Dear Diary,<\/p>\n
In the West, the name of the game is Capitalism. While, once upon a time, Capitalism may have meant the opening up of markets for trade between one location and another, or one new good, service, or technology and another, today Capitalism implies something much more insidious. Capitalism in practice today is a race to the bottom where the Capital Class \u2013 those who own everything \u2013 exploit workers, nature, corruptible officials, etc., to suck up more.\u00a0 The Capital Class today is now above the law in all but name, and owns so much wealth by percentage and raw value the economy no longer operates for the everyperson but caters primarily toward them and them alone.<\/p>\n
If Capitalism did not cause \u2018Commodity Culture\u2019 wherein people are no longer viewed as people but objects to be disposed of upon use, then Capitalism absolutely emphasized and accelerated it.\u00a0 Gone are the days of good pensions and being adequately rewarded for company loyalty. Good work is rewarded with more work, but not necessarily more compensation or promotions.\u00a0 Even socially, it is all too common for people to dehumanize one another at the earliest convenience, be it in the dating world, the political world, the sports world, or any other environment that suits someone\u2019s selfishness.<\/p>\n
With Capitalism and Commodity Culture in mind, it is no wonder so many can develop a fundamental misunderstanding about Meditation.\u00a0 Meditation is an invitation to be completely present with your activity without judgment or concern about external factors. Meditation is an invitation to give something your all without pressure, to experience something fully as you work on the task.\u00a0 Capitalism wants you to do more with less, commit to infinite growth so others, the investors and C-Suite primarily, can be paid increasing amounts of money from your labor.<\/p>\n
You cannot perfect Meditation; you use Meditation to perfect yourself.\u00a0 The misconception is so many try to perfect Meditation, as in people endlessly try to chase being better at work in pursuit of that infinite growth ideal, or even with hobbies, try to be \u2018better\u2019 than other people, as Commodity Culture teaches people if you aren\u2019t winning, if you aren\u2019t immediately desirable, you\u2019re old news and tossed aside.\u00a0 The truth of the matter, however, is such a hollow journey produces soulless homunculi, which is fine for the Capital Class, as broken beings tend to resist less.<\/p>\n
At first, the journey of self-improvement and task improvement may be mirrored, but at some point of expertise, if the focus doesn\u2019t turn inward, a limit will be reached, regardless of the effort spent.\u00a0 At some point, the elusive question, \u2018Why,\u2019 must be addressed.\u00a0 Why is the subject of your Meditation worth such devotion?\u00a0\u00a0 Once you develop the requisite skills, what are you going to do with them?\u00a0 Who are you, deep down?<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s world, many have degrees and certifications but are quite unhappy.\u00a0 By contrast, how many truly have a grasp of themselves and are equally unhappy?\u00a0 There are stories of people who went to law school and cook street food instead because their heart is with a knife and spoon instead of a suit and tie.\u00a0 They don\u2019t confuse money for wealth and dare to listen to themselves over Capitalist pressures.\u00a0 Yes, today\u2019s world requires money to survive, but a good rule of thumb is to pursue money only as much as your lifestyle requires. If you want to travel the world in first class constantly, then you need to chase money a lot more than someone who is content to watch the leaves change color little by little, reading a book at their local library.<\/p>\n
Using Meditation to perfect oneself is a challenging journey requiring courage, grace, and patience.\u00a0 The good news is you are not alone, and oftentimes something you may be working toward and\/or stuck on shares many parallels with another!\u00a0 We can learn from and teach each other in equal measure.\u00a0 After all, we\u2019re people called people living on a planet called dirt \u2013 a mantra I enjoy saying as a grounding and demystifying technique to remind myself we have many more similarities than differences.<\/p>\n
Being the best versions of ourselves is (generally) good for all involved.\u00a0 You do not need to simply be a cog in the corporate machine, or a tool for others\u2019 use with no hope of reciprocity or validation.\u00a0 On the flip side, not every act of Meditation needs to be explicitly about self-improvement; however, when we begin to reach the questions of \u2018Why\u2019 and other potentially paradigm-shifting questions, do not shy away, even if they take longer to answer than you\u2019d prefer or if the answers aren\u2019t initially what you would have thought.<\/p>\n
Do more of what makes you happy; you are worth it.<\/p>\n
reBLUEvinate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Diary, In the West, the name of the game is Capitalism. While, once upon a time, Capitalism may have meant the opening up of markets for trade between one location and another, or one new good, service, or technology and another, today Capitalism implies something much more insidious. Capitalism in practice today is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[304,337],"tags":[334],"class_list":["post-29132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-diary","category-the-mindfulness-journey","tag-334"],"yoast_head":"\n