WELCOME to the METAPHYSICAL DOJO.

Today we are going to practice TAKEDOWNS of the MYTHS that rule our world, reclaiming our place as the ARTISTS AND MAGICIANS OF REALITY.

I hope that this is a challenging read. It would not be worthwhile otherwise. We have to “tear up the floorboards of the mind” if we are ever going to lay new foundations. This is not always pleasant, but in the long run it becomes incredibly enjoyable, and deeply liberating. Because once the floorboards are up, you can build and create without limit.

Welcome: to the infinite game; the beginning of utopia.

Utopia Starts Within

If we’re ever going to build utopias out there in the world, we first need to build them in here, with the constructive powers of our minds and hearts.

Utopia begins with our metaphysics: our deepest beliefs about reality and existence. These beliefs determine all of our actions and behaviours, and the worlds we create, discover and navigate when we wake up each day. If we come to truly believe in our freedom and connectedness, our beauty, creativity and empowerment, then we will begin to manifest an external world that reflects those beliefs.

The mind is the forerunner of all…

This is a post about hope.

Deep Adaptation is the idea that it is not too late.

It is too late to save the majority of life on Earth from the destruction of runaway global warming.

It may even be too late to save civilisation as we know it — to prevent violent collapse from occurring in large regions of the globe.

But it is not too late to save our humanity, and it never will be.

None of the above events will compromise one who is truly human: compassionate, whole and loving, no matter what comes to pass.

The problem is, humanity is already dead. A machine moves in its place.

So Deep Adaptation is about rebirth — of the child and of the human. Knowing this possible for ourselves and for everyone, there is hope.

Despite the madness and despair, there is a path to freedom that lies open to all of us.

To make the journey, we must go within — and become whole again.

Only then can we evolve.

Our guide on this journey will be the legendary psychologist Carl Gustav Jung.

Did you know that, by some accounts, a single poetry reading kickstarted the sixties counterculture revolution?

The Six Poets at the Six Gallery.

October 7, 1955. San Francisco.

“It was the poetry slam to end all slams.”

In a garage converted into an art gallery, six young and unknown poets read their work to around 150 people:

Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Phil Whalen, Kenneth Rexroth, and Jack Kerouac.

Central to the evening was the first ever public reading of Allen Ginsberg’s 22-minute poem Howl. …

Cosmic Blues

Liba Ravindran

Odyssey of a mystery, life is held in jacket potatoes, oven baked crisp

to the brim of receiptful doubt, pious is love as a thrush pleading in mid-air

electrochemical bells sound, unison clasped to present truth as honesty, labour force driven north

demystifying 60’s LSD trips, music moved as vibrations penetrating into the essential core

of metaphysics, freedom and liberty; expression was taped to reproduce history with a pick

deconstructing language, syntax adds grammar and double negatives hoard paradoxes

crowding the passageway to the Colosseum, Rome rose up in furious distention

evaporating noise to drown out sorry hearts…

This is a post about the history and future of ART: what it is, how we experience it, and how we can begin to see and create it everywhere we look.

We stood in a circle, watching the dancers in the middle. One of them produced a red scarf, long and bright, and began to wave and twirl it before our eyes. The other dancers were transfixed and started following the scarf’s every flicker and movement through the space. They reached for it, they flowed with it, they moved around it like beasts on their hands and feet. One by one, people from the circle — the “audience” — were drawn in, trailing the scarf and acting out all kinds of theatrical scenarios (tugs of war, chases, mummifications) in their quest…

Clang!

lands the nuclear hammer on your unsuspecting soul

and the sorry lies you told yourself are pulverised

instantly

the edifice of certainty implodes into the burning void

forces descend on every particle of your blinking being

fusing them one by one by two by four

into nuclei of dreamstate seedbuds

opening without resistance into the gaping fertile void

the frequency of love is synthesised

by an old modular behemoth in the backroom of the kosmos

hunched over by a bearded guru from a distant and rusted multiverse

twiddling a billion knobs to tune the beaming waves thru the pulsing centre

…

What do u need to hear right now?

Nothing? That’s a shame.

It makes these words excessive,

like the annoying relative who describes everything beautiful

in a torrent of mindless words

while scarcely ever stopping to actually take it in — absorb it — like some elixir prepared by a God who prefers to remain anonymous —

and can you blame them?

They are bound to receive a lot of lengthy complaints

about the construction of existence!

Who was it?

Own up!

A cowboy builder who stumbled on the gemstones

of infinite manifestation?

The schoolgirl in the kitchen

who opened…

Coming up to a decade of meditation, I’ve collected a good number of hacks along the way — all geared towards establishing as deep, rich and effective a meditation practice as possible. Here they are! You might want to follow this with a notebook and write down the points you’d like to try. Best of luck!

1. Use a Timer. Whether on a digital watch or the app Insight Timer, set yourself a fixed time to meditate every day. Choose a daily amount that feels totally doable, e.g. 10 minutes, get established with that before notching it up to 15 minutes…