Focus on Life™

We like to have our freedom. It is great and fun to explore and extend our boundaries. We love to take the credit for our actions, but only selectively. Positive consequences are naturally ours to claim but what about the not so desired effects?

Freedom and responsibility go hand-in-hand—the greater the freedom the greater the responsibility as well. Our current society does not encourage personal freedom. In practice we are sanctioned, monitored, and restrained in almost all aspects of life. We have learned to behave obediently and not to question the behaviour patterns or norms of the society. Like Goethe once said: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

We have created an artificial layer that is expected to protect individuals from harms and consequences of their personal actions. This has created a culture where people have become accustomed (or learned) to be passive and not to take action themselves. We expect someone else to tell us what to do or help us out of our own problems. This has come so far that we even regard we have the right and the others’ the moral obligation to unilaterally support us. We have isolated ourselves from the effects of our actions.

Our personal initiatives and responsibility are very limited, but so is our freedom as well. We have given up our rights in order to gain something for nothing. We prefer to have it easy and let others to bear the consequences for us. Unfortunately this is a zero-sum game in an aggregate level and as a result everybody is worse off. There are no free lunches—there is always someone paying the bill.

Isolating individuals from their actions’ consequences is a double-edged sword. It creates an illusion of safety and protection but at the same time it removes the control from the very person. And this creates uncertainty, fear, and self-esteem issues among others. Simply we do not feel anymore that the life is in our own hands: we are on top of the issues and have the solutions available for us. Confidence and security build from experience and the knowledge that we have the tools and the means to cope with our circumstances.

It requires practice and experience to become good at something. This means that we have learned something by experimenting and sometimes even making wrong choices that have guided us to do something differently in the future. In other words we have the motivation to keep going and get better. All this requires responsibility. Responsibility is the feedback mechanism that shows us how we are performing and the results of our pursuits. Mastery is only possible for those who are aware of their actions and their consequences.

Look around you—how much responsibility are we taking for our actions?

Our current societies involve a third party called government that is authorised to incur into any violent actions and force in order to protect its citizens. However just by watching the news it’s nothing new to realise that these powers are also used against the very people who give them to its agent, the state.

A life without a state above its people is possible and here’s an excellent excerpt from Murray N. Rothbard’s The Ethics of Liberty about The Right to Self-defense.

When you are angry ask yourself: Who is angry?

When you are disappointed ask yourself: Who is disap-
pointed?

When you are in need of something ask yourself: Who
needs?

When you are sad ask yourself: Who is sad?

Why is it that it is always the external world that is to be
blamed? And yet, all of your answers start with I (with a cap-
ital letter). Who is this I (who is angry, disappointed, in need,
and sad)?

This mysterious I interacts with the world but still takes
no responsibility for his or her actions. Why does this I always
projects the reasons for hardship and excuses on the external
world? Interaction requires at least two parties.

How about sorting out things with this I first and dealing
with the world later?

Always concentrate on your state of being-ness, never on the
mode of being.

Don’t try, genuinely be.

Understand you can never be too humble.

Appreciate and be grateful for everything and every single
occasion and situation you’re facing and living through.

Be patient. Always.

Forgive and be kind to yourself. You can never be too graceful.

Never monitor your progress or try to achieve something—
they lead to becoming.

Always acknowledge and be aware of your consciousness. As
long as there is something that sees, hears, thinks, feels, or
senses, there is still something to learn—the quest is not over.

Do not fixate on anything. There are no excuses. Always be
ready to sacrifice everything you have, are, or believe in.
Humbleness and honesty with yourself helps.

Always verify your actions and thoughts by your ethical and
moral standards. Be honest and watch for half-truths and
excuses. Sloppiness is never acceptable.

Only the truth survives.

Credit,

recognition,

consideration,

noteworthy,

but for what?

Something great and unique,
something noble and unselfish,
for a greater cause,
without any benefits or recognition,
for the one?

That’s something humble, opposite of pride.

Pride derives from lesser qualities
and needs for self-appraisal.
A quest for higher perception and
recognition for the actions,
deeds, that otherwise would be left
without a notice.

Pride is there where the subject
is more important than the object.
The process is preferred for
the outcome.

The one who just is,
do not need to acknowledge,
oneself for the others.
It’s enough to be
and just do.
The results speaks for themselves
and even them are not important.

No one to show off,
no one to see.
The prize for the humble,
but curse for the pride.

Masters never brag,
they simply are.
The ones who lack,
fill the gap,
by empty talk.

Why is the doer so important? Or, to be more specific, when
is the doer important? In most of the cases, the performer is
relevant only when we are doing it ourselves. We emphasize
the subject more than the actual deed or the doing process. In
brief, when we are the subjects it is very important but when
others are the contributors, we are not as interested.
Confusing?

This is very evident if we observe our own life. Just think
back to the last movie or theatre play you saw or book you
read. Who were the actors and authors? Do you remember?
Some of us have naturally better name-recall memory, but
still. We concentrate and focus on the substance itself and not
so much on the individual actors’ contributions and relevance
per se. A theatre play is a team effort for the overall atmos-
phere and experience combined from individual contribu-
tions. Similarly, the author creates the novel but for us the
storyline and the substance is the thing. When we are the
doer, it is something exceptional and unique but when others
do it, that’s a different case—it is something usual or rather
normal at least. The same applies when we are simply talking.
It is a rare skill to be a good listener because we often prefer
talking to listening. Listening is often the opportunity to
think what we are going to say next, isn’t it?

So why is it so important who is doing the action? In real-
ity, it is not relevant at all. The most important thing is the
deed itself and its effects. The only one who craves recogni-
tion is our own mind. Our mind lives from our attention and
focus. It needs our undivided notice and recognition of
importance. There are many words for this type of behavior:
greed, selfishness, vanity, ego, and so on. The doer is impor-
tant only in conditional and relative terms. If the actions were
totally selfless, the performer would be irrelevant. In all the
other cases there is some conditional reason or purpose for
the deed as a vehicle to something else. It does not serve a
purpose itself.

The world does not need the doers—only the actions.
Therefore, the doer is not relevant—actually it is only an illu-
sion. This imaginary performer is living only in our own
mind. We would still exist without it and perform the same
tasks and duties. The only thing missing from the picture
would be the self-appraisal and egocentric behavior. Who
needs them, anyone?

We are in the garbage-creation business. The products and
results are our own creation, and the consequences are observ-
able around the world. Most of the garbage is all in our own
mind. The dumpster in question is not a physical one in its
original form—its derivations can be, however. This huge
dumpster is called our mind. It’s the creator and initiator of all
the garbage. Simply, that is its pure existence and raison
d’être. How does this polluter work?

We live only in the moment—now time. Nothing else is
available to us. Nevertheless, we can do various things with
this now time but still everything happens in the moment.
For example, we can think back through our memories and
reflect on everything that has happened. We can also project
the future and wonder or worry about the next moments.
Still, all of these actions are happening in the moment. Our
sole decision is just how to use every moment. We can either
concentrate on the moment or opt for escaping from the real-
ity, either to our past or into the projected future our mind
creates for us.

There would not be any dumpster if we always live in the
moment. We would take life as it comes and make the neces-
sary decision as is required. Very simple, no worries at all.
Things just happen, and life would be only the issues that
emerge to us, some good and some less desirable—all the
same because we can only take them as they come.

The above is unfortunately not the way we live. We prefer
to be in “control.” Therefore, we have to know what happens
next. Otherwise we could not have this control illusion. How
much control do you have if you cannot predict the future
outcomes? Well, this is exactly the paradox. In practice, we are
not in control, but we believe we are. Our way of living is
based on the trick our mind plays on us. And the results are
the huge dumpster we are dragging behind us.

Our mind knows only what we know. It is limited to its
own boundaries and it is not objective where we are con-
cerned. It cannot exist without us. We produce the mind.
Therefore, it is also the one who creates for us the future—the
illusion of time in the moment. The mind works very simply:
It fabricates the future from our personal experiences and
knowledge. In other words, it extrapolates the past and the
current moment to the future based on its previous knowl-
edge. It’s very logical and nice; it’s also very real and accept-
able to us—after all, it’s a familiar future to us. We have
created it and can understand it. It is easy to accept and fall in
love with. How can we not like our own creation?

Our mind provides us with illusions of the future that we
take for granted and as true to us. These snapshots create dif-
ferent kinds of feelings, emotions, and sensations in us. The
mind projects usually either good or bad outcomes. The previ-
ous we dream about and the latter we are scared of or worried
about. These outcomes cause new feelings, and the snapshots
or pictures start to have existences of their own. They can also
create new outcomes and sensations in us. Often, the outcome
is that we cling to these illusions and feelings that arise in us.
We forget the actual projected route to the future moment and
see only the “prediction of the future. “Now it’s true to us. We
are sure it is going to happen, no doubt about it. It must hap-
pen. How horrible or how wonderful.

This is the moment when we produce the garbage. After
seeing the beautiful outcome we cling to it. This is something
we definitely need or want. Yes, no doubt about it. We are
urged to direct our actions toward this outcome. At the
moment we are not yet there but for us it is possible because it
seems so real for us, thanks to our mind. Now we have two
different points to compare: the current moment and the pro-
jected future outcome. An urge or desire has been aroused in
us. Now we know what we want. This can happen in various
of forms: greed, anger, frustration, jealousy, self-justification,
and so on, depending on our projection and the gap between
the now time and the imagined future. From this point
onward, we live in the moment only in a manner that is
directed and geared toward the outcome we illusioned. In
other words, we have accepted the future our mind projected
and are compromising in our principles and behavior in order
to make sure that the future will happen the way we desired it
to occur.

You still remember how all this started? Our mind fabri-
cated a future for us based on the experiences and knowledge
we have at the moment. It did not have any capabilities to
provide us any directions or predictions of the actual reality
that will emerge. Still, we believed the nice or horrible sce-
nario it provided us with and now we are living like if these
illusions are as sure things as our past memories. The compro-
mised garbage is all the things we produced in our mind and
now desire. These compromise and corrupt our behavior and
actions in the now time. Our mind offered us this great future
picture and catered the table with good reasons and justifica-
tions to make it happen.

We no longer observe the world as it emerges. We observe
and see the world only through the lenses our mind produced
for us. We expect our projections to happen. Disappointments
and regret emerge from the realization that the future
occurred some other way than we expected. We are not in
control. We could have even given up and sacrificed some of
our humble and noble principles in our quest to perceive and
“force” the illusioned reality to happen.

The compromised dumpster accumulates and reminds us,
thanks to our mind. It accumulates these memories and fabri-
cates more future outcomes. More garbage coming in—until
we catch the litter itself and get rid of it, just ignore it totally.
We give up our very mind and start living with mindlessness
in the moment. We take life as it emerges and base our actions
on the reality as it comes. What a fresh and pure existence!

We are used to living in the world of instant action and
response. Each generation claims that the current speed and
flow of information is almost too much to bear. The stress we
feel, which is imposed by our society, the closest ones, and our
working life, is almost too much to handle. So what is all this
fuss about? Who’s in a hurry and why?

We feel anxious when things seem to move too fast for us.
We are not focused and cannot exactly draw the full picture.
This is something very personal and subjective. Air traffic
controllers have a different meaning of stress than kinder-
garten teachers and extreme sports base jumpers have. What
is common to everyone is that the external activity level and
the inner state of patience and calmness are totally different
issues. When we are feeling comfortable, we can achieve a lot
without any distress.

With experience and practice, our comfort zone extends.
We learn to separate our physical existence from our inner state
of being. With time, we start to feel less concerned about the
circumstances and even new situations facing us. No matter
how fast the pace or strange the situation, it should not affect
our inner being. Those are just issues to deal with—no big deal.

We start to perceive life with patience. Everything has its
time and place. For some activities we get involved, and for
others we do not; sometimes our presence is required for an
activity, and for some activities our presence is not necessary.
Our time will come if we need the experience or the capabil-
ity. Our life gives us what we deserve, but we are often just too
impatient to wait for it. We get anxious and start to act on our
own. And then we are confused. Things get out of our control
and beyond our reach. At this point, we need even more
patience.

We live in a state of constant longing. The current moment
seems never to be enough. When we’ve reached one thing, we
immediately long for something else. The grass is always
greener on the other side. The main idea here is that we are
wanting: always and for something. But what are we longing
for?

Our yearning is a sensation we have a hard time describ-
ing. It is something that surrounds us but still we are not able
to explain it exactly. Longing is something formless that
encircles us. It is a notion in us that seeks existence and
expression through us. One could say that longing uses us as
its vehicle for material existence.

In practice, this means that we project our yearning for a
physical or tangible form. We attach our desires for some
objects or objectives. Depending on the circumstances, it can
be a person we are missing, a better job, our own apartment,
our spouse, wealth, or an occupation, to name a few. No mat-
ter the subject, the important point is that for us, it is some-
thing concrete. We have a hard time separating the object
from the subject. We mark the object of the longing and start
to regard it as the means of improving our state of being (i.e.,
our inner condition).

We are all familiar with the results. The instant we have
achieved that something that we wanted, we are after some-
thing else. We are not satisfied, which was the whole purpose
of the issue. Now we are after something else. So, what actu-
ally happens?

Longing makes us active. It drives us to experience and
face different challenges in life. What would happen if we
would not long for anything? Nothing. But there would not
be much progress either. If no one is either after or lacking
anything, because longing implies a condition where the sub-
ject is incomplete and seeks the missing component, nothing
would improve or change.

It is important to identify this continuous process we are
going through. One should realize that longing is not “us”—
we can never become fulfilled by any means outside of our
inner being. Therefore, if we can see through this longing and
ignore its quest, we are already closer to being “complete.” We
are not running around and reaching for something illusion-
ary. All we need to do is to identify our behavioral patterns
and make conscious actions instead of commit blind obedi-
ence. How about reaching for nonlonging?

Our inner life is sacred and personal to each of us. Our exter-
nal life we share with the world. It is not obvious that they
can be in harmony and still enable the sought-for inner real-
ization. But it is possible.

History has given us examples of sacred people who lived
in isolated places and practiced their spiritual life. Often, we
have this image of true practitioners, and nothing else is “seri-
ous” or real enough. Inner peace and mindlessness do not
require any particular place or arrangement. We can practice
it no matter where we are. It also stays with us when we have
reached the right level. Actually, our environment and cir-
cumstances are no obstacles to our inner development.

We have to live in the world and take care of our duties
and responsibilities. Actually, what provides a better opportu-
nity to practice detachment and tranquility than the chal-
lenges of our everyday life? Our situations provide us with the
training arena where we should be able to stay in a totally har-
monious inner state—no matter what we are experiencing.

Living under time and space where causality is imposed
does not mean that we cannot have a rich inner life as well.
We can experience both worlds continuously. A place or situ-
ation will have no significance for us because our life is our
state of mind. We create the meaning for the circumstances—
not the other way around.

True teachings are nonverbal. They are not given by any
symbols (i.e., writings, talk)—we have to experience them
directly. Therefore, our life defines our existence, and by our
behavior and actions we state who we are. What would be a bet-
ter way to share the wisdom we have gained than to live among
people and be a practical example? No words are necessary.