Unpacking Your BOXES.

What are you?

This is a question that an ego-self can never answer and until it is answered, what else matters? Until you can fully answer, what difference does does it make how you conduct your life, since an undefined ego-self knows NOT what life is for. How could it know?



However, the ego-self will always provide answers that only lead to more questions, such as “I am a self.”

But then, what is a ‘self’?

The ego does NOT travel lightly. It has many boxes and crates for which it identifies itself THROUGH identifying others and its ‘world.’ This burden is more than it can handle and it is so overloaded with ‘identifiers’ that it eventually becomes completely desensitized to the question and stooped from the weight of the answers.

Most egos recognize this weight as a burden. Hence, they go about unpacking their boxes in the hope of lightening their egocentric load. But the weight never seems to diminish, only becomes more oppressive. This is because they erroneously unpack the boxes which identify a personal “self,"’ when it’s the boxes identifying others that cause the most weight.

It's the identities you press upon a world of others that burdens you most. It’s your resentment of me that weighs you down. It’s not your personal egocentricity that is suffered through but your demand that others fit your boxes through their own egocentricity. It is from these boxes that you define yourself and, until they are unpacked, you will suffer from the weight of a world of your making. You will NEVER learn what you are, until you unpack what you demand THEY must be for YOU. They define you, simply because you demand it so... by defining them. This exchange is a never-ending continuum that is always on YOUR mind.

From the moment you were born and became cognizant of a separate identity, you began packing boxes. Each box was filled with what others gave you and you meticulously filled your boxes with these “gifts" and from those “gifts,” you began to define a whole world of others as they in turn defined you. What they gave you, you pressed back upon them in an alternating current of interdependent exchange. But the most important info exchanged was that, like them, you were a unique individual that was definitively…unlike them.

In being just like them, you demand being "different"... just like them.

And so it goes, the packing of the boxes year after year. It seems easy to define others in reference to the ‘self’ they gave you and that you return back to them. Your boxes insure that no one can fail to be KNOWN and categorized. Those who cannot be defined cannot be trusted (that has a box too). Thus everyone who defined “you” seeks to meet your definition of themselves, through the boxes they helped you fill and that you now help them in keeping CLOSED. In this way we all share the same burden and suffer through the weight of the same boxes. This weight of concepts is literally killing you. But nevertheless, you still claim to be free….LOL! But how can one who lives out of boxes ever be free?

It is your defining of me that boxes you in and never any self-definition you apply to your ‘self,’ because every definition superimposed upon the self…I gave you through our ongoing conceptual exchange.

One day, however, you may finally realize the cause of this weight and that it has little to do with “you” and much more to do with “them.” Make no mistake, the “enlightened master” who claims freedom from self, but still sees YOUR egocentricity, is nothing more than a “Master of Boxes.”

Artwork by Shawn Barber - "D.I.D"

Modern Mysticism Fears The Ego (and wants you to fear it too)

Most of our so-called modern "mystics" teach you to fear your 'self.'

They teach that if you just differentiate between your good, loving, "happy" thoughts (or "voice") and your mean, nasty, negative thoughts you'll soon become enlightened or awakened. In other words, if you listen to your good voice only, you'll transcend the mean and nasty ego and experience happy, happy, joy, joy.

Unfortunately, this is complete unadulterated bullshit.

The ego ("you") is schizophrenic and, thus, an expert master of duality and both the good and bad are ALL ego, ALL the time. In other words every interpretation you make on the world, others and your 'self' is an egocentric interpretation, exclusive to "you" and separate from everything else. You have no choice, because the moment an interpretation is made, “you” are that maker. Therefore, what the ego-self SEES in a world of others is exactly how it wants to experience itself.

The problem with what the modern mystics teach has to do with the concept of "guilt." Thus, in your seeking to identify with some thoughts as better than others, whenever you have a negative, even cruel, thought, you'll immediately experience guilt over identifying with the bad ego-self and NOT the good Self, Divine Consciousness, Universal Oneness, Voice of God, blah, blah, blah, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Therefore, you have been inadvertently taught to FEAR your ‘self.'

What you fear more than anything is your own mind. If the ‘self’ you identify with is guilty, then you’re in a world of shit with no way out, because every thought in your head either seeks to offset guilt or inadvertently bring it on.

Essentially, you hate your 'self' for all the crap you think and the modern mystic takes full advantage of your self-loathing in trying to teach you to be a better "you."

And, as everybody knows, along with guilt comes PUNISHMENT. This is why we are always our own worst enemy, because the ego's constantly punishing itself for being itself, thereby, consistently reinforcing what it IS...a duality of light and dark, good and bad, beautiful and ugly, etc, etc, etc, etc......

So the ego goes along, meticulously developing itself for years, progressively reinforcing its egocentricity (since the world values the well-developed egocentric self) when suddenly you bump into the modern "mystic" who tells you that there is a different voice that is not ego and all you (ego) need do is differentiate between the two voices. This begs the question:  who or what will be differentiating between the two voices?

The ego!! (duh...)

The ego is NEITHER bad nor good and it is BOTH bad and good (paradox). You evaluate your 'self' as both bad and good all the time and that's because you are an EGO. All of "you" that you identify with in any way (good or bad) is egocentric because it is “you.”

So what's wrong with that??

The ego hates and loves. The ego does good things and bad. The ego comes up with some really wonderful thoughts that help others and cruel ideas that kill many. The ego extends compassion and projects fear. The ego is resourceful and wasteful. The ego dreams of an end to its suffering and bitterly suffers through its own self-hatred in its failure to be free of suffering. The ego is everything you want to be...ALL the time.

The ego...you can't hate it or love it. You can't avoid it, appease it, placate it, punish it, run from it, hide from it, escape it, etc, etc, etc. THE EGO IS YOU and "you" are doing all this to your 'self.'

The ego ("you") loves all attempts to TRANSCEND it, since every cottonpickin’ attempt only reinforces IT, and ALL IT does, as REAL. The ego is a big time consumer of "spirituality," because spirituality magnifies it and projects its grandiose egocentricity all over the friggin’ place. Our most beloved gurus are some of the most disturbed, egocentric ‘personalities’ you'll ever encounter and they give you nothing but your own egocentric NEED to identify as a particular PERSONALITY that you (ego) call egoless...HA!

All your attempts to differentiate between the ego-self and some other holier-than-thou-identity merely reinforces DUALITY and egos thrive wonderfully in duality and can “live” nowhere else.

Guilt is what keeps you stuck and NOT the ego and everything these  "pseudo-mystics" teach only reinforces your continued self-punishment and associated suffering. You have NOTHING to be guilty of, because you are what you’re supposed to be, doing what you're supposed to be doing.

There is nothing you NEED DO to change that, because there is nothing you CAN DO to change that.

It’s all a game folks. So go ahead, pay infinitely. Have fun. Enjoy your ‘existing’ and jump in and fully engage the fucking mess and stop pretending you can do something otherwise that is different than being what you are…an ego….Ha!

So here’s a fun game that you can try at home.

Instead of trying NOT to experience the ego in your ‘self…try NOT to see it IN ME. Ahaa! Now that might take some ‘doing” huh?

React to the ego in 'them'...

...and rest assured that all your years of hard spiritual grit and grind have been completely futile and all for naught….

But at least you had fun playing the game, but what else are you here for?

Oh wait, let me guess…

...to transcend the ego?

Love that game!
(are you a serious player?)


Artwork by Scott G. Brooks - "JoJO the Dog-Faced Girl Takes Her Walk"

Runnin’ With The Herd

The herd gave you everything. Even your desire to escape the herd is a gift of the herd.

Are YOU grateful?

The herd gave you your Super Bowl and your Spiritual Awakening. Your HDTV and your Eckart Tolle. Integral Theory and Dancing With The Stars. Hummers and higher consciousness. Chakras and Chocolate chips. Gurus and Gonorrhea.

The herd gave you all you desire to embrace and all you seek to escape. Everything you seek to find and everything you seek to lose is a product of the herd. Whatever you love and whatever you loathe…all gifts of the herd.

You can never “transcend” the herd… because the herd gave you that too…(hahaaa!).

The enlightened master and the pedophile. Charles Manson and Mahatma Ghandi. Adyashanti and Al Capone. The Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Dahmer. All products of the herd and all snug up in your mind. It's all up in your noggin' and all you need do is bring it into focus and....SEE...

...and you do!

But sometimes you loathe the ignorant masses and you actually hate the fuckin’ bastards out there… as if you were not apart of it. For chrisakes, the herd even gave you…your FEAR of the herd.

They gave you fear and loathing (what’d you think, you came up with that all on your lonesome, LOL). And you return the favor by fearing and loathing "them." The herd is your teacher and your mind is the classroom. Would you like to change the world? Sure, the herd gave you that.

Do you really think for a minute that the herd will let you go? That you can somehow go your own way?

Because every path you choose, was mapped out by the herd long before your membership was approved simply by fact of your birth. Without the herd, who or what would you be? Without the herd, what would you think? How would you define your ‘self’?

Are you a rebel? A non-conformist? A pacifist? An activist? An artist? A Buddhist? A Terrorist, a non-dualist, an academic, a master, a butcher , a baker, a candlestick maker? Are you conservative or a liberal? Are you a husband, wife, daughter, son? Are you gay, straight, round, lost or found? Are you depressed, happy, contented, sad, grieving, mad? Are you pissed off and not gonna take it anymore...LOL.

...don’t forget to thank the herd!

Do you follow the esoteric teachings of Zen Buddhism? Are you an advocate of Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory? Are you a Born Again Christian or a Muslim Jihadist? Have you experienced the transcendental bliss of the non-dual experience? Get a new car? Diagnosed with cancer? Waiting for Jesus? Lose your job? Win the lottery? Get laid? Get enlightened? Abducted by Aliens? Schizophrenic? Obese? At peace?

Do you sometimes enjoy reading the crap on this blog?

Just don’t forget to thank the herd for it’s bountiful beneficence and its myriad renditions of relative suffering and joy, all of which you have chosen at one time or another, and will continue to choose time and time again, always thinking your choice is "unique" and above the herd. Thank the herd for the cognitive cornucopia you conjure up and, through that, consider yourself uniquely SPECIAL.

Make no mistake, your uniqueness is a product of a collective consciousness just brimming with ideas, most of it nothing more than the same old hag dressed up in snazzy new post-modern mini-skirt.

You want to be free of the herd, to  transcend the vile masses? Yep, that’s provided too.

You’re NOT “unique,” just another member of the herd, demanding the herd approve your uniqueness. And they no doubt will...in fact, they will hand it to you. The herd will give you...

...your "self."

Because not one single solitary thought in your head is free of the herd….

Jump in and fully engage the herd, because you are never NOT engaged. You just like to think you’re not part of it all. You like to pretend that you have nothing to do with what’s out there, with what you see, with what you experience....

But keep IN MIND….ALL the shit you experience and accept as outside YOU…

Is an experience indisputably.... INSIDE YOUR HEAD….

…and nowhere else will you EVER experience it.

Hmmmm....now what do you suppose that means?

I've seen all good people turn their heads each day
so satisfied I'm on my way.
I've seen all good people turn their heads each day
so satisfied I'm on my way. 

Take a straight and stronger course to the corner of your life.
Make the white queen run so fast she hasn't got time to make you a wife. 

'Cause it's time, it's time in time with your time and its news is captured
For the queen to use.

Move me on to any black square,
Use me any time you want,
Just remember that the goal
Is for us to capture all we want, (move me on), yea,yea,yea,yea,yea (to any black square)

Don't surround yourself with yourself,
Move on back two squares,
Send an instant karma to me,
Initial it with loving care yourself.

'Cause it's time, it's time in time with your time and its news is captured
For the queen to use.

I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way. 

Artwork by HR Giger - "Landscape XVIII"

Collective Annihilation Through Individual Egos

Collective self-destruction by individual egos, if it ever happens, must surely be accidental.

On the surface, the collective certainly has no desire to self-destruct. But deep down in the depths of the collective mind, where we compulsively repeat the same patterns, over and over, ad infinitum...

…the collective actually loathes the individual ego and wishes to destroy it.

Yet, the individual ego equally despises the collective mass of human consciousness.

Neither wishes an end to itself, but both seek to destroy the other.

So which are “you”?

The ego fears and loathes the collective. It perceives the aggregate of human consciousness and belief as primitive, absurd and madly driven by gross fears and desires. It recognizes man’s inhumanity to man as a collective disease that only IT is immune to. The individual ego holds itself up as sacred, as it seeks its own personal awakening to a higher consciousness  and a higher truth not available to the collective mass of human thought. The ego believes it is on a “hero’s journey” to one day transcend the collective HELL that it despises.

The collective fears and loathes the individual ego. It understands self-absorbed egocentricity as the very reason for man’s inhumanity to man. It lives in chronic sadness and fear over the pain and suffering individual egos inflict upon itself. The collective sensationalizes all individual acts of cruelty as not apart of itself. It seeks to extract out the guilty and supports severe punishment.

History demonstrates that following every collective uprising, the ego takes over until the collective must rise again. This is easy to be seen, because with every political uprising, one individual ego is sought out as leader. Nevertheless, as always happens, that individual ego is eventually vilified by the collective in its desire for punishment.

The individual ego cannot escape the collective, because the collective GAVE IT LIFE.

The collective cannot escape egocentric individuality, because the ego KEEPS IT ALIVE.

The collective is OUTSIDE, seeking control over what is INSIDE YOU.

The ego is INSIDE, seeking control over what is OUTSIDE IT.

Thus, the collective will always withhold its wonder from the ego and the ego will share none of its magic with the collective.

When the ego sees the outside as inside and the collective realizes that what is inside has never left the outside…

...there will no longer be a difference to get hung up on and point to.

Artwork by Beau White - "Becoming A Man (bit by bit)"

The Egocentric Politics of Control

It is a natural predisposition of egocentricity to CONTROL it's environment.

Therefore, why would we, as a collective, not assume that it would be the same for a collection of egos, unified under one banner, or grand goal, in order to facilitate increased control for the individualized participants? The corporation is an egocentric tool of control, really little different than a government.

This is why we can all walk like an Egyptian and overrun the gov. But, as history demonstrates, ad nauseam, whatever ruling body assumes the reigns will eventually impose its own collective egocentric conditions upon the victims of "learned helplessness" and start up the whole "Oppression" game all over again. (Mubarak was once seen as a liberator of the people, Ha!)

Forget the tools of control (corporations/governments) and look to the deeper layers of the individual egocentric control that we all desire. Look how diligently you work to control your immediate environment, your little micro-world. Look at all the constant changes you apply to be "happy," often regardless of the protests of those around you. You know what you need, yo!

Oh wait, I forgot...

You're innocent.

It's the bad people in the corporation or those nasty federales. They're the problem! They're the guilty ones.

Make no mistake, history demonstrates that the moment "you" take control, you'll do exactly what HAS BEEN DONE, just like every other ego self-construct has always done... since time began

The ego-self has no concept of real freedom because freedom is completely outside its experiential domain.

Freedom can NOT be conceptualized by a mind incarcerated within a cranium attached to a body. The very fact that the ego-self is bound to a body, demands it control its environment so that it can self-actualize and "develop" itself as REAL The ego knows only surface "freedom," because essentially "you" are a prisoner of your own bodily desires and appetites and each NEED is only another means of asserting greater control for a "skin-encapsulated ego."

So you see, there is NO hope of freedom, until control is obliterated from your mind.

But then who or what would "you" BE then?

Now that's a frightening thought....


Artwork by KH Blackwell - "Stoic Masochism"