Rob’s Blog

So, I think that I have been pretty good about not following the news in the last week or so.  However, like the addict who keeps walking by his dealer’s house, I have been glancing at the top couple of sites.

What a waste of time! Nothing that happens in the presidential race has any bearing on my life.  It is refreshing to realize that what I need isn’t to be found in abstract sniping and wrangling from the campaigns, their surrogates, and whoever the hell else has an opinion, whether old media, new media, or crazy street corner guy.  That is one long sentence, but the upshot is that I am finding a great deal of energy and inspiration in offline activities, such as reading books.

On a side note, if anyone knows where I can find a watch repair shop in the West Metro, I’d be grateful.

I haven’t watched or lsitened to any news about the presidential race in a few days. Not since my post about it below, in fact. I feel an overwhelming sense of peace that I haven’t had in years.  Ahhh.

 Seriously, though, with the Four Hour Work Week and a busy work schedule I don’t feel like I’m missing anything, so it’s OK on that account. 

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I have decided to take a 4 week (at least) holiday from coverage of the Democratic presidential race.  I read blogs voraciously and spend hours agonizing over the stupidest tiny details that no one outside of the blogosphere cares about.  It’s wasting my energy which I could be using to get more work done on my online business that I have yet to launch. 

So, I will try not to pay attention to what any of the blog posters or commenters say about any of this crap, because, after all, they just have a larger and more visible bathroom wall to write on. 

 For the record I’m an Obama supporter, but I’ll vote for Clinton if it comes down to that. 

Also, listening to The Four Hour Work Week  this week, and I ordered a hard copy from amazon, for 12 bucks.  I don’t know, but I hope it has the effect on my work life that The Easy Way to Stop Smoking  had on my smoking life, as it were.

While my wife was at Bunco with her friends.  I’m afraid that I lost my patience once or twice, but that happens.  It reminded me about this thing I was listsening to, the Oprah-Tolle thing about The New Earth.  I lost patience about 20 minutes in becasue Oprah is really annoying, and the audio would stop for five or so seconds every minute or so.  Mostly it was Oprah saying things like “Yay Skype” over and over, though, that made me quit.  I might pick it back up if I think about it in a week or two.

  Steve P. talked about taking direct action today, and I think he might be on to something.  If you want a new bike, the shortest path might be going out and buying a new bike. He said the LOA works that way sometimes.  I don’t know if it works, or how it works; I just keep experimenting.  Still, I saw a blue feather, so I must be doing something right.

I was listening to The Way of Zen  again today, and I was thinking about the same thing I touched on in this post.  Namely that there are no things in and of themselves, but instead only experiences.  (At the same time I was thinking that I should have some direction, and write down a long term set of goals so I could start working on getting to wherever it is I want to go, but one thing at a time.)

It seems to me that I got more out of it this time, and that it really clicked with me that it doesn’t matter what is in an objective sense, and it doesn’t matter if there even is an objective is.  A person relates to the universe that she perceives.  What that universe is like in some objective sense is not important.  In some ways it is unfair, if you ask me, because unlike animals, as far as we know, we can sense that there is some kind of greater organization around us.  We can describe it using science and math, and discuss it’s meaning with religion and philosophy, but we don’t really know what it is.  My analogy is of an alien watching a baseball game from 5000 feet in the sky.  He can, if he is observant, get an understanding of the rules of the game.  He could, after some time watching, even make predictions about what was likely to happen.  He couldn’t tell you why the pitcher threw the ball, or explain the infield fly rule. 

Such are we in our universe.  We just don’t know enough of the rules.  All we know is what we can experience, and even that is tainted by our memories. 

Today I’m working on getting my other website up.  It’s not as easy as it was ten or so years ago when you could throw up a few lines of HTML and have a decent page.  Well, now there’s a lot more to learn, including css, xhtml, and lots of other stuff.  I could use 1and1’s webiste builder, but it seems to preclude having a blog in a separate space.

Well, it’s a learning experience, and all of these things are practice anyway.

I set up my wordpress blog on my 1&1 hosting account, so instead of having their 1 click, not-very-fully-featured blog,  I have a full blown wordpress install.  Cool!  Now I can work on the blog every day (ahem.) It’s a good place to practice, and it’s neat to have my writing up somewhere I can see it, even if I’m self publishing.

Anyhow, it should be pretty interesting to have this as an option.  I will write more in the coming weeks about my descent into madness  journey of personal exploration.

Steve Pavlina writes about character and contribution on his blog, and there is always a spirited discussion over there about this.  I have been digesting the PD stuff for a few years now, and I think that contribution is one of the main keys to success. 

You can’t succeed unless you decide what it is you have to contribute, and whether that contribution is of value.  If it is, all you have to do is find someone to buy it.  If it isn’t, you have two choices as I see it.

• You can change your contribution, or the quality of your contribution until is valuable to someone.
• You can try to create a market for your contribution.

Of these options, the first is easier, but the second might lead to higher rewards in the future, especially if your contribution is unique in some way.  Although it’s an important choice, you shouldn’t feel like you are locked in to whatever choice you make.  You can always change your mind and your path.

Remember that some Buddhists say that you are reborn every second, so you can have a fresh start whenever you want.

As far as my life goes,  I tried intending, and, really, it works on one level, but not for everything. Elaborating: Intending is a good, even a great, way to get your mind focused on what you want.  The universal mind or essence or whatever does listen.  But what intending cant do, contra The Secret, is actually get you what you want; bicycles don’t fall from the sky. 

I think a focused intention, phrased in a way that makes sense for you and that matches the way you think is the best way to get what you want.  But you still have to pick up the glass and drink.  Intention is a way to get you to the place where the glass is, and to recognize it as a glass of water. From there, the actual drinking is trivial.

So, intention coupled with action at various steps is the way to get what you want.  To succeed at this you need to practice intending, keep an eye out for signs, and act when the signs or situation demands.  The last bit might be tough, but more on that tomorrow.