The Illusion of Possession

We all heard the story of how Manhattan Island was purchased from the Native American tribes by Dutch settlers for a handful of colored glass beads, the moral of the story being how clever the white people were and how naïve and ignorant the indigenous people were.

Besides being factually incorrect, the story doesn’t mention a lot of other things that were very pertinent in the making of the deal.

The notion and concept of possession is not as universal as we think.

This is mainly because property and possession are manmade concepts and build as such, to serve their purpose and not as universal and natural laws as many like to believe.

The Native Americans did not have the concept of ownership the colonist have.

To the native people owning land was as absurd as owning the air in the sky or the water in the rivers.

We do not own the land and the land does not belong to us. It is the opposite way; we belong to the land.

This concept of no possession it is the more intuitive, natural one since possession is an illusion.

What we really mean by possession is actually a form of use interdiction.

When we purchased the land from the Native Americans we did not say:  We are giving you these goods but in exchange, you are forbidden the use of the land. You cannot hunt, raise your cattle, build your house or walk on this land anymore.

If we have explained the deal like that I’m sure the deal would have never been made.

Another classical example of how and why property and possession are manmade artificial concepts is the Communist system.

In 1917 under Lenin’s leadership, the great Bolshevik revolution took place in Russia.

For the first time, the “people” took control of a country and personal property was abolished.

In Russia, the land belonged to the Russian people now. At least that’s what they said.

I grew up in a communist country and I’m very familiar with this concept.

I remember distinctively being in High school at the age where individuality pops up.

I saw the son of the Party secretary coming to school in a personal car with a personal driver so I asked: “How come he has a car and a personal driver?”

“Comrade! That is our car, the people’s car. The comrade Secretary is only using it because his job is more important than anybody else.”

Personal property or collective property is the same concept: The concept of use interdiction.

The peasants working in the farm Collectives did not own the land, the government did.

Pretty much the same as here in the US. There is no public, land, public road or public park as you are lead to believe.

Try to use it for your own purpose like building something on public land and you will soon discover that is not “our” land, it is in fact, Government land.

Of course, you’d say; “Maybe, but my house is MY kingdom I can do whatever I want on MY land”

Not so fast. It is Government land and you need a permit to build anything on the Government land.

Ask anybody that “owns” a house or any other piece of real-estate for that matter.

You don’t own anything. Possession is an illusion.

Possession is only the ability to forbid somebody else from using whatever you think is yours.

But nothing besides your life experience is actually yours because anybody at any time can have that use restricted or removed, like it or not.

So be rich in life experiences. Be rich in love, nobody can take that from you.

Row, row, row your boat…

Let’s imagine for a minute that you are in heaven. 
In heaven the streets are paved with gold, the weather is always gorgeous, you have everything you desire and life couldn’t be more perfect.

However, there is one small inconvenience; there is not much to do.

Here you are, singing praise to the Lord day after day and doing all the other heavenly things you do in heaven - you can see my knowledge of heaven is pretty lousy – So after an eternity or two, you begin to get bored.

How much perfect everything can one soul stand? 

So you go to God and say: Father this is getting pretty boring. You are God for God‘s sake can’t you come up with something fun to do? 
So God comes up with this crazy idea. 

Let’s open a water park. I’ll make a ride for you, I’ll call it life.

I’ll make these little dinghies, we’ll call them human bodies, you get on one of them and I’ll push you down this stream of water called time.

To make it more interesting I’ll make some up and downs some unexpected turns, dark tunnels, whirlpools, the works.

What do you say? 

You are all excited and say: Hurray put me on!

So here you are, strapped into your human body and after 9month of climbing in this dark tunnel, you start your life ride.

And here you are going down the stream, twisting and turning, hopping and sliding, kicking and screaming and then you get to the end of the ride and say: Whew! That was fun! Let’s do it again.

OK, so you may say that I am wrong, that life is not a water park ride. 
That life is absolutely and completely serious business. 

But here I am in my dinghy – I have a body don’t I? And here you are in yours going down the river of time. 

You can’t stop time from flowing, can you?

No matter what you do, tomorrow the sun will rise.

No matter what you do, you will go up and you will go down.

You will scream and shout trying to take control of your life but life will just keep on going with its unpredictable events.

Like it or not there is another twist and another turn just when you think you have figured it out.

And guess what?

It is going to be just the same from now on until the end of the ride.
So why are you kicking and screaming for? Slow down and sing with me: 
Row, row, row, your boat, happy down the stream.
Merely, merely, merely. Life is but a dream!

The TAO of Happiness

Some people want power, some people want wealth.

Some people want fame, some people want success.

But why do we want the things we want?

We do it because we believe that getting what we want will make us happy.

But are the successful, rich, famous, powerful and influential happier than the rest of us?

Are the divorce rates, suicide rates lower for them ten us?

Are they less prone to depression, anxiety, pain, and suffering?

Well, I don’t have any scientific data but empirical evidence and common sense point to a negative answer.

Getting what you want will not make you happy.

So what makes people happy?

Relationships

Have you ever been in love? Then you know what happiness is.

Having a circle of people close to us emotionally it is one of the greatest factors in our happiness.

Having somebody to share your joy with just makes your joy so much larger.

Having somebody to share your pain and suffering with is the best medicine.

Acts of kindness.

Next to love there in nothing more rewarding than an act of kindness.

Helping a person in need, rescuing a stray animal, showing empathy to a stranger is one of the greatest experience a person can have.

So why do we see so few acts of kindness in our world, in our lives?

Because we believe that taking is more rewarding than giving.

Is the materialistic way, rich and miserable.

Self-fulfillment

Do you wake up every day all excited to go to work, or do you dread having to put another day in the rat race?

Doing what you love and loving what you do, is our next great source of satisfaction and happiness.

Finding your call in life, cultivating your talents, being creative, should be one of the main concerns and goals in your life.

All the material things should be a reward for us following our dreams not the purpose of our life.

Spiritual Engagement.

Spiritual people are happier and healthier than the rest of the population.

That is because a rich spiritual life is conducive to a Positive Mindset, Optimism, Mindfulness, and Gratitude.

Practicing meditation has been scientifically proven to have tremendous health benefits.

It doesn't cost any money, it doesn't need expensive equipment and you can start doing it right now.

Exercise and Physical Wellbeing

A healthy active life is an easy recipe for happiness. 

There is nothing more useful to burn negative energy than physical activity.

Are you mad at somebody or something? 

Do not think about it. Go to the gym and hit a punching bag.

Not only will you fill better but pretty soon you’ll have fabulous abs.

Your surroundings.

Where you live has more to do with your happiness than you may think.

The quality of life and people surrounding you have a big impact on how you feel and choosing a place to live should take in consideration that factor.

There are studies done around the world measuring people's “happiness” and here there are some of the results of such study:

Norway is considered the happiest country in the world.

Canada is on at number 7 while the United States is on the 14^th place.

So why is that? 

Think about it.

Jesus – The sequel

I have this idea for a movie. It goes something like this:

An unimaginable cosmic event occurs. The whole universe disappears except the Sun and Earth.

The scientist shit their pants and the whole word goes into a hysterical panic.

The sky opens up and an army of angels descends over the Washington DC and Jesus Christ makes his return back to earth as the King of kings and ruler of Earth.

Jesus addresses the world on every media available; TV station, podcast, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter etc.

He brings the world the most unbelievable news. His death has paid all human debt and all our sins past, present, and future are forgiven.

There is, however, a little problem.

Satan has opposed the deal as unfair to the dark side and in order to seal the deal with Jesus, he will get this little caveat added to the Jesus – Humanity deal.

Everybody goes to hell for the amount the wealth they have. 1 year of hell for every dollar.

So if you have let’s say a 250000$ house a car, a saving and checking account and all your other belongings, say about 50000$ for a grand total of 300000$.

Then you will spend 300000 years in hell before you can join Jesus in paradise.

Also, anybody trying to burn their money, literarily or figuratively speaking, or find a loophole and cheat Satan of his share will automatically go to Hell for all eternity.

So now, what do you thing will happen to humanity?

How will, people react? How will people change their behavior?

Obviously, everybody will try to get rid of their wealth but remember you cannot just throw away your money, it has to be a legitimate cause, like saving the polar bears or building schools where the schools are need it.

Obviously, the debt will become the most precious commodity. Anybody in debt automatically goes to heaven.

Poor countries, like Greece with a huge deficit, will become the richest country in the world because remember debt is something everybody wants J

There are also other funny scenarios, like: Nobody wants a luxury car anymore. If you couldn’t leave without a car you would want to buy the cheapest car available, so now what would the automakers do?

Then when you want to apply for a car loan what would the banks do? Would they charge you an interest, or give you incentives, like a paid luxury vacation just to take their money?

Of course, you can say no problem; if you are filthy rich you just continue to live the way you die you just pass your wealth to your children and relatives, and so on and so forth.

But how do you know when you going to die? And one more thing since all sins are forgiven, including murder what would stop anyone from killing you just for fun?

Oh, the possibilities for fun and tragedy are endless!

Do you have any ideas to add?

LOL

Let’s do a little experiment

I want you to smile right now. Just put a grin on your face.
Stretched the corners of your mouth towards your years and smile
Keep this fake smile on your face for a minute or two.
How does it feel? How do you feel?

I don’t know the result of your experiment but when I do it I feel both funny and embarrassed.
I feel funny because there is this giddy, joyous feeling that comes with putting a smile on your face.
I feel embarrassed because growing up I was told don`t smile or laugh without a reason like an idiot.
And that created in my mind this preconceived idea that happiness has to have a reason.

Why do we think that happiness is a frivolous feeling and only depression is serious business?
I believe that it should be exactly the opposite: Depression should be treated as not important and happiness should be our serious business.
Don`t you agree?

We focus so much time and energy of our lives on the negative feelings.
Just look at the daily news, everything is gloom and doom, it1s the end of the world as we know it.
We have a love affair with negativity, although we pretend we don’t like it.

We pretend to fight it.
We all, in a form or another, are addicted to drugs, therapy, spirituality and all sorts of other things we do to alleviate our depression, while the answer is quite obvious.
The cure for depression is happiness, the cure for sadness is joy.
The only way to fight darkness is with light.

But we refuse the joy, we refuse the happiness.
You need to have a reason for joy/and happiness.
you need a new car,  new dress, a new job a new lover, you need something to make you smile, to make you happy.
Only crazy people smile and are happy without reason. Right?

Well if that’s the case you know what I say?  Let`s go crazy, let1s go out of our minds. Let`s spend the rest of our lives smiling without a reason.
If depression is being miserable for being miserable, I believe happiness should be being happy for being alive.

So go ahead and LOL, you deserve it.