Would love for you to give it a look…

Oh, also, you can view my set of Colombian Amazon photos here…

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What is Sustainability?

January 12, 2014 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

I am still on quasi-vacation in Colombia. I say “quasi” because when you’re one of those crazy wild-eyed online entrepreneurs, you tend to take your work with you, wherever you may go.

And on Tuesday that will be to the Amazon jungle in the southernmost spot on the Colombian map…Leticia…on the border with Brazil and Peru.

Jungle traipsing has me thinking about all things sustainable this morning. And rather than re-invent the wheel I thought I would reach way back into the old Costa Rica Guy archives to pull out some of my ponderings on this topic.

Sustainability is definitely a concept that is near and dear to the heart of impact mindfulness. But exactly what is sustainability?

To address that question I am re-posting an old CRG post that is still relevant and allows me to relax the brain cells a bit while I remain “on vacation.”

Sustain-Ability

This post is apt to be one of those cathartic ones that has me “thinking out loud” (in written form) and trying to answer a question that has been bouncing around in my head.

That question this morning is…what does sustainability really mean?

I think that is important because I tend to see myself as some sort of sustainability guy and in order to be that person I believe it is necessary to have a firm grasp on what it is that I’m talking about.

Because it order to be a “sustainability guy” one must “act sustainable”…and I am not sure I always do that all that well. Maybe that is because I have yet to succinctly define what it really means, for me.

I did a quick Google search on the term and Wikipedia defined it like this:

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of well-being, which in turn depends on the well-being of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.

Wikipedia went on to say that “sustainability has become a wide-ranging term”

Boy is that an understatement!

These days you have “gurus” using the buzzword “sustainability” to address a whole host of human activities, like tourism and development. In fact, Costa Rica is looked upon as a model country when it comes to sustainable tourism and development.

But on a personal level, what does the term really mean…to me?

I believe it has everything to do with interactions and impacts. That is, how I interact with other people, with the planet, and (I know it sounds a little weird) with myself and the collective impacts resulting from those interactions.

According to Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Probably taking that notion out of context somewhat, it implies that our interactions result in impacts, on others, on our natural world and on ourselves (for example, throw a piece of trash out the window of your car and you have both an interaction and an impact, though not a sustainable one).

If “sustainability” is the “capacity to endure” it then means that those interactions and impacts should be “facilitative” (as opposed to destructive) of endurance.

On a human interaction level, it means helping others to be more capable of enduring, physically, socially, economically, and culturally. On the level of interactions with the natural world, it means conserving and nurturing growth, while doing as little harm as is truly necessary. On a personal level, it entails personal actions that nurture and promote physical, emotional and intellectual health and well-being.

Now that I have a clearer idea about what sustainability really means, it is easier to see where it is I am falling short of my goal of being that “sustainability guy.”

Nevertheless, I believe it is a worthy aim and I will continue to strive for it.

One thing that’s for sure, sustainability requires thought before interaction in order to produce the desired impact.

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Respect is a Right

January 9, 2014 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

How can I have an impact?

Valid question.

But I believe the reason it can be daunting to arrive at an answer is because we immediately default to American-style big thinking ways to incorporate a new life’s mission.

But impact can be done in small daily habits…not just big bold life changing missions.

One of the ways, maybe the chief way, is via giving, not paying, respect.

All too often we only “pay” respect to those who we feel have “earned it.” Usually those we deem worthy are the ones who are like us, or who are on or above our own socio-economic level.

The street person asking for a handout is thus treated more with derision than respect.

But as the title suggests…respect is a right and giving it, well…

it’s just right.

I wrote a chapter in my FREE eBook, School of Hard Knocks – 10 Lesson Learned, about marriage. In that chapter I make the perhaps unexpected, but I believe totally true, premise that respect is one of the keys to a successful marriage.

I will go a step further in this post and proclaim that respect is certainly a key to impact mindfulness in specific and “success” in life in general.

Today I am dredging up an old Costa Rica Guy post on respect.

In it you’ll see references to things that were going on at the time I wrote it…like the 2008 economic crash, the supposed “invasion” of Costa Rica by Nicaragua, and the dramatic and catastrophic oil spill a mile down in the Gulf of Mexico.

But I am re-posting it here because I believe it is highly relevant to the topic of respect as a general right that all we humans share.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I am going to suggest something particularly outlandish in this post. And that is, maybe that part of the Declaration of Independence that is so often quoted, you know the “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” part, is a little off. Maybe missing from that list is another thing we humans are endowed with, or at least should be…

respect.

If you think about it, most of the bad stuff that happens in the world comes from a flagrant disrespect of either people or planet.

A group of high school kids use Internet social network sites to bully a classmate to the point where the latter take his or her life…disrespect. We drill holes in the bottom of the ocean too far down to deal with the consequences should something go awry…disrespect. One nation decides to dredge a border river and cast the resulting sludge onto an environmentally sensitive and protected area of their neighbor country…disrespect. A husband decides to cheat on his wife of eighteen years and the mother of his children and the person who has given him the better part of her life…disrespect.

It seems this whole “pursuit of happiness” thing has become nothing more than an excuse to disrespect.

The pursuit of happiness has been reduced to a supposed “right” to be wealthy, to live the “American dream,” the “good life.” So, the arguably “smartest” among us flock to Wall Street in order to figure out ways to “rig the system” and get obscenely wealthy in the process…at the expense of an entire economy and millions of jobs…disrespect.

Sure I could go on and on with examples.

Maybe what the world needs is a healthy dose of respect.

Respect these days has become something we are told we have to “earn.” Or, something we have to “pay.”

To “pay one’s respects” connotes a zero-sum game whereby I have to give up something myself in order to give you the respect you deserve. However, quite the contrary, respect is reciprocal…that is, in order to get it, you gotta give it…not pay it.

Respect is reciprocal…that is, in order to get it, you gotta give it…not pay it.

Aretha Franklin demanded it, maybe you and I should to…

Life, Liberty and Respect…now there’s a declaration worth fighting for!

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The God, the Bad and the Ugly

January 8, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Spiritual Dimensions of Impact Mindfulness

OK I realize that the spiritual diversions that I frequently take perhaps turn off some people…

but realistically, are they “my people?”

Because, you see, impact mindfulness has to be (HAS TO BE) a spiritual concept.

Why?

If you’ve read much here you might have caught wind of a belief I hold dear to. And that belief kinda goes like this…

Good is present in our world and is chiefly manifested by impact. The existence of good must emanate from something above and beyond us mortals.

Why?

Well we’re going to examine that question in this very post. As well as the age-old non-spiritual argument that if God is good, why does so much bad happen?

The God

Many people condemn the lack of sheer logic in any belief in an unknowable and unsee-able being? Well, isn’t there something unknowable and unsee-able inherent in OUR being?

That is, our spirit.

You certainly cannot examine it under a microscope. But it’s quite hard to argue that it’s not there…isn’t it?

And it is from this spirit that our desire to do good…to have an impact…emanates. It doesn’t result from the flesh and blood material stuff…that part only gives rise to the need and quest for survival.

The flesh yearns to take, rather than to give.

But there is a part of us to which good does appeal…the spiritual part and I believe strongly that that part is connected to an intelligent force that is also spirit…call it “god” if you like.

In Revolutionary Misfit jargon, we like to call it Universe.

So you see I believe impact is a completely spiritual exercise. Without the existence of God, or Universe, the entire concept goes poof…like a fart in the wind.

The Bad

Okay smarty pants…then what about all that badness that’s out there?

Well for now let’s focus on human badness…not the other kind of natural ugliness that occurs over which we really have no control. We’ll deal with that a little later.

Well, if you think about it the fact that a component of our being…the main one actually…is spirit kinda connotes the necessity of free will…doesn’t it?

I guess other life forms have some semblance of a spirit, but it’s not the same.

Other than some questionable examples, apart from humans, life forms really don’t have much choice between good and bad. That’s why I’ve heard it said that bad really doesn’t exist in nature. There are no Bernie Madoffs or Ted Bundys in the animal kingdom. Those cats just do what they do…its all about flesh and blood survival.

But when it comes to us…far different story. Like I said before, we alone have the capacity to do good and that capacity connects us all together and to God.

But that capacity also must have a flip side. Bad!

It must have a flip side because inherent in our spiritual-ness is the freedom to choose one course or the other. It must be…otherwise we are no different from all the rest of the animal world.

And we of course are…very different.

In other words, I’ve never seen a group of chimpanzees start an organization to protect the rights of their handicapped brethren.

You can slough that off and attribute it solely to biology…to enhanced brain function. But that same enhanced brain function also leads to some awfully despicable acts.

So, why the good stuff?

That, my friends, the good stuff, which unfortunately also must have it’s dark opposite side, is what separates us and what connects us to each other and to…

God.

I like to call it impact.

The Ugly

Okay then why would God allow earthquakes, storms and tidal waves that wipe out hundreds of thousands in a moment?

Well, maybe it’s because God, for all his other qualities, is a law abiding guy.

And thank god for those laws. Because without those same laws that give rise to the ugly stuff that kills us, we wouldn’t be here at all…now would we?

One of those laws is that our material state of being is in gradual decline and will meet its earthly end at one point or another.

And if you are spiritually inclined, you probably also believe that that end is really just another beginning.

So the physical laws that govern our world and keep it inhabitable also at times make it uninhabitable. When that happens, we just pass on from this life to another…the spirit lives on…just like the Universe.

It’s neither good nor bad…it may be ugly and messy, but it’s just the way it is and has to be.

I am sure this post has the potential of some severe feather ruffling. So, go ahead and take issue with any and all of what was said above.

If you noticed, despite the intensely spiritual bent of this post, I was able to pull it off without diverting into any religious dogma.

That’s because I just don’t believe, anymore, that it’s necessary to the equation.

Dogma is an impact blinder and a great big one at that…

And remember that we’re all about removing those.

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