The Inner Fires [Short Story]

I remember walking in an unknown land. I encountered the stunning sight of the glimmering summer ocean. My whole being stopped to take it all in. Beauty is too weak a word, we use it for too many things. All I can tell you is that when primordial poets first observed the earth, this is what they meant when they said Beauty. The more I stared at it the more details I noticed:
How the clouds gently strolled across the sky. How the sun generously bathed everything in golden light.

But the thing that strikes the most, perhaps, was the scope. I could feel my own mind being stretched out to infinity as I tried to take it in. It didn't make me feel insignificant, it made me feel ecstatic, because I knew I was a part of that infinity. I don't know how long I stood there, staring. It would have felt blasphemous to think in terms of time at this place, this altar of Beauty not made by the hands of Man.

After I was done honoring the view , I walked a little bit farther. I noticed there was another forest to the right of me. I walked right in like it was the house of an old friend who had told you that you could stop by anytime.

"Sssssshhhhhhh..... SsssshhhSSSshshhhhhh"... My ears caught the inviting tune of a stream nearby. I felt blessed; Life has provided a feast for me today! I followed the sound. I admired the water for a little while and then I placed my right foot on a rock in the stream, and when I felt that my footing was firm enough, I placed my left foot on it as well. I looked ahead. There was a rock within a step's distance of me for as far as I could see, like a little trail. My curious mind exclaimed: Maybe I could follow it to the source of the stream?

I walked on each rock, sometimes slipping a little bit into the water. I got to a certain point and there were no more rocks to step on, and the stream got too deep for it to be worth following to the end.

The last rock was big enough to sit on, and so I did, cross-legged like a meditating Buddha. I stared at the stream, my eyes darting along trying to follow the constant arising and dissolving of the water. As hard as my eyes and mind tried to discern where the waves began or ended, they just couldn't. The water was totally and utterly formless and wouldn't yield to my mind’s attempts to draw lines that would conceptualize it and make it easier to fathom.

Because of that, something in me snapped. My conceptual mind gave up trying to rationalize the world and saw the pure, raw elemental life constantly before it. Everything came alive and every second of me seeing this stream became the first time I had seen it over and over again.Pure novelty. It was the only true to way to see it; to see it in any other way would be a lie. There was nothing the same in the stream from moment to moment. It was an illusion that my mind had superimposed on it, making me see the concept of water instead of the water itself, making something solid out of something so fundamentally fluid.

I gazed at the stream,  enraptured at the sight of this simple awe.

But, tragically, that sense of separateness and sense of "I've seen this before"-ness came over me again, like a veil.

That whole sequence of events is immortal to me.

"Danny!" my mother cried from inside the house, interrupting my train of thought and snapping me out of my daze. I tried to bring the thoughts I was having about my summer vacation to some kind of conclusion, but then she cried again and the urgency in that second cry got me going inside the house from our yard, which I realized I had been laying in for the last twenty minutes at least.

I walked in and saw that she was serving breakfast. Dad was already at the table, eating. Bacon and eggs. "What were you doing out there, anyway? You were up pretty early.". "I was just thinking" I responded, trying to brush her question off so she wouldn't pin me down. She understood that and didn't press me any further. Sometimes her 18-year old son doesn’t want to make light of the shadows of his thoughts.

"Son, hurry up and finish, you’re going to be late for school". My Dad said in an authoritative tone. I ate as fast I could. The food was okay. I was too busy being in my head for me to enjoy the sensations of the food passing through my mouth. All three of us ate speedily. Mom and Dad had to go to work at roughly the same time that I had to go to school, and at this rate it looked like I would be late because they had to get to work first.

We all hopped in the car, driving. We had some standard chit-chat to fill the car with noise. Usual stuff, "What do you have for school today?" "What are you doing after school today?" "Me and your mother will be home at...". Blah blah blah. It was different from the vacation that we recently returned from and which I was remembering in the yard, where we were all lively and laughing with each other.

We drove by the dull grey sidewalks, grey streets and grey buildings that have covered the whole world. Everything was so gray. All the concrete - that is, mostly everything - was gray. The sky was gray today. Our car was gray. Even the school I was being sent to was gray.

Gray is by far the most boring and least aesthetic color. There is nothing in it that captivates the senses, or that expresses any feelings in our souls, like how red invokes passion, gold invokes glory, or green invokes nature… the only thing I can imagine gray invoking is boredom.

I wondered what people would ask me when I got to school, and how I would respond to them. "Where were you?" "On vacation" I'd say, and then they'd mechanically go on what a good time I’d had. While they were doing that I'd be desperately trying to reconstruct those scenes of beauty and wonder. Remembering them is the only way to save me from this modern banality that absorbs me whenever I get back home and which seeps into every crevice of my soul.
It's like while out and exploring the natural world I was awake, but back here the world lulled me into a sleep, so that I sleepwalked through life.

Why do people want to live like this? More importantly, why do I even want to live like this? I think the speed and banality of our lifestyle takes on a mind of its own and we mistake that for what's really real. I think one day I'll abandon all of my possessions, or sell them, and just walk as far I can go.

I'll sleep on the streets, hitchhike, find all of Nature's secret spots, see the world... anything for an adventure. "Oh yeah” I can imagine my Mom or Dad saying, "And then what?" and they’'ll bring up a list of things to worry about like food, shelter, and security. I’d say back, “An adventure is not a pleasure cruise, an adventure has its ups and downs. An adventure has uncertainty. If that's not what you want, don't go on an adventure. You don't have to spit on my inspiration just because the fiery blood of your own youthful enthusiasm was put out ages ago!!”.

Well you know what? My own inner fires are blazing too hard to be put out. Sometimes they are like a raging inferno that will consume everything in sight! Or maybe my own fiery blood will become too much to contain and will kill me from the inside if I don't appease it by offering it what it wants: more achievements, more bliss, more adventures, more beauty, more, more more!!

I finally arrived at school and walked inside like a zombie. While I was entering I saw a pebble. It reminded me of the stream. Just being able to imagine that “Sssshhhhh...Sssshhssshhhh…” soothed me. I looked out a window. The sun looks glorious today. I love the way it shines on the people passing by. Sometimes when they smile their faces are as bright and as warm as the sun itself. In fact, as much as I loved my summer vacation, I am awfully happy to see so many of these people again. Any radical thoughts about abandoning my possessions and adventuring get put aside as I join my friends and we make plans for the rest of the day.

The Great People [Poem]

Ah, how I desire so desperately to be like The Great People!
You all know who I mean.
They’re the leaders, poets and teachers people are inspired by in life,
or maybe have even met and remembered in your own life.
Each of them is like a projection of who I want - no - who I know I can be!

With the wise words of so many Great People passing through my mind,
how could I ever not reach The Goal?
Yeah, How could I ever go wrong?
I’m armed with a quote for every battle and a saying for every situation.
Yeah, bring it on world!

……

…………………..

Why oh why, after all this striving, am I not like them?
After all that I still fail and my willpower still falters! My mind still wavers and my heart still quivers!
Could it be I've collected more motivational sayings than actual motivation?
Or is The Goal only for people made of stronger stuff than I?

Frustration fills my every pore!!
The Great People make walking The Path and reaching The Goal seem so easy!
What is it that makes them so Great, and me so Small?
Why oh why can’t I do it?!

The Goal always remains perpetually out of reach, like a dog chasing a car!
Whatever tower I build to reach that mythic goal collapses under its own weight,
sending me back down to this dreary Earth.
But in my mind's eye, I can still see The Great People there,
frozen in time and towering over the rest of us, the Small People, like a shadow.

But still, I will not surrender! Never, never, never!
Not to the overwhelming forces of distraction, laziness, and despair!!
Not to the apparent might of my weaknesses!
In fact, bring it on!
I will strive on  until I am absolutely intoxicated with ambition and motivation!!

.……

…………………..

After having exerted every last bit of effort I had left!
I looked back at my progress on The Path and was delighted.
Then I looked ahead and saw that the Goal was still on the horizon, and was yet more delighted.
I had finally realized that I would never reach The Goal. It was never the point.
Walking The Path was the point. The Path was the real goal.
The Great People knew this too. What is the point of completing an objective, and then stopping?
Truly, staying still is falling behind.
I laughed at myself, then took a deep breath… and strove on again!

Ethics Versus Law [Article]

ethics
moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.

law  (lô)
n.
1. A rule of conduct or procedure established by custom, agreement, or authority.

Among many people, you find the idea that Man is divided in (more or less) three different parts: A uniquely human rational part,another part that is derived directly from the animal world with all the things that entails: elemental lusts, the desire to kill, etc., and another part that is supposed to decide which one wins.

Think Freud’s Superego, Ego, and Id. Or Plato’s conception of a tripartite human soul: Logical, Spirited (willpower) and Appetite.

Truly, without that Ego and Super-ego, without that Logos, we are all wild beasts. We become an unstoppable force of destruction, an unrivaled and untamable hedonist, a beast so savage that lions, wolves, and tigers seem like puppies and kittens in comparison.

“Man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.” - Albert Camus

Truly, without that Ego and Super-ego, without that Logos, we are all wild beasts. Indeed, we become an unstoppable force of destruction, an untameable hedonist, a beast so savage that lions, wolves, and tigers seem like puppies and kittens in comparison.

What I find interesting about the usage of the word “Ethics” is my belief that Ethics is something different from Laws.

A Law is something external decided upon by either tradition, agreement, or authority. It is backed up by systems of justice like the police, jails, etc.

Ethics, though, is something internal. It’s that inner policeman that always watches you and gets you to stop and say: “Hang on, is this right? Am I being true?”. It is your own natural ability to deduce an action that is morally right versus an action that is morally wrong. In short, it is conscience in action.

I believe that every human being has the ability of Ethics: to naturally discern a right action from a wrong action, because we all desire goodness. However, I also think that, much like a muscle, if this ability is never used it is virtually useless and because of that you would be forgiven for thinking that it didn't exist at all. Because of the fact that not all of us have exercised this faculty equally (in much the same way not all of us are equally muscular), we invent Laws to ensure that everyone acts in a way that is determined to be ethical, and that people are rewarded or punished justly based on them.

However, there is an intrinsic push-pull with Ethics and Laws. There is a huge danger in Laws becoming draconian, overly bureaucratic, and, very banal. Lao tzu says it better than I can:

"The more laws there are, the more criminals there will be" - Lao Tzu 

The harder we try to control everything, the more out of control everything seems to get.  Worse of all, in outright contradicting the ideals of our ethical minds such as Justice, Equality, etc.

And He said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. - Jesus Christ (Mark 2:27).

Jesus illustrates what I mean very well: The pharisees are demanding that Jesus not help a sick man, because the law says he is working on the Sabbath. But helping the sick man is the right thing to do. Sometimes, doing the right thing is against the law. Sometimes the law is doing the wrong thing.

However, we can't deny the necessity of having laws, because everyone relying on there own natural sense of ethics is too ideal of a situation, and of course without laws we would live in an anarchistic society where there would be nothing to prevent someone from killing and raping everyone in sight.

Right now, I believe that Laws are currently winning the tug-of-war with Ethics. This is bad, because more Laws actually result in less Ethics and, in the end, more suffering for us all.

Why? When we rely on regulated procedures rather than our feelings to determine what is right, we start to lose track of rather or not those procedures are even effective and people become more immoral because they don't try to be good people in there day-to-day lives. When we rely on systems of surveillance 1984-style to ensure that everyone is acting in order we all have to put up with the burden of being watched 24/7: No one can be trusted because we've put too much trust in Laws to ensure people will be doing the right thing as opposed to putting that trust in ourselves.

The best way to solve this problem is to ensure that you are ethical in your day to day life. It's impossible, I think, to 100% fulfill any ethical ideal, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try - trying is the whole point!

A Slice of Dreaming Life [Short Story]

I crept into my bed and began to perform my nightly ritual. It was a peculiar habit of mine. The highlight of my day was what I did at night. It has been this way for a long time.

Lying in my bed with my face straight up, like a corpse, I started to feel myself falling asleep, never letting my mind drift off as all mundane people do in these moments, never giving my body a chance to roll over or budge. Doing this took saintly patience. Gradually I could feel my body metamorphose into a subtle statue, then my limbs and torso were overcome with a feeling of hollowness, like they had vanished into thin air.

My body finished “turning off”,  then I gently arose out of my bed, like a sleepwalking child. I turned around to see my body still in the bed. That body with all its throbbing's, aches, solidness, and heaviness. Now I was in a different body - one that was translucent and light.

Excited that my transition from flesh to energy had turned out successful again, I focused and took a few deep breaths to adjust myself to this new awareness. There was a danger, I discovered, after many attempts of doing astral projections, in being overwhelmed by the often inexplicable sensations of this state. So I took it all in first.

We use words to describe things that we are or can be familiar with. Imagine for a moment that there are things out there for which there are no words. There can be the experience of it - but no words for it. You will find I use the word “like” or similar descriptive a lot in astral sojourns. This is because I can only vaguely elaborate on what I am feeling, experiencing, sensing, etcetera.

Everything felt very light. I tilted my transient head upward and floated out of my apartment like a ghostly bird.

I mentally concentrated more on my direction (up), becoming less like a bird and more like a rocket shooting off into the night sky.

I dove into the cloud ocean, until I halted when I saw my surroundings fade into a canyon-like crevice. I was only surprised for an instant. I am used to a lack of consistency in the dream world.

In the “real world”, everything is linear, a straight line,  one place always leads to another place and you can trace your steps knowing you live in a rational and solid environment. Orderly. But the “dream world” is not like that. You could find yourself in the middle of one moment that has a past that you are not altogether sure of, or you could walk into a forest and wind up in the middle of the ocean as if you always had been and there never was a forest. Chaotic.

I needed to observe. To my left & right: a wall of rock. In front: a dark and narrow passageway. Up: A night sky. Down: More rock.

I floated motionless, wondering what to do. Why did this happen? I don’t know. I stopped asking questions like this. Go with the flow. If you think about it too hard your brain will get tied in a knot, and then you would forget what you were ever thinking about because you would be in a different random place, doing a different random thing.

I decided to start floating again, and again in the general direction of “up”, though very cautiously. The night sky above me was always the same distance away regardless of how much I moved. I finally realized that I was going nowhere and gave up.

So I thought, “try something different”. I tilted my whole body and swam “forward” into the passageway instead of “up” into the night sky. To move I Imitated the strokes of an Olympic swimmer. I intuited that I was making progress. To confirm this I turned around, and noticed that I was further along in the passage and not in my original spot. Encouraged, I continued this action.

My attention was stolen from me by a liquid-like light emerging in front of me. As I felt it approaching I had this unshakeable feeling of “other-ness”. Like seeing a strange animal for the first time, but magnified a thousandfold. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see that I was no longer in a passageway, but that I inexplicably in a wide-open space with grass beneath me and a blue sky above.

I noticed that the shape of this liquid-like light was tall and thin, like a skyscraper, and that the way it was moving towards me suggested that it was alive. I must resort to using the word “suggested” because it did not move in anyway resembling anything I think exists in the “real world”. But if you saw it you would have to agree that this huge, radiant, watery column was cognizant.

I cannot recall if I was in terror, or in awe, or perhaps just really confused. Maybe a mixture of all three. But what happened next I had no doubt about, it is still very vivid in my memory. Like your first kiss, or the first time you see a really big mountain, it remains as one of those moments where, if I closed my eyes and imagined it, I could still be right there.

From this luminous pillar, a meteor-shaped, vividly green and purple rock spat out and landed perfectly in my hand which I did not even know was open, like I was already prepared to receive it. I clutched on to it so hard, it was as if my life depended on that little rock. I placed it gently in my pocket.

Then I began to feel myself wake up. Everything faded, and then my consciousness returned to my body, in the same position it had before I had fallen asleep and started my dreaming adventure.

I lied still, and a couple of minutes after that the memories of what just happened came rushing back to me. I then began my morning routine, which was just as instinctive and well-rehearsed as the night routine which triggers my out-of-the-body state.

I never budged until I was 100% certain that I could recall all that had happened in full detail and in the right order. Then I reached for the bright blue journal that I use to record my dreams in so that I do not forget them, can research them, etc.

I was angry that I found my dream journal was not where I had left it. I was certain that I had placed the journal in its usual spot, underneath the pillow. It is usually the last thing I did before bed... maybe I misplaced it somewhere else in my apartment?

I got out of my red king-sized feather bed , still in my blue pyjamas, and walked into my unbelievably messy living room. You name it and there it was, and probably on top of something else, too.

How could I find my precious dream journal in this mess? I thought to myself, you know, I did definitely go to the bathroom before going to bed. Had I left it in there by mistake? Wouldn’t be the first time.

I scanned the whole bathroom. It wasn’t here, either, for god sakes! I hope its not in the living room... by the time I find it I’d have forgotten my entire dream! No, it must be in my bedroom. There is no other place where I would put it. Its not like ever take it OUT of my bedroom.

Oh no! It must have fallen out of the bed, and onto the floor next to it.

Then, as soon as I stepped into my bedroom, an epiphanic moment. That rock I was given by that thing is still in my pocket!!

I am still dreaming.

And with that last thought, everything around me vanished and I felt myself being submerged back into my REAL physical body.

I reached for my dream journal and was delighted to find it really was underneath my pillow. I took out the pencil I kept inside the journal and wrote everything up until now.

Looking back, it was obvious I had awakened falsely. The subtle elements of dreaming where present: the blurry “pixels” in my vision, the feeling of lightness, etc. But now I was 100% certain that I was in the real world. Things felt solid, consistent, stable.

I started to dress in my work clothes, and to mentally map out the rest of my day. I shut out all thoughts about what the dreams I had to avoid slipping into ideas so profound I could drown in them.

But, I couldn’t help but notice something heavy was in my pocket...

 

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I wrote this a long time ago. You can also read this story here: http://bookweek.ca/contest_winners2013. Just scroll down to the runner ups,

I'm a runner up for Grade 11.

 

True Nothingness [Poem]

Where do the unremembered scenes of a dream go?
What happens to a train of thought when you forget it?

They go to True Nothingness. Not fake nothingness,
because that's still a thing. But real and complete nihility.
What's wrong? How is nonbeing any less a miracle than being?

Don't we all wish we could go to that Anti-Place sometimes?
If like a sleeping man we could effortlessly dissolve the world:
No unsatisfying past, burdensome present, or doubtful future,
Nor aching body, speedy mind or weak heart,
Not even a consciousness of outside or inside that ever was at all.

Blind to Heaven and Earth [Poem]

Being cerebral, I am blind to Heaven and Earth.
My thoughts, as mist, obscure this world of simple magic.
My eyes see the leaves, but not their labyrinths of texture.
My ears hear the rain, but not its soothing symphonies.
To be busy hoping, to be busy fearing, to be.

But the vision of this ocean has popped open my Mind,
revealing the vastness! There's so much going on out there!
Oh my God! This world, so much color, I could drown in it!
The redness of red, the greenness of green!
Fwooommmssshhh, Fwwwwoooommmsssshh...
Wwwwwoooossshhh, Wwooooossssssshhhhhhhh...
The mantras of the Ocean and Wind hypnotize me!
Every sight, every sensation is synthesized in this special space!
Mind, Body, and Other totally brought together as one experience!

Such incredible presence! Yeah, this is what life is all about!!!
The memory of that place is as imprinted in my mind as a carved letter on a rock.
I can bring myself back to that time and place with just a thought.

Talking On A Bus [Short Story]

I scrambled onto the bus and looked at the time: 8:00. I’m going to be on here for about fifty minutes. I hate these obscenely long bus rides, so I usually bring a book with me. Always something I ordered online, because local bookstores are too mainstream to meet my tastes. But today, after rummaging through my bag for two minutes, I realized I left the book I wanted to read on my bookshelf. God dammit.

Thankfully I was able to steal a seat for myself so I could just sit down and listen to my iPod. Except it was dead. Come on! Oh well. I can still put on the earphones from the iPod to feign listening to music. That way no one will talk to me.

With no book and no music, I just let the sounds of the city – the bus driving along, the cars honking, the people walking about – blur out everything else . That way I could space out in peace. Whenever my attention is totally withdrawn into my thoughts, it’s as though the world, instead of the chatter of my mind, is what’s unreal and distracting me.

So there I was, happily playing in la-la land, when a completely obnoxious person sitting by the back of the bus started to speak. I’d seen him on the bus before, his name was George. I don’t think he tried to be loud, he just had that kind of naturally deep and booming voice. “So… how’s your day been?” I looked over out of curiosity, and saw he wasn't really talking to anyone in particular. “Good”, replied a sorta-pretty blonde-haired girl, her neck tilted down, absorbed into her cellphone. Let’s call her ‘Belle’. “Good”, replied a man wearing a suit that was so fancy he stood out like a sore thumb. Let’s call him “Dave”.  I had never seen either of them on this bus before.

I quickly turned back so he wouldn't think I was listening to him or, worse yet, feel obligated to reply. However, I could still see their reflections in the window.

Then, a return to silence. That’s the end of that, right? It would have been if George hadn't decided it was time for round two about three minutes later. “I hate it when I feel alone in a crowd full of people. Why doesn’t anyone actually talk to each other anymore?”. No one responded.

“Fine,” He continued. He sure was pretty damn set on having his way, wasn't he? “I guess I'll start the conversation. Listen, this hour of the day is a pretty solid routine for me, you know. I get up, get my coffee, and get this bus to go to work from 9-5. Usually I'm alone and I start texting or zoning out or whatever this whole time. It’s just unusual to see two strangers here.” He was talking about ‘Belle’ and ‘David’, who are now singled out from among everyone and probably felt forced to respond. “Long story short, The bus won't reach my stop until another twenty-minutes or so, so I'd appreciate if you told me why you're both here so you can satisfy my curiosity”. George went on. He was quite an orator, I’ll give him that.

‘Belle’ took her focus away from her cellphone and tried to think of something to say. Oh boy. They took the bait. He’s going to reel them into a conversation, and because they’re all really loud everyone in the bus is going to have to hear it too - rather they like it or not.

‘David’ remarked,“Well, we talked just then, didn't we? You asked how my days been, I said good. What more do you want?”

George instantly replied, “You call that talking? That's not talking, that's just filling the air with words. Talking is genuine, it's a connection, it's... communication. I tell you, there hasn't been a single real word said since we sat down here.”  Now the awkwardness everyone in the bus felt was so thick you could feel it. I looked at my watch. Thirty more minutes to go. Oh god. Hurry up.

‘Belle’ put her cellphone into her pocket, to apologize for not listening to George before. “Well, I just moved into a new apartment, and taking this bus is an easier way to get there than walking. So you’ll be seeing a lot more of me.” she said.

“So why did you move out of your old apartment?” “Well, my boyfriend broke up with me, and I wanted to get away from him”. Now, I'm hardly an empath, but I think anyone would agree that poor ‘Belle’ felt George was probing a little too deeply. To get the focus away from her she turned to David and said, “Well, what about you? What do you want to talk about?” while faking a look of genuine interest.

“My mother died yesterday”. Everyone in the bus glanced at him, awkwardly, and then returned to their own little worlds, like turtles retreating into their shells. At this point I would have loved to have done that myself, but I was too curious for my own good. The poor man was tearing up. “I haven’t spoken to her in ten years. The last words I said to her were, ‘I’ll never forgive you for as long as I live!!!’. It was for a stupid reason, too. I’m on my way to her funeral, and I'm going to have to face the fact that for the last ten years of her life she thought her son hated her.”

Everyone in the bus was trying very hard to ignore him, except ‘Belle’ and George, who were paying attention to him now more than ever, like they were his therapist or his best friends or something. Their faces were both lit up with the light of genuine concern and compassion, which considering the fact that they were all strangers, was kinda sweet - kinda. George patted
‘David’s’ shoulder.

 “Oh my God, that’s so sad” ‘Belle’ said, with a bit of a cry coming on, too. It’s obvious she wanted to say something to cheer him up, but didn't know what to say. “I'm sure she forgave you in her heart”. Psh,that was so cheesy. “You really think so?” “Oh yeah. I know”. She said it with so much certainty that he believed it, and the tears paused. “I think so, too” George added.

The bus halted. The girl stood up and gave off a sign of irritation. “I have to go. Be strong. She forgave you and you forgave her” the girl said. “Aw shoot man, I get off here too” George noticed. He gave the crying ‘David’ some tissues. “You’ll make peace with her tonight”. That was the last thing he said before walking off. As they both walked off, everyone watched them, just as intently as they were watching their cell phones or ipods just a moment before.

I noticed they were engagedly talking to each other after they left the bus. The next time these three people meet they won’t be strangers.

As she left I thought, y’know, they did a really good thing. And here all these people are, trying to
hide in their own little worlds, while there are people suffering! Imagine how touching it would be if everyone in this bus offered sympathy. I mean, doesn't everyone want to feel happiness and avoid suffering? If we all realized just that one truth we’d be inspired to put smiles on our faces and wipe away each other’s tears. That would never happen, though. Nope. People are too busy spacing out, too busy being apathetic, too busy worrying about “me, me, me”. It’s awful. People are so selfish.

And those were the thoughts I dwelt on when the bus stopped again and I left to go to work. The impressions of the scene were washed away by the primary concerns of my day like how my shift is going to be, what I’m going to do for lunch, and what I'm gonna do when I get home. I hope there are people working today that I like. I wonder if I’ll have a good day today?

Making Earth Heaven [Poem]

Who would want to be on their death bed and realize,
"I had so many days each year to change this world I despise?"
Like being given a precious jewel and then throwing it away,
You didn't steer your life to a higher goal, you just drifted astray.

Let's make real all of those dreams of youth,
Let's fully realize all of these ecstatic truths:
Compassion, Wisdom, Abundance, Peace, and Freedom,
so they can be manifest in our own personal kingdoms.
We have the will! We can pull Heaven down to Earth!
We'll strive & struggle until all are full of mirth!!!

Heaven is the far-away ideal,
Earth is the nitty-gritty real,
And we are the bridge in-between,
making dreams reality for all beings.

The Inner Revolution

The Mind is the king of our lives. From his throne in the brain he commands our body and speech for good or for ill. The law of the land is nothing other than what society or ourselves have conditioned our Mind to be like. In real life, a new order or direction is caused by a revolution. People get fed up with the way things are and radically change. In our own internal lives, we too can wage a revolt against the old King and reform his habits so we can lead better lives.

Think about it: every experience you or anyone else has ever had or will ever have was preceded by Mind. Before you could perceive anything in this room, let alone come here at all, Mind needed to be there first, as a first cause. Similarly, a war or a murder starts with a single unchecked angry thought. A great philanthropic acts began with a single cultivated thought of kindness.

So from that, we can conclude that how we use our Mind is a huge determining factor in how we live our life, and so the transformation of the Mind, the inner revolution, is the most monumental thing we can ever attempt. The mastery of our Mind is the mastery of our Life.

With just a little bit of willpower, and some reminders here and there, we can turn our life into a Psychological Gymnasium, where every day and every situation can be a moment to refine our mind, to cultivate good habits and discard bad ones, to work out our mental faculties of intelligence and awareness and exercise our love.

Meditation and Mindfulness is how we do it. If you want to take control of your life and mind, you have to be there for it. If you are driving you have to be paying attention to forks on the road and skillful ways to get to where you want to go, otherwise you are just on auto-pilot, and who knows where that might take you. It is how we realize that there is an empty space between our thoughts we can rest in, that we can control our mind instead of our mind controlling us, and that we can direct our attention to certain objects instead of objects directing our attention.

This is not something new, it is not something foreign that I am trying to introduce into your head. To a certain extent you are already a master of your mind, already a master of meditation, you just didn’t know it. After all, you seem to have no problem being mindful of your worries or your fears. You have no problem meditating on desire, fantasies, and hate. All you have to do is shift a bit: Instead, be mindful of what you have and the good things in your life. Meditate on contentment.

We have to understand that our mind is the most fertile of all soil. Anything that is planted there will start to grow with the sunlight and water of our attention, and produce the fruit of action. We can walk into our house and think, “I want a bigger house, I want more things”, and that produces a life of discontentment and desire. Or, we can walk into our house and think “I’m glad I have a house. I’m glad I have things”, and that produces a life of contentment and peace. And it all starts in the mind, with a single thought, your whole viewpoint is revolutionized. It’s that simple.

Think about all the places people want to go and all the things they want. They think that a change of home,a vacation, a change of job, or getting the latest and coolest thing will give them the peace and contentment they so naturally want. But if we think some kind of change in the exterior world will bring the change of Mind we are actually seeking, then we have fooled ourselves because that is not how it’s done. The kind of change that brings peace and contentment can only come from within, because the obstacles of peace and contentment are also within.

We think we have no control over our Minds or our Life because for so many of us thoughts of discontentment have been so thoroughly ingrained by ourselves or society. They seem automatic. But with just a little conscious effort the thoughts of contentment and joy can become just as automatic. Try it and see.

It’s the difference between a life of “Everything sucks” and “Aaaaah! Life is good”. Money is not the difference, romantic partners are not the difference, fame is not the difference, a 1st place certificate on your wall is not the difference, one little thing happening differently in your past is not the difference, one little thing happening in your future is not the difference. A mind with habits of peace is the difference.

People think that being calm and being active are two contrary things. If you’re active you need to be doing a million things and stressing out about it, if you’re calm you need to be lazing on the couch. It couldn’t be any farther from the truth. We can be actively calm and calmly active. When we are actively calm, we are genuinely at peace instead of just thinking about it, cutting out the weeds of anxiety with gentleness and equanimity. When we are calmly active, we are doing one thing with our fullest attention and therefore doing it efficiently. When we are calm and doing something the effect will always be better than if we were in a state of stress or anxiety while doing it.

We stumble through our lives like robots because we have gotten too used to everything. You’ve heard it before: When you were a kid you were full of wonder because everything was new and magical, but now you have become blind to the sight of the sunset and deaf to the tune of the winds because you think it’s just the same old sun and the same old winds.

Our habituated patterns of reacting to hate with hate and gain with joy cause life to be like a rollercoaster that is constantly vacillating between a pleasant dream and a nightmare. I say “Dream” because a life where being ruled by habits and not really paying attention to what is going on around us is hazy and bewildering, just like a dream.

But when we apply the principle of mindfulness to our lives, we rediscover our footstep and what it feels like to walk - not to be thinking and doing a million things AND walking, but to be literally JUST walking. We rediscover what it is like to breathe, to JUST breath, to JUST see, to JUST hear. It can be done anywhere - in a busy room or in a beautiful nature trail somewhere. When we do it we become surprised, flabbergasted, even at how genuinely peaceful our minds can be. We've been stressing out and worrying so much we think it’s the natural state of mind, but in truth we don’t even know how much more our minds are geared towards tranquility, and how much we will enjoy it.

Discovering the natural tranquility of the Mind is like a parched man wandering in the desert, looking for water to satisfy his thirst. He goes to an oasis and thinks he’s found satisfaction, but it’s actually just a mirage, a self-deception, and he is still just as thirsty as he was before. But when he discovers mindfulness, meditation, and contentment his thirst becomes satiated and he thinks he is having a profound and spiritual experience, but really it is natural for someone to not be thirsty. It is a supremely ordinary experience, and that is what makes it so extraordinary.

It takes practice! I know that from personal experience. It is not like turning on a light, where you flip a switch and suddenly all the darkness is gone. After all, you've conditioned that mind of yours for quite a long time, so it can't be turned around overnight. But you can do it!

Silence [Poem]

Hey.

I've missed you a lot.
Why do you run away from me?
Absorbed in all that noise, plugged into all those people...
Have you forgotten my soothing subtleties?

Soon I will have passed away into legends,
As you ceaselessly invent technologies that snuff me out,
and cities where you can  hide from me altogether.

Why? Why do you do it?
Are you afraid? Are you bewildered?

I promise to you, if you let go of your gadgets
And all of those games, forget your worries and desires,
You'll discover an empty space between your thoughts.
Did you even know it existed? Visit me there sometime.
It's a serene and spacious place.

Come on. Let your breath be the siren song
That lures you to me, the stillness behind all motion,
and from there you can gently slip into my profundity.

When we are together, just think:
I am supremely ordinary.
That is what makes me Extraordinary.

-------------------------------------------


(For those of you who are confused, the "person" speaking in this poem is the personification of silence). 

Like A Lion's Roar [Poem]

Like a Lion's Roar 

Oh, All of this apathy and agitation….
Life-negating cynics drain the fun out of life like a leaking water balloon.
Y’know what? That’s IT!!!!

I’m going to the highest mountaintop and declaring,
With all of the confidence of a king,
With all of the loudness of a lion:

“Clarity and Peace are the natural states of Mind!
Love and Laughter the essence of the heart!
Vitality and Energy the original intentions of the body!
Beauty and Profundity the innate qualities of the world!!
Goodness and Fun the primordial plan of Life!!!
Same goes for everyone! People are awesome!"

Upon hearing, the cowardly hyenas ran away.
They don’t understand the Brave and Mighty Lion.
“No! Life Sucks!” they grumpily growl,
As they hide in caves of fear, doubt, apathy, and cynicism.
I hope one day they will peak out & see, like a shining sun,
The basic goodness of the world, life, and themselves.

Until then, I’ll just have some fun in the
Fields of Freedom with my friends.
Why not come and join us?

Random Haikus [Poem]

Tortured by Desire
Drowning in Discursiveness,
Forgive me, My Mind.


-

Drain myself of Life,

Body lazing, Mind coarsing:

Death by Apathy.

-

Breath, one, Breath two, Breath…

Becoming single-pointed… Ah! I just lost it.

- Gaze at the Future: Pure Potentiality. Utterly Groundless.

- Walking with barefeet- Insects live in small world, too Crawling and Creeping

-

Astral Dimension:

Subtle, Light like a feather,

Its Ineffable.

-

Physical Dimension:

Solid... and continuous?

I think its boring.

-

This Meditation:

Struggle with an untamed horse.

It doesn't like that.

-

This Meditation:

I'm melting into stillness,

silence is soothing.

-

On The Internet:

I...want...to..see..and..know..ALL!

End up with nothing.

Emotions [Poem]

Anxiety, Sorrow, Anger, Envy.
Joy, Compassion, Love, Silliness.
Enthusiasm, Awe, Heartbreak, and ineffability.
You're all strangers to a person like me,
an unexpected visitor knocking on the door of the present moment.
I didn't let you in, so why are you making yourself feel welcome?
Oh, know what? That's fine.

I'll get to know you a little,
those vibes and sensations,
How you play the appropriate background music of the present moment,
coloring it with a distinct mood. If not for you, it would be dull and grey!

Sometimes I don't care if your presence is toxic or nectarine,
You remind me I'm not a lifeless robot that can only
COMPUTES thoughts and appearances.
Yes, you make me LIVE them!

But when I try too hard to make you feel welcome,
you slip away, like sand between my fingers.
Ah, the inexpressibly subtle art of really emoting!

Maybe one day I'll master that art,
but,
until then these exceptional moments of great feeling
will run away from my intellectual ego-mind
like little children running from the boogeyman.

The Modern Apocalypse Myth

It is impossible for a society to exist without some kind of Myth. A myth is like a society's collective dream. Just like our personal, nightly dreams, the content is deeply symbolic and archetypal , allowing the truth hidden in the myth to cut through into a deeper part of ourselves.

But the myths of today's societies are different. This is normal, because myths evolve over time to fit the societies they are paired with.

Our present myths are quite a bit different than the ones that have become before. Ours are secularized - separated from the Spiritual elements of life, in much the same way that around the bronze age our mythology was separated from the Natural elements of life. Our mythology is also somewhat incoherent, because whereas before we had organized Temples now we have the Cinema and the Internet.

Probably the most prevalent myth I see being played out in these times is the mythology of the Apocalypse. Apocalypse myths are always steeped in the fears and issues of a society in which they are told. For example, in the medieval ages the feared doom-bringers were the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, representing the main causes of death and devastation in that time such as War and Famine.

From left to right: Pale Horseman (Death), Black Horseman (Famine), Red Horseman (War), White Horseman (Conquest)

This story feeds upon the internal as well as external fears of the Medieval Mind. After all, all of this external devastation has its cause in the internal problem of sin. But it is always darkest just before the dawn - the turmoil all ends and then there is a New Heaven and a New Earth, and all sin is gone. Yipee! 

But nowadays when people think of the End Times they don't think of four horsemen, they think of a natural disasters of epic proportions (think Roland Emmerich's 2012). Natural Disasters play on our guilt of the destruction of the natural world: Mother Nature fights back with massive floods, earthquakes, etc causing our supposedly secure man-made habitats to crash in the face of a blind, impersonal force. Something that I also find interesting is that a lot of the very radical ideologies that float around nowadays (such as the Zeitgeist Movement, Venus Project, Valhalla Movement, and Radical Traditionalism) acknowledge that it is impossible to establish there model utopias under today's circumstances and anticipate an apocalypse to make that job easier (building a new civilization from the ashes). 

We keep retelling the same old stories that see the destruction of large urban centers, places like the empire state building, etc. Probably a lot of people who see movies like Roland

Emmerich's 2012 see these places on a daily basis. Why do we enjoy seeing so much devastation to modern and beloved landmarks? I believe it is because we subconsciously want to tear it down. The urban, materialistic, consumerist society is anathema to both our animal nature which longs to be close to Nature and our spiritual nature which longs to be close to God. We want to destroy it ourselves, but we feel utterly hopeless in the immensity and complexity of this massive industrial system, so we hope for an event destructive enough to do the job for us.

It is easy to compare our modern apocalyptic myths to the medieval one above: They both happen unexpectedly (perhaps with a few vague, prophetic warning signs beforehand) to wreck our civilizations, they both pray on our inner guilts (Sin in the medieval version, destruction of the natural world in the modern), and they both leave the world in a cleaner, better slate.

In the Medieval narrative, the Earth is cleansed of Sin, Mankind is redeemed in the eyes of God, and the Earth is reclaimed by God. In the Modern narrative, the Earth is cleansed of Civilization, Mankind is redeemed of his crimes against Nature, and Nature reclaims her Earth. The parallels are fascinating to me.

The symbols have changed, but the overall pattern of disaster leading to redemption has not. What is it about apocalyptic narratives that make us want to return to them so much? 

I believe it is the fact that the destruction of the world is a sort of macrocosm for our own deaths. Just as we live in the shadow of Death, but still live as though it were going to happen in a comfortably far-off future, so to do we live in the shadow of the apocalypse, but it too is in a comfortably far-away place. 

Perhaps also the Apocalyptic narrative is also a twisted cry for help - we want ourselves to change (become less materialistic, or sinful, etc) but want society to change first so the conditions to act in the right way will be right. However, changing something as massive as society is hard so we hope God/Nature will do it for us. 

If that is true, we cannot spend all of our days waiting for Doomsday. It is clear that the Apocalypse tales tell us that something needs to change, after much destruction. But, as, Gandhi Said: 

"Be the Change you want to see in the World" 

The modern and medieval notions of Armageddon are things we need to dispell from our minds. It makes people apathetic, thinking they can wait to change when the time is right. We cannot wait for society to change - be it caused by nature or god or whathaveyou - for us to change. Change starts now, and we can all undergo our own apocalypse, initiated right in the here and now, and emerge, renewed in Spiritual and Natural harmony by purifying ourselves of what we find wrong in ourselves.  This is, I think, the real meaning of an Apocalypse - a dramatic, inner transformation.

Perhaps that is what the Collective Unconscious is trying to get us to do by bombarding us with so many stories of world-ending destruction. Stir us into action by making us more and more aware of the need for some serious, destructive change.

"Resurrection" painting by Johfra. 

"Fantastic Forest": A Poem

-Analyzing, Pondering, Questioning, Comparing, Contrasting.......

Stop. All you've ever thought about are thoughts. What's it worth?
Come, relax, and let me show you how to see a new kind of Earth.

-Well, what's that like? 

Remember: words are just fingers pointing at the moon -
People obsessed with symbols will always become loons.

See that Faerie emerge from the glade,
Watch it whirl, leap, fickle, and fade,
Now your body is part of its dance,
Now you too are in a delightful trance!

Do you hear the music of a watery chant?
SSSShhhhHSHSHHSHHHhhSSSssshhhSSh
You find its source in a solitary stream,
home to an incorporeal girl who gleams.
She offers you a fruit with a funny fluid
Take one bite, and suddenly you're lucid.

Everything is alive - sky, earth, all in-between.
This great web of being is all theres ever been.
Tree & Rock were just waiting for you to say hello!
But now, alas, the vision is vanishing away - oh no!

The further in time the vision gets,
more and more of it will you  forget.
Doubt causes the fruit of knowing to decay,
this is what all people who believe must pay.

-Did it happen? Was all of it  real? 
 You experienced it, what's the big  deal?
-What can I do? I must tell everyone, one and all!
 No, they are trapped behind common sense's walls.
Just be happy that for you dreams and reality have coalesced,
nothing to do now but consider yourself one of the blessed.

-Will it happen again? 
.... We'll see.

====================================================

I recently performed this piece at Ed's Used Books & More.  Here is a video: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=197305783785220&set=vb.133992196768331&type=2&theater

The Transformative Power of Stories

"We will always learn more about human nature and personality from literature than from psychology" - Noam Chomsky

A study done at Ohio State University showed and explained the unconscious phenomenon of “Experience-Taking”: When we become so immersed in a fictional world that we take the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of one of the characters as if they were their own. Of course, every one knows that, from TV-addicts to movie buffs to bookworms. But it goes much deeper than we thought.

Experience-taking can lead to genuine transformation in the lives of readers. This happens because we allow ourselves to merge our own identities with those of the characters, which can, among other things, make us more tolerant. For example, people were asked to read a story about a character of a different race, sexual orientation, gender, etc, and if the people who read it became genuinely immersed in the story they would feel less likely to stereotype and more likely to sympathize with the different group.

In particular, white students who read stories where the character was revealed to be black towards the end of the story felt more favorable towards blacks, but when the race of the character was revealed at the beginning they did not. This is because when we see a character is similar to us in some way a barrier is broken, as it were.

So we can see clearly that stories can make us more empathic, and bring us the opportunity to explore perspectives, feelings, and identities other than our own.

Experience-taking only ever happens if you are able to forget about yourself while reading. For example, the same study pointed out, the researchers found that most college students were unable to undergo experience-taking if they were reading in a cubicle with a mirror. Because they became reminded of their own identities, experience-taking could not occur.

Brain scans have revealed what happens to our grey matter when we are reading a detailed and exciting narrative and we get really sucked into it. In a 2006 study published in the journal Neuroimage, researches in Spain revealed that reading words like “cinnamon”, “soap”, “perfume”, “coffee”, causes the olfactory cortex to light up. It is the same thing with textile descriptors: they light up the sensory context. Descriptors that involve motion light up the motor cortex.

“Reading produces a vivid simulation of reality, one that runs on the minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers.” - Keith Oatley, Cognitive Psychologist

The brain cannot make much a difference between experiencing something in real life and experiencing it through a novel. Novels can get so immerse that they become for us a living, breathing world.

“If you can can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it well enough” - Albert Einstein

In light of that above quote, and all of the information that we mentioned above, what do you think is the best way to explain something to a little kid? It is, to me, immediately obvious. You explain it in a story. How many kids learned about the importance of environmentalism through Dr. Seuss’s “The Lorax?”.  How many high-school students have learned about communism and the dangers of totalitarianism through Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984”? How many people, of all ages, have learned about Ethics through the medium of storyship, be it either from Aesop’s Fables or The New Testament?

How many people have learned about the historical tragedy of The Holocaust through “Schindler’s List”, and the complexity of historical figures through movies like “Lincoln” and “I, Claudius?”  While science may never invent a time-machine, we already have one through the medium of fiction.

All of the stories mentioned above have always been in print since they were released. They are immortal, since the issues that they touch upon are also immortal.

But not only that - when we read stories and get emotionally involved and attached to the characters, when we are amused by the rhymes and rhythms of poetry, enjoying a sample of new music, feasting our eyes on a detailed painting, something is happening to us. The information from these pieces of art is hitting us at a much deeper level than if we just looked at it intellectually. It hits us emotionally.

We can not just think about why Totalitarianism is so bad, we can directly experience it through Winston Smith in “1984”, and when you emerge, with him, through the horrors of Room 101, you will be damn sure to keep your eye on anyone who is trying to take your rights away!

Mythologist Joseph Campbell called the most familiar and oldest story type The Hero’s Journey. The structure of such mythic adventures involves leaving home, going on risky travels that are full of obstacles we learn from, and finally returning, changed forever. Not only does every individual go through there own version of the Hero’s Journey in real life, but learning about other people’s heroic journeys (Theseus and the Minotaur, The Odyssey, The Journey to the West, etc) helps us to have the fortitude of our own because we become familiar with the idea of conquering outer challenges and inner demons.

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”- Neil Gaiman, Coraline

In other words, when we emerge, with Frodo from his journey to Mt. Doom and back, we are not the naive, childish little hobbits we were before. Now we are stronger, braver, and wiser - traits that we use on our own journeys, to conquer our own Mt. Dooms.

All of this neuroscience, psychology, etc leads me to declare that All Fiction Is Real!, as real as anything else that passes through our heads. Fiction is a time-machine, a teacher, a friend, and a portal to adventure. What are you waiting for? Go read a story today!

The War of the Senses and Reason

We talk a lot about different Dualities on this blog, perhaps too often. Earlier we talked about Mechanicalness Vs. Humanness, and Apollonianism Vs. Dionysianism, and now today we will be talking about the classic conflicts between our rational minds and animal desires. The Senses Vs. Reason.

The Five Senses: Sight, Hearing, Touch, Smell, and Taste are like windows for our consciousness to gaze out into the world and perceive what is going on out there. What I find very interesting is that while the senses are the most immediately obvious way to gain knowledge about the world, there quickly comes a point where we have reached the limits of sense-knowledge and need to rely on something that we can't immediately use our senses to perceive, and that is where Reason kicks in.We use our rational minds to come up with things as grounded in science (but still only theoretical) as String Theory, or something as metaphysical as the Theory of Forms (I'm a big fan of Plato's theory, and plan on writing an article about it sometime soon!).

So, we can use Reason in two accepted ways: We can make judgements based off information gathered through the sense-windows, making conclusions we believe are justified by the evidence that we can see, touch, etc. This is called Empiricism (Perception + Reason = Empiricism).

But we can also attain to knowledge about the empirical world using rational reasoning alone. Let us say, for example, that a nasty ol' snake-oil salesman came up to me with a box and said that if I paid him 5,000$ he would lift open the lid on the box and show me Icy Fire. That is, of course, impossible, because it is contradictory for Icy Fire to exist. I wouldn't need to pay you 500$ to know that what you are trying to claim is false. There is ice, and there is fire, but there is not Icy Fire. The belief that most or all things can be known through reason alone is Rationalism.

It is important to note that our Rationality can be tricked by our senses, and that is why it is important to always stay on guard.

'Know the Self to be sitting in the chariot, the body to be the chariot, the intellect  the charioteer, and the mind the reins .'
 'The senses they call the horses, the objects of the senses their roads. When he (the Highest Self) is in union with the body, the senses, and the mind, then wise people call him the Enjoyer.'
He who has no understanding and whose mind (the reins) is never firmly held, his senses (horses) are unmanageable, like vicious horses of a charioteer.''But he who has understanding and whose mind is always firmly held, his senses are under control, like good horses of a charioteer.'

I think that paragraph from the Katha Upanishads (part of a collection of scriptures from Hinduism called The Upanishads) illustrates the ideal relationship between the different parts of ourselves.

I believe that our senses can mislead us in two ways: Illusions of perception, and Desire.

An example of sensory illusions is this: I remember, one time, I was having a sleepover at my friend Griffin’s house, and we were in his basement. It was very dark, and of course we are rowdy, talkative teenagers so it was well-past midnight. We looked out of the window and I became terrified, and he asked me why. I said that there was a creepy old lady staring at us through the window. He looked at it from my angle and said the same thing. We were both fairly certain there wasn't actually someone looking at us, because it seems unlikely that this would happen and that an elderly lady could just be staring there motionlessly. The next morning when the sun came up the demon was revealed to only be a formation of dust on the wall - the angle I was looking at it from and the level of light available to me tricked my eyes into thinking it was a creepy, elderly face.
                                                                                                                                         
In other words, my senses tell me: There is a demon staring at us through the window! But my reasoning says: There must be something up...

An example of our senses being fooled by desire is this: Earlier this year I decided I would start eating healthy. I do not believe that ignorance is bliss, I believe that only the ignorant and the lazy think that. Instead I prescribe by “bliss is knowledge” by virtue of it being real and that ignorance is actually one of the purest expressions of suffering. So I gave up chocolate, candy, fast food, chips, pop, - the whole bit.

Because I have been eating this stuff for so long my body was addicted to it in a sense, and as a result of that the first week was like a withdrawal period. I had to struggle, to remind myself that the food is unhealthy regardless of how good it tastes, etc. I was experiencing, for myself, the classic example of our Reason leading us out of temptation. This is a very religious thing, a very ascetic thing, but Temperance is surely one of the oldest uses of Reason.

Now I find my body is extremely cautious towards letting anything get into my body and lets my mind decide instead, and I find I am healthier, with more energy and concentration. Sacrificing short-term pleasure for long-term gain has paid off!

So not only can our rational minds guide our senses (as in the example above) it can also tame them.

This second example of reason leading us out of pointless & destructive desires is called Temperance, one of the Four Cardinal Virtues. This is important to note because I believe as Socrates believed, that to be Rational is to be Ethical, and vice-versa.

When I went through my phase of quitting so many bad habits,I became extremely interested in why my body was so averse to quitting foods that were obviously unhealthy for it. Then, I read the research of biologist Niko Tinbergen. Niko Tinbergen discovered that animals are easily fooled by supernormal (alternatively called “super-real”) stimuli. The parents of songbirds would prefer to feed fake baby birds with mouths wider than their real children.  Male stickleback fish would ignore real rivals in order to attack wooden replicas with brightly painted underbellies. The sensuous instincts of the animals were hijacked and harmed as a result of that.

But, there is already an animal that is quite familiar with super-real stimuli..... Humankind!
                                                                                                                                                             
After all, while our technology is fantastic and all it outran our instincts a long time ago and the same brain that was made to cope with the Savannah's of Africa must now survive in an environment of refined foods that are saltier and tastier than anything that was ever available to our ancestors, technology that can immerse us into another world, and pornography. Is it any wonder, then, that the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) includes pornography, video games, and junk food?

What I gather from all this is that while animals are led along by their senses and are even “captured” by them, unable to act differently to what they see or hear regardless of how real it is. A human, using his rational intellect, can differentiate between the real and the unreal, between the beneficial and the harmful, and choose between them for his betterment.

awesome artwork called "Reason Vs. Instinct", original photo by Onikaizer. Instinct is portrayed as the animal mis-match monster on the left, and reason as the mechanical entity on the right. 

I guess Aristotle was right when he said we are the “Rational Animal”: Animals + Intellect = Humans. I believe this following statement is right regardless of your cosmological stance: Humans should allow their reason to dominate and guide their senses, otherwise their senses will dominate and guide their reasons. If you are an evolutionist, then you must not allow millions of years of evolution to go to waste by not making use of that rational mind, and exercise your unique, Nature-given capability to reason and control yourself. If you are a creationist, than God surely gave you a rational mind to elevate you beyond the level of mere animals so you should exercise it. 

After all, are not most of the traditionally accepted Ethics based on that above foundation? My senses tell me to be gluttonous, my reason tells me to be temperate. My animal mind wants me to steal, my human mind wants me to be charitable. My inner animal wants me to kill and compete, but the better angels of my nature want me to be merciful and just.