Why do I Exist?

Why do I Exist?

I am aware, therefore I exist.
I am aware, therefore I seem to exist.
I am, therefore I
I am, therefore seemingly I.
I am.

What else could it be?
If I didn't wake-up, how to tell what?

~ Erro

What you are looking for is what is looking.

What you are looking for is what is looking.

St Francis of Assisi said, "What you are looking for is what is looking." It could mean different to a lot of people. Example, for a Christian whose belief is on monotheism, the statement would mean a pious understanding that god is looking after his creation and there should be no cause of worry at the part of his creatures. However, for a mystic, the words embodies a wider understanding of reality, wherein the Truth can't be ascribed from what we are trying to grasp. 

When we try to look for something missing, say a pen, we imagine the pen must be somewhere else apart from us and hidden from our sight. Apparently, in trying to find the pen we always have the notion of: 

                     1. the individual seeking the pen

                     2. the pen

                     3. the act of seeking the pen

And we might find the pen after a while and we call the seeking over. The notion of seeking (having the seeker or subject, the object being sought, and the act of seeking) is strongly in our heads as a necessary connection to implement the seeking successfully. Then we apply this seemingly effective strategy in looking for the thing we call the Truth. We have the Seeker, the Seeking and the Truth. And then we hope the Truth can be finally revealed just as the pen was successfully located.

Ain't happening that way......

Going back to what St Francis said, the same can be reworded to say, "What you've seeking for is already where you're seeking from". Having said this, the words simply mean that the Truth we are seeking is not somewhere out there. The Truth is already at the location and time where we are seeking from. The Here and Now. The Truth is no other than the presence felt and not the imagined object apart from what is already is at the very instance of every looking.

So, when we say we are the Seeker Seeking the Truth, the very same conception is the culprit of it all.  The Truth can only be revealed if we cease on our earnest seeking. There is no other moment other than the sense of now-ness. The Seeker, Seeking and Truth is just one. Everything else is just a concept.

The Purpose of Life

The Purpose of Life

No one said that the prescription should be serious. The whole pill is never meant to bring you to utter seriousness as to what the purpose of life really is. You often encounter the term "a purpose-driven life" seriously pertaining to stuffs to attain happiness, a character of life in which there imagined to dwell the undying bliss of living. And then you go on to a strict regimen of following the prescription to happiness forgetting along the way the first and only essence of life and happiness which is already here and now. 

Happiness is not a goal in the end of the line. It is not the last bang of the gong in an orchestral presentation. Not when you're finished licking your favorite icecream; not when you're done with your orgasm; not when your hated neighbor is already dead or your in-grown nails have been removed. Happiness is the music along the music itself rugged or clean, rough or smooth, annoying or cool. If happiness is found at the end, then all people should already be happy by now. But no, because happiness is not at the end of the tunnel. Happiness is along the tunnel.

The purpose of life is not to be serious at finding out what the purpose of life really is. It is to live at this moment. Do not desecrate this moment by imagining there should be another kind of moment. There is none.  If you happen to find the purpose of life, what are you going to do with it? Parade it? Running around naked, shouting eureka? Looking down on people for not finding their happiness as you think you  just did?

The "purpose of life" is just a trick of the mind; a poetic language to deceive self from feeling the presence; a pious statement which belies the present moment in exchange of still inexistent notions and expectations. 

On Legalized Compassion

On Legalized Compassion

There is an understanding worthy to arrive at:  that an action is ought to be done because it is the right thing to do and not that a Supreme Being or gods or the government tells it is so.

All are interconnected. And this is a very popularly accepted idea. Calamity, for example, unites people together. At hours of extreme distress, the will of men converges to help each other out. People don't waste time waiting for someone, say a free-riding politician, to say what needed to be done. A deeply seated impulse is acted out to help others. Cooperation comes out unpremeditated and compassion is a palpable sphere.

Out of unending difficulties, the aim of men is to fulfill compassion effectively. And perhaps there is no other way to signify the intent to help others than forming an organized compassion delivery system called Government. Social services, which aim to grant to everybody the means to survive and improve their well-being, are in place.

Government social services are made possible through legislation. With such, the allocation of funds is guaranteed. However, government cannot be separated from taxation. Government is funded by forced contributions or taxes. And every government social program is guaranteed by taxes. There is a statist view that the best way to fix all social problems is to legislate the way through it. This is to demand everybody to contribute in the name of everybody's well-being practically to reiterate and to convince people of the "goodness" of the popular view that all people are interconnected. In a certain way, compassion through government is a legislated compassion, a compassion legalized.

But, though the intent of taking care of all people can be applauded, government social programs have ill effects that are later on to be seen. The intention is never wrong. What is wrong lies in the means by which society tried to attain the goal. The problem is to be blamed mainly on the legislation of compassion itself. 

The impulse to help others is an inherent part of human nature. However, there is a bad taste if the act of helping others is tried to be accomplished with government laws. Given the coercive nature of government laws, eg. tax collection, taxpayers can only give up to a limit. The social program is then unsustainable and is doomed to fail and can only be extended until the threat of jail against the taxpayers is effective. Another ill effect would be on the recipients. Constant dole-out services would create dull minded citizens not capable of appreciating self-worth and dignity and will eventually be consumed by a parasitic attitude.  But the worst effect worth mentioning last is that the funds will be likely squandered and plundered by in-charge bureaucrats. 

A strong lobby for more social services would be inevitable. People would require more from the government and other people and less from their own selves. People would be boldly parasitic on taxes supplied by the working class.And this would happen so easily in a society whose people already forgot the voluntary nature of compassion. 

A government-hosted compassion should be a no-no. Compassion is to be done from inside out. Not that the government says it is so. Not even when the gods ordered it to be done. Not even when your friends or parents insist you to do it. But only when you feel you love doing it because you understand that it is so and not otherwise.

The Laziest Way to Awakening

The Laziest Way to Awakening

I have discovered the secret formula of Awakening! Prepare yourself to receive the simplest and laziest instruction to  Enlightenment!(scroll to the bottom please)























Hey, stop....... Did you get it? hahahaha!
Forgive me, the joke is not that automatic. :-)

What is Enlightenment?

What is Enlightenment?

Tackling Enlightenment will always be a Lie for me. So I was hesitant at first to spout words what it is. But seeing that the word Lie has never been lesser nor greater than the concept of Enlightenment, for these two are mere ideas, I came to juggle thoughts about enlightenment with joy in me that there is no harm and no benefit, no loss and no take to be made. Make no mistake because the play of juggling is no more than like when birds sing or when trees move with the wind with no desire whatsoever. It is just is.

So what is enlightenment? Enlightenment is a realization that there is nothing to be understood; there is no place to arrive at; and there is no goal to be achieved. It is to see that there is no other moment other than what your presence shows it is. It is to grasp that you can never be where you are not. Is to embrace the fact that you can never go to where you are now.

Understanding enlightenment may require you to decipher the underlying crypt on a lot of concepts about time and space. Time concepts like Now, Present, Past, Future, wrong time, right time, untimely, in a short while, a little while, yesterday and a lot more. Space concepts includes, here, there, where, far, near, center and many more. You will come to understand that these concepts no matter how varying they may seem at first always converge into a single point of the mind. Everything is just a thought. Without a thought arising, there can never be any concepts at all. But there will always be a vantage position no words can be used to describe it. This will show you that everything you think, glamorous or not, sad or happy, terrible, horrible, glorious or hell, including your idea of who you are, are nothing but mere thoughts. What remains is the only the sense you exist in which rationalization is never required at all.

If you are confined alone in a perfectly dark box that no slit of light can enter, no glare of day can appear, you will still feel that you are there. You have the perfect sense you are there. It can never be otherwise. You just know you exist. And you don't have to interpret that you indeed exist.

Understanding the concept of Now may also bring the understanding of Enlightenment. Now is not the same as Present. Now contains the moment of Present. Now is the Presence, the Awareness wherein Present passes by. Enlightenment is therefore an understanding that awareness is all there is. What appears before your awareness are mere happenings wherein it can never be possible to be aware of without awareness first. What appears  is not a separate phenomenon from you being aware of it. Your awareness is what makes the happenings possible. Without your awareness, how can we tell what? Reading this piece can never be possible if you did not wake up from your last sleep.  And there is no way for you to know that this piece exists while you're on bed lying dead. How can you know?  It is not even possible to know what does it feels like doing something else than what you  are perfectly doing right now. So, you are just an awareness.

Enlightenment is to see that we are not what we think we are. You, I, Me, Us, They, Them, Mine, We are just thoughts. What we think we are are just thoughts, like all other thoughts which passes by while we are aware of it. What then? Answering that will bring in more thoughts. Discover it for yourself.

If you think enlightenment is to always feel nice, you got it right until you see it clearly that you got it wrong. Go inside you and see that enlightenment is a feelingless Feeling; choiceless Choice and a selfless Self. 

Property Rights for Beginners Like Me

Property Rights for Beginners Like Me

On your way back home you saw on the dirt a lustrous pebble. You picked it up and called it your own. Supposed another man saw what you got and said he wants that pebble too, you wouldn't give it up for nothing. You found it first, therefore you feel you own it. The other man might acknowledge your assertion and he will leave you alone with a pebble you call your own. Or insist on his demand that he owns the pebble and might beat you to a pulp just to get it from you and then, as you did, call it his own.

The dispute over the pebble can be solved by laws of property rights. It is a convention to materialize on paper the ownership of a property or economic goods. PR is a legalized assertion of possession of anything just to avoid protracted disputes over property ownership and disposal. 

Why disputes occur by the way? The short answer is that economic goods are scarce. If only there were two lustrous pebbles, the dispute would be less likely to happen. Property rights therefor exists to settle the issue of ownership over scarce economic goods. The air we breath is not scarce, so property right issues would not naturally arise. However, if such air comes in forms of purified air in a specialized packaging for special purposes, the manufacturer has the property right over those scarce packaged purified air. 

Fake Compassion and the Sin Tax Bill

Fake Compassion and the Sin Tax Bill

Philippines - Well, a monkey catcher knows well how to catch a monkey. One of his clever ways to catch a monkey is to put a banana inside a coconut shell with a hole just enough for the hand of the monkey. The shell is tied to a fixed anchor. When the monkey puts its hand inside the shell and grabs the banana, the catcher will show up in surprise. Holding on to the banana on its hands inside the shell that was tied to a post, the terrified monkey can't pull its hands out. The job is now too easy for the monkey catcher. 

Now, when it comes to bureaucrats and society, the easiest way to trick the sheep out of the people is to deceive them there is super bushy green pasture ahead awaiting them. Or better yet feed them what they really like along the way. 

The Philippine Sin tax bill is about to change to landscape of cigarette and liquor industry.in the country. Both farmers and puffers; both brewers and tomadors. Sin tax will raise prices on tobacco and liquor products by charging more taxes on these products. The higher pricing is claimed by sin tax proponents will effectively reduce people indulgence on tobaccos and liquor thus could bring positive health effects into the society overall. Also with so much emphasis on the potential huge collection of taxes to fund government health services, proponents says the sin tax is good for the public health. The agenda is glaringly noble (it seems): FOR THE GOOD OF THE PUBLIC. Who doesn't want public good by the way?

So, the typically dole-out minded Filipinos is once again subjected under a socialistic propaganda of Papa Government taking care of its children. Sin tax will collect more funds to take care the poor. Health services for the poor; hospital rooms with air conditioners for the poor; free MRI for the poor; free healthcare for the poor.  Indeed. Without these typical sweetcoats do you think poor people and their representative wouldn't ram for the sin tax bill? Heck. Everybody wants a sugar-coated lollipop even it was a pepper lollipop.

But what is wrong with Papa Government taking care of the people?  What is wrong with taking care of the people by the way? None. Taking care of poor people is a sign of compassion and love. What is wrong is that we already developed this mentality that it is only through government that we can express our compassion to poor people. No longer it becomes people taking care of people. So we let bureaucrats and politicians legislate ways to enforce compassion while assuming poor people have every right to be taken care of. But to be taken care of is not a right. Bullshit. It is a privilege. We afford privilege to interest groups, the poor sector, through government laws which can only be enforced at the expense of the actual rights of the the ones taxes are taken from. 

So no. Though Sin tax is being taught as a way to take care for the poor, it is only a step closer to a socialistic mentality of parasitism and dole-out mindedness. Compassion must naturally grow from within each person. Not by government force of laws but by mere understanding what true love is. Not while bureaucrats, lobby groups and interest groups parasitically benefit on the taxes forcefully take from the productive sector of the society.

Freedom or No freedom at All

Freedom or No freedom at All

No one is born democrat or republican, liberal or conservative, right or left, donkey or elephant. One is only born either alive or dead human baby. No one is even born free or slave. Again, just alive or dead babies.

Freedom is just an idea. Just like all other ideas, freedom only matters to the ones still living. Never been to the dead. We can only have the time to bicker about it as long as we are still alive. Once we're dead we're done. So allow me to bicker and I chose to bicker about it sensibly. 

There are two options we can take in the name of talking. Either there is freedom or there is none at all. Since I am a believer of another idea called unlimited rights I chose to believe that the  idea of freedom is better that the idea that men have no freedom at all. But though just an idea, freedom is an excellent idea for humans to have. Freedom is not a separately existing phenomenon in our realm (more precisely my realm). It is a part of the whole sense of existence we call consciousness (more precisely my consciousness). Freedom is the number one ingredient to feel the totality of being. 

On the other hand, the idea that no man is free is also a viable idea to cling into. There is nothing wrong with that. But for me that can only be possible if there is a plausible reason that I can use to say that I own a part of  someone's inherent feeling of his or her own totality with him or her necessarily agreeing that it is so. Unfortunately, I have yet to find one so I have to reject the idea that no man is free. In short, all men are born free.

The sense of freedom is a feeling that does not need any rationalization. The feeling of it arises on its own. There is always a desire to be free from any kind of control. Controls may come in the form of government laws and taxes, mob rule, parental control, oppression or religious control. Self-guilt, worries and anxieties are also forms of control anyone would want to be free from.

There is no time men never wanted to be free. The mind has the propensity to be go beyond. That is a bold manifestation that indeed humans didn't wish to be enslaved by anything or anyone. There is always a struggle to keep up above bounds and to be at a place beyond limits. Insisting that men has no freedom will contradict the inherent and unthought and unprovoked sense of freedom.

 Prosperity resides in a society of freemen.

We All Want to be Happy

We All Want to be Happy

Just be.

Objects of consumption can't be marketed without exploiting the human's idea of pleasure, contentment, and happiness. The element of improved well-being always comes in. To buy the product, people must be enticed to believe that the product they are about to buy is a well-packaged pleasure and happiness. People would not pay attention without the anticipated satisfaction upon consumption.

The nature of men is often baffling yet the reason behind it is very simple: all men wanted to be happy. Who would want to live in misery? The lingering dissatisfaction drives a man to act for good for himself. The sense of incompleteness pushes a man not to be idle in pursuing what might bring him pleasure or what might end his misery. That woman craving for beautifully crafted clothes, that child wanting his favorite ice cream, that neighbor who is about to hang himself to death, that rich old man who is about to pay for a young lady he can have sex with tonight and that evil dictator committing genocide to keep his power are all manifestations that men wanted to be happy. All men wanted to make themselves feel complete. 

Our nature is to be happy. However, humans are trapped in the idea that happiness can be achieved through the satisfaction of desires. So they try to acquire anything they think can give them what they want and then live happily ever after with it. But that is impossible. The fulfillment of desires may bring a sense of completeness but that ends sooner or later. To be totally happy, the only way is to realize that anything gained will only last in a short while.

True happiness can't reside on or in anything. What was gained will be lost. What was acquired will be dissolved. What was born will meet death soon. Happiness can't even reside in anyone. How can then true happiness stay? True happiness can only stay when it is realized that we are happiness itself. That is why it can't even reside in us because it is already us. The thought of incompleteness may persists but it is only in and by the mind. Without the mind struggling what happiness ought to be, there would be total happiness. True happiness is not even the idea of absence of sadness. It is beyond the idea of happiness. We are beyond the mind.