Removing Impact Blinders Archives - Page 3 of 26

Don’t Concede the Now for the Later

June 15, 2018 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I haven’t been writing in the blog as of late. The reason is that I’ve been busy writing a book. It’s a memoir of my experiences in Costa Rica, entitled “A Coming of Age in Costa Rica” (at least at the present moment that’s what the title is).

The following is an excerpt from the next to final chapter…

Meditation is a concept that comes to us from the East. We westerners are far too busy trying to improve ourselves and our situation to have possibly come up with such a sedate concept. That’s probably why American infrastructure is much better than it is in India. But having great infrastructure is not always the key to happiness, now is it? Costa Rica is annually ranked as one of the happiest countries on earth. But I can tell you one thing for sure, the infrastructure here isn’t all that great!

The western mindset sets us up for a lifetime of struggle. We simply can’t stop wanting. We want things to be better. We want to be better. We want our relationships to be better. We want to be surrounded by beautiful things. And we strain and strive our entire lives to have those things. We even call it the “American Dream.” However, for many it’s more like a nightmare that you never wake up from.

It didn’t take too long to dawn upon me here in Costa Rica that these ticos already have something, for free, that we in the States pay dearly for…beauty. They are surrounded by it. They wake up to it, walk through it, and work in and around it. I’m speaking of the incredible natural beauty that surrounds you here in Costa Rica. Of course, we have plenty of natural beauty in the U.S. as well, but we hardly recognize it. And what’s worse we work hard to destroy it in our constant effort towards “infrastructure improvement.”

What meditation does is allow the mind to quiet down and stop all that wanting, all that desire and struggle. In allows us to live for a moment in the present. To accept things exactly as they are in this moment. As Ram Dass says, it allows us to “be here now.”

I have to drive about 40 minutes from the mountains where I live down to my office at the beach. I make these drives early in the morning over a coastal mountain range that offers up some of the most beautiful landscapes that can be found in the country, perhaps anywhere. It is simply breathtaking and it never gets old driving over those vibrant green mountains, set against the backdrop of the deep blue Pacific. This beach road, as it’s called, is also the supply route between the city of San Isidro and the beach towns of Dominical, Uvita and Ojochal.

The other day I was driving through on a beautiful morning, enjoying the scenery, with the Grateful Dead supplying the background music. I was in the present to a large extent, even though I was thinking about my plans for the day. Then I encountered one of those supply trucks. It was plodding along at an excruciatingly slow pace and blocking my forward view of the landscape. I started to feel anger and impatience building. In short, the frigging truck became an obstacle to my bliss. I was finally able to get around that damned truck. I was once again free and happy and in the moment…until the next truck. That process continued all the way up and down the mountain until I finally arrived at the beach about an hour later, thoroughly depressed.

And that’s the way life is. People say that happiness is elusive. The reason is because you really can’t think your way to happiness. Because if you “want” to be happy then you’re basically conceding the now for the later. You’re admitting to yourself that somehow the future can be better. Of course it can be. We should plan for a better future. But what we shouldn’t do is what I was doing on my mountain ride. Don’t concede the now for the later. We will never truly attain happiness by doing that. We will always be unsatisfied, thinking (the operative word) that the next moment could be better than the present one.

Costa Rica has gradually and painfully taught me better how to be here now. My current meditation practice is helping even more. But Costa Rica in and of itself did play an important role. I gradually learned how to want less from life. I learned that happiness promoters tend to be happier than happiness pursuers. That rather than wanting so much from life, perhaps a better way to look at it is, what does life want from me? After all, life is a very precious gift bestowed upon us by the universe, against all odds. And our response should be to always want more and constantly be miserable because we don’t have what we want? I don’t think so.

We can’t think our way to happiness. Thinking is the obstacle. It’s the truck that’s blocking our bliss. The problem is that self, or ego, that takes the form of that little voice inside your head, constantly whispering, or screaming, that the next moment might just be better than the present one, if only…

If only I had this or that thing or the emotion I believe that having that thing might bring me. It’s a continuous cycle of misery, much like my trip to the beach turned out to be. One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is that acceptance of the way things are, right now, is a much better way. Doesn’t mean I don’t plan. I sell real estate. I love those commissions. But I don’t let the fact that I have a “deal pending” become an obstacle to my bliss, or at least I strive not to. I do so by meditation. I do so by writing. I do so by taking long walks in the mountains. I do so in many ways that suit me. You must find your own path to bliss. And the place to look is not in the past or in the future…it’s where you are…

And where is that?

Here.

And when is that?

Now.

The best advice you can glean from this chapter and perhaps this entire book is just that…don’t concede the now for the later…

Be here now.

Homeopathic Utopia

January 17, 2018 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Being decent is hard, it’s a process…

Jaron Lanier

I recently listened to an episode of the Ezra Klein podcast (my absolute favorite podcast, by the way). He was interviewing Jaron Lanier. You’ve probably never heard of this guy, but he’s an American computer philosophy writer, computer scientist, visual artist, composer of classical music and a pioneer in the field of virtual reality. He’s also a guy who “trip-sat” a dying Richard Feynman on LSD…

Anyway, something I heard on the show that resonated was this idea of “homeopathic utopia.”

What in the hell is that?, you ask…

Well, according to Lanier being decent is hard work. It’s a process that takes a lifetime, or perhaps several lifetimes, to achieve. Rather than trying to change society all at once, by, for instance, revolutionary force, perhaps incremental change on an individual level, properly motivated to bring about desired results, is a better way.

It’s more of a homeopathic, or natural, remedy to societal ills…hence this idea of homeopathic utopia.

Haven’t we seen that throughout history sweeping changes to systems of status quo don’t always bring about those desired results. Revolutionaries that have replaced dictatorial regimes with totalitarian communistic ones is a great example.

Perhaps what we need more of is just good-ole-fashioned common decency, as Lanier suggests.

And that brings me to the salient point of this post…

You see the whole point of this blog, despite its revolutionary moniker, is just that…to inspire decency. The title of the blog, Revolutionary Misfit, probably misleads some to believe that what I’m advocating is sweeping, or “revolutionary”, change, but I’m really not at all. I believe that should become apparent to anyone who actually takes the time to read some of the posts contained herein…

However, many don’t do that and quickly jump to faulty conclusions…and that’s never a good idea.

You see, Impact Mindfulness and common decency are synonymous.

The concept of mindfulness is one you hear a lot about these days, usually in the context of a more meditative day-to-day existence. And I am advocating a sort of meditative, or better yet, contemplative, mode of existence. One in which you actually think, or reflect, before acting. Isn’t that what we have a brain for?

It’s easier to just go through life reacting. My idea is that one can achieve a far better quality of life, for oneself and others who are influenced or impacted by us, by focusing on that pause between stimulus and response.

And what should be the object of our focus? In a word often heard within this blog…

impact.

Impact mindfulness suggests that the best way to manage our impacts, so that they are more positive for people and planet, is by…

If the above sounds confusing, then think of it in these much simpler terms…

Impact mindfulness suggests that the three most important components of impact are…

Altruism
Inclusion, and
Open-Mindedness.

And if you step back and give that some deep thought, I believe you’ll agree that those three ideas, or states of being, comport far better with reality than their opposites.

For instance, the Ayn Rand-inspired, look out for number one only, ideology that has spawned neoliberalism has reaped some pretty harsh havoc on people and planet. In this blog you’ll find many posts about just that.

Despite what Ayn Rand once said, altruism is good for us. It’s good for others. And it’s good for our planet…pure and simple.

At least that’s what I strongly believe.

Now, if you think altruism is a waste of time and that you should live your life completely self-interested, then I suggest you reflect a bit deeper on what it might mean if everyone thought that way. In actuality, enough already do and that type of thinking has unleashed evils upon us all, such as inequality that’s spiraling out of control, a planet that’s rapidly overheating, and the realistic threat of the 6th great extinction of life on earth.

Embracing the concept of the Big US simply means what Bernie Sanders and Pope Francis often say themselves…that we’re all in this together.

Could anything be more true?

After all, we’re all occupying this revolving rock called planet earth. At present, it’s the only home we have. And the land masses that we occupy are rapidly shrinking as a rising ocean overtakes them inch by inch. So, we’d better learn to get along and think more inclusively.

Nationalistic thinking of the kind inspired by Donald Trump, in the face of a rapidly rising population and a shrinking area of land mass to accommodate it, just doesn’t make a lick of sense and will ultimately lead to disastrous consequences.

Finally, who can argue with the idea of keeping an open mind?

Well, in fact, many do. Usually the main culprits behind close-mindedness are religion and politics. Lately, especially in America, those two have combined to create a sort of tribalism that widely claims legitimate news to be fake and science that is not part of our day-to-day experience as nothing more than unproven theory.

Impact Mindfulness suggest the better way is to keep an open mind about such things. That is, to eagerly search for the truth and not let preconceived notions about the way things are, or ought to be, get in the way of that search.

What I am suggesting here is that the world could become a better place, not by sweeping revolutionary change, but incremental change via mindfulness…impact mindfulness.

This idea of a homeopathic utopia isn’t just pie in the sky, but could become a reality that future generations might enjoy.

Why not start now…before it’s too late?

Along those lines, here’s a quote by Martin Luther King during a famous speech at the Riverside Church that I found inspirational…

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood—it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.”

The time for impact mindfulness is not tomorrow…it is now.

This idea is not unrealistic and utopian. It is essential to the betterment of people and planet.

The Individualism Collectivism Dichotomy

December 12, 2017 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

With all the sexed-up political storms driving the news lately, I thought I’d shift gears and indulge in a more philosophical discussion this morning…one that concerns the individualism collectivism dichotomy.

An overly simplistic way of addressing the issue is to say that on the right individualism is thought to be good and collectivism bad.

For those on the left, the opposite would be true.

Getting back to the news of the day, sex is perhaps humankind’s strongest motivator for individual achievement…why the rich and powerful are so damned horny. So, if one is clamoring for a society that’s less sexually obsessed, as many seem to be these days, they’d better embrace Bernie Sanders’ brand of collectivism over Trump’s rugged and ruthless individualism…

But I digress.

I’m for the right mix of both…individualism and collectivism…working together for the benefit of what we all share…our humanity.

However, all of the above is really far too simple a way of looking at this issue.

Individualism in the extreme is certainly bad. On the other hand collectivism in the extreme can be equally bad, perhaps even worse.

The worse form of collectivism is totalitarian communism. I really don’t believe even the most die-hard left-wing liberal or progressive wants that.

Collectivism and individualism are values, as opposed to actual political philosophies, like socialism or capitalism. A good definition of the value of collectivism is “a cultural value that is characterized by an emphasis on cohesiveness among individuals and prioritization of the group over self.” In my mind that makes it a laudable cultural value and one that is entirely consistent with impact mindfulness.

However, checks and balances are required in order for individual freedoms not to be impinged upon by the collective…

For instance, collectivism should not prevent me, an individual, from owning a business and getting wealthy from it…

On the other hand, collectivism should indeed prevent the wealthy from “owning” a country and exploiting its resources at the expense of the whole. A phenomenon we’ve seen take place in the U.S. over the last 40 years.

The proper balance between these two competing values is very hard to achieve, but it’s a worthwhile endeavor to try to do so nonetheless.

FDR tried and succeeded in limited ways. Bernie talks a lot about achieving it, but so far…just talk.

In my opinion, the real difference between Bernie and FDR relates to the historical times in which each campaigned and governed. FDR did so at a time when the nation was ready for collectivist-oriented change. So far, Bernie has not had that luxury.

Nevertheless, as the disaster that is the Trump presidency unfolds and brings us ever closer to the precipice of the second gilded age, with its individualism-driven excesses, we might soon be ready…

The election in Alabama today could be foretelling.

Conservatives like to couch their policy initiatives in the seducing language of individualism…it’s all done in the name of clearing a path to individual, economic, success, or so they say…

But the end result has been a collective (if you will) gathering of wealth and income at the very top of the economic pyramid…and a shrinking middle class. What we’ve gotten as a result is more individualism for the wealthy and less for the rest.

Is that result really consistent with the “value” of individualism?

An interesting article on the topic is Understanding Collectivism and Individualism – Fact/Myth. In it the author makes the following quote concerning the complexities posed by the individualism collectivism dichotomy…

There is nothing wrong with general stances on collectivism or individualism…but hardline absolutist stances that don’t consider the complexity (in my opinion) are constantly underwhelming and create unnecessary tension and misunderstanding in politics.

The bottom line is that this issue is much more complex than simply saying right-wing = individualism good/collectivism bad and left-wing = collectivism good/individualism bad.

Unless and until we can learn to strike a proper balance between them, and avoid stigmatizing bold and perhaps good ideas with the labels that each often engenders, we will likely continue to suffer…

And our country and the world has suffered enough from the excesses of both.

On Becoming a Revolutionary

October 9, 2017 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I’ve referred to this old post recently, so I thought I would resurrect it to a position in the RM archives as well.

After all, it’s a post on becoming a revolutionary, which certainly is a relevant concept…

What is it about Latin America that tugs so hard on the heart strings?

In my own experience I can testify that there is some mysterious quality about this region that makes it irresistibly addicting.

Yes…I’m a Latin America junkie!

I’ve traveled around it a bit, having spent time in Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia and, of course, Costa Rica.

But I know that there’s so much more to see and experience.

One of my favorite movies is The Motorcycle Diaries, which chronicles the travels of a young Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Alberto Granado as they embark on a journey of self-discovery, traveling from Argentina to Venezuela on an old beat up motorcycle they named, La Poderosa (or the almighty one).

I love to travel and when I do, like Guevara and Granado, I like to get down and dirty and find out what life is all about in the places I visit. Maybe that’s one reason I came here in 2001 and never left.

Towards the end of the movie, while Guevara and Granado are spending time as volunteers in the San Pablo leper colony on the banks of the Amazon in Peru, Guevara makes a farewell speech in which he speaks of a united Latin America, a speech which forecasts the later events of his life.

Of course, it’s well known that Guevara went on to join Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba and was ultimately captured and executed in Bolivia under the direction of the CIA.

Guevara was a Marxist, hated by the U.S. for trying to spread the evil of communism throughout Latin America. But Guevara was more than anything else, an idealist.

He believed in armed revolution as the solution to social injustice.

[I believe he was wrong on that point, by the way.]

Throughout history Latin America has spawned its dictators and its revolutionaries. There just seems to be something about this place that ignites a higher than normal level of passion…and that can be infectious.

The passion of Latin America is evident in its wars and revolutions, legendary outlaws like Pablo Escobar, music, poetry and literature from the likes of Pablo Neruda and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and in many other ways.

It is an alluring and exotic place, filled with beautiful people, danger, romance and adventure.

I have a few good reasons to leave this place and go “home.”

But the problem is that Latin America has taken hold of me. It’s like being hopelessly in love and once that happens to you, you just can’t leave.

It’s not that easy.

If you do you are going to pay a heavy price, maybe for the rest of your life.

The price of always longing for what was.

The price of always wondering what could have been.

Sure I can leave Latin America, but that longing will remain in my heart. And if I tried I’m sure that before long I’d return.

I believe there are others who know exactly what I’m talking about.

There’s a strange and mysterious spell that’s cast on anyone who comes here and falls in love with this place. It changes you.

Material pursuit isn’t what drives you anymore.

You become an idealist.

You become a revolutionary.

You become like Che Guevara.

photo credit: [osto] via Compfight cc

On Fessing Up – Finally

October 3, 2017 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

My last post addressed the issue of the need to be right as the one that might be at the heart of the growing division in our country…

Today’s post is about fessing up – finally, or the admirable trait of knowing when to admit wrongness.

Sometimes we are forced to do so. Like when the facts begin to reveal themselves…

Let’s take a quick inventory and based on that, make an assessment regarding timeliness…

Just this year we’ve seen the following evidence transpire…right before our very eyes…

Racism rearing its ugly head, openly and defiantly, in ways we haven’t seen in some time…with white men holding tiki torches marching to defend the statue of a man who led a rebellion against America, resulting in its bloodiest war, in order to defend the right to enslave humans…

and in the aftermath of the ensuing chaos, a President who saw “good people” on both sides of that issue…

Back to back…to back…category 5 hurricanes and catastrophic once in a thousand-year level flooding with widespread damage and resulting human misery…

A President who insults just about everyone, almost daily, with his twitter feed, in ways that would make Don Rickles blush…and in ways that threaten to ignite global nuclear conflict…

Another worst mass shooting in history by a fellow citizen with an arsenal of weapons that allowed him to mow down almost 60 people in less then 16 minutes…

And despite all that you have this entrenched ultra right-wing who just can’t bring themselves to admit a few things, such as…

That racism really is a pernicious problem in American culture…

That global warming is a real and increasing threat to our lives…

That our sitting President is more than a bit unhinged…

That banning assault weapons makes perfectly good sense, will save (and would’ve saved) many lives, and doing so does not negate the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution in any way.

The last post made what I believe to be the salient point that it’s the stories we tend to tell (and attach ourselves to) that give rise to this reluctance against fessing up…

But sometimes the facts just speak for themselves too loudly to be ignored.

It’s sort of like the scientific method. Now, I’m not a scientist, but I do know it works something like this…

One scientist proposes a theory. At this point it’s no more than an educated guess or hypothesis…in other worlds…a “story”…

That theory is put to the test. It is subject to ridicule and rejection by the rest of the scientific community.

If the theory is able to weather that storm it gets to become accepted truth…a scientific fact.

If not? Well then it’s swept into the dustheap of rejected scientific history.

I don’t mean to pick on the right-wing here…well, maybe I do…perhaps I should.

You see, it seems there are some stories that they’re clinging to that have now been shown to be just flat out wrong.

Many of their stories are failing the fact test.

However, it appears that rather than to be willing to let them go, as any good and honest scientist would in the face of overwhelming factual evidence, they just cling to them all the harder…

They claim that any evidence (or “news”) to the contrary is not factual…it’s fake news they clamor!

Now just imagine if scientists operated that way. Imagine the chaos it would cause in the world!

The very idea of scientific truth would cease to exist.

Every theory (or story) would hold claim to truth and its proponents would take the position that any factual evidence to the contrary is contrived.

I dare say that this breakdown in the scientific method would produce a world that you and I would not want to live in!

Well, this breakdown in political thought is pretty much creating that same level of chaos in our society and our world.

Where will this ultimately lead us?

Not sure about that one…I’m still holding out hope that these folks will come around…

I’ve still got faith that as the factual evidence grows to overwhelming proportions…as it surely is…

that fessing up – finally will appear to be their only option.

Genuine Genuflection

September 30, 2017 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

The country…indeed the entire world…seems more divided than ever these days. And those on one side of the divide are generally loathe to express any sense of understanding or respect for those on the other.

The dividing issue of the moment is “genuflection.” Yea, you read that right…the nation is divided as ever on the issue of “knee taking.”

And with Trump at the helm, next it could be “ring kissing”…but I digress…

I guess I really don’t need to reiterate the facts of this current brouhaha. I posted a bit about that the other day.

The intention of this post is rather to get at the heart of the matter.

What is really dividing us? I mean REALLY!

I wrote a post earlier in the year entitled, The Tale of Two Americas. That one alluded to the idea of inclusion versus exclusion as the seminal issue of deep division…

But is that really it?

Or, is it something even more sinister??

Is there a structural component to the division? Is it deeply embedded in the structure of society? Is there something inherent in our human DNA that makes us prone to taking sides? And have we actually built an entire civilization on that faulty foundation?

Perhaps those questions are too hard to answer in a less than thousand word blog post.

So, let’s come at it from a different angle…

Since the divisions themselves are so plainly apparent, perhaps the better question is, what will enable us to bridge them?

Acknowledging a few basic facts could help…

Like the fact that we’re really all made from the same stuff…

And have the same basic desires…

And live on the same revolving rock…

Are you catching my drift?

We humans have a lot in common, regardless of whether you’re on the “hate Trump” side, or the “love Trump” side.

Each side of the divide thinks that it has the answer about how the world ought to operate. In fact, each side is entirely convinced on that issue…

I’ve made the point repeatedly in this blog that neither really does. That’s the chief impact blinder this blog seeks to eliminate…the idea of absolute rightness…

When it comes to things like politics and religion…

there simply is none…

There is no “right answer.”

And guess what we’re divided most about?

Yep, you got it, politics and religion.

So, the direction I’d like this post to point to and encourage is one of stepping back from the fray and showing a bit of genuine genuflection out of respect for the fact that we’re all humans who deserve the right to be wrong.

After all, being wrong about something can ultimately lead to rightness…

just ask Edison.

We humans crave rightness…so much so that we’re willing to make up pretty elaborate stories about the way the world works and then dedicate our lives to them…

even die for them.

The real issue then might be just that…the competing stories we make up to prove that we’re right.

When it comes to the dividing issues of our day, such as whether it’s right or wrong to kneel or stand at the playing of the national anthem before a sporting event, is there really a “right side” to be on, or only a story that makes us feel like there is?

Are these competing stories really so important that we’re willing to risk the destruction of an entire society over them?

I seriously don’t think so.

impact.

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