Politically Incorrect Welfare Rant

America needs to seriously reform the welfare system. There are sizeable portions of the population whose entire aspirations in life involve getting qualified for either General Relief or Social Security Insurance payments. They are content to take to their EBT coupons and subsist on whatever the government can tax the productive members of society for. Welfare should be a supplement. Welfare should be a government match against hours worked. The hours worked can be community service for all I care. But people need to contribute to their communities if they want the state to tax people with jobs to support them. Maybe I'm a bit bitter from riding through the train South Central LA every day, but the system is broken.

As long as I'm ranting, they need to modify the welfare system and deny payments to felons and their children. That would go a long way to dealing with the "baby daddy" syndrome of stupid girls letting themselves get knocked up by the most alpha, ghetto hood thugs they can find. All of a sudden the baby of a gangster won't be a free ticket to hundreds of dollars a month and a free place to live. Require a paternity test and a valid identify for the father of the child. The government needs to start holding the people that they support accountable for the choices those people make about how they live their lives. I'm sick and tired of seeing my tax dollars disappearing into the bottomless pit that is the ghetto.

Truth, unified thought and the clear, focused mind

Truth leads to unified thought, not mired by rumination and not distracted by aberrant wanderings of the ego driven mind. The mind will wander, seeking stimulation. Like a child throwing a tantrum, it can be ignored, and eventually it will give up on wanting what it wanted. Giving into the mind, like giving into the child, spoils it. Focused on sustaining what is needed and necessary, life and energy are stored, cherished and replenished. Ruminating on and chasing after wants, energy is exhausted and the mind becomes scattered, never satisfied, always seeking.

Energy and the essence of life are the greatest gifts to be treasured.

Mind Control

I have spent so much of my life focused on what I considered to be my mind, and attempting to calm it, focus it, center it, and otherwise master it. A moment of clarity finally dawned upon me this morning.

We cannot control our mind because "our" mind is really THE mind, and the the mind isn't us, we are a part of it.

Awareness, by way of acceptance, is the only way out of confusion and into the mind.

The thoughts that seem to be on our mind are simply the thoughts on everyone's mind. Our stressors are their problems. Their problems are out challenges to deal with.

We are all inextricably linked to each other, and experiencing the same reality. We are all tied into the same mind. That mind exists not inside of us, and not outside of us. It exists everywhere, and no where at the same time. Everywhere in that where ever you look, it can be found. No where, in that when you find it, it isn't only there. The whole cannot be condensed into a single thought, a single awareness, or a single moment in time.

The way to calm 'our' mind is to accept whole heartedly, without any judgement or consideration, everything that we perceive. We have to accept that the mind is not ours to control.

Give up the inclination to control. Accept everything as it is. React with your heart, from a place of compassion for yourself and others.

Early morning insights

Calm in the midst of tranquality. The soothed, relaxed, allowed to freely flow energy coalescing yet not. A part of me, yet no more permanent than a breath. The breath relaxed, easy, allowed to set its own pace and encouraged; maintained at a steady pressure. The inner tranquility of the self becomes the out tranquility delivered to society.

I sense the potential for right, good and positive ways. There is no magic formula or complex ritual required to achieve peace. The ability to be calm resides within ourselves. During our moments of freedom from obligation we can simply relax and be present in our bodies. We can listen to them, be aware of them, accepting the sensations that we perceive. Acceptance and awareness go hand in ahnd. There is nothing to escape from. In the here and now the work continues. Soft is made firm. The aggressive is pacified. Change continues unabated as the universe balances itself. I accept the forces of change.