sup

Hey. It's been a while. Namaste. Hisashiburi.

I've been thinking about reality a lot lately. I heard Deepak Chopra, spirituality guru, say that reality is perception, and perception is in "here," pointing to his head. This, I'm sure, is no news to you, and it's not exactly an earth-shattering, time-altering statement, but the more I think about it, the deeper I go with it, the more it encompasses and the more ways it can be applied.

To say that one gets along with people who inhabit the same reality as theirs I don't think is an overstatement. Of course we all live in the same world but that only applies physically, and relationships based on simply inhabiting the same space begin to deteriorate, pretty early on, once one becomes aware of his own reality, i.e. likes, dislikes, passions, preferences, et cetera.

This is all nonsense.

Anyway, the point I wanted to get at is that we have an amazing amount of control over our own realities. Admittedly, there are certain moods and emotions produced by our minds/brains/souls that are innate. I have dubbed my own versions of these "Larry," and attempt to bid him a cheerful hello each time I see him. It is known as being an observer of oneself, and while the exercise is a bit like watching one's own life on TV (an endless hall of mirrors), it allows for an unblocked view of one's own existence, and the ability to perform one's own homemade remedies for the leaks and broken piping of one's psyche. One's toughest critic is oneself (at least it's that way for me), but in a sense I think that that particular critic has the hardest job of convincing that which is being critiqued (how are they separate?) to change. We like to think of ourselves as being above animals, but what I've learned is that most significant changes in one's behavior must come from practice and punishment - the punishment usually coming as a simple result of the attempted new behavior falling through and the old, destructive behavior regaining its tyrannical seat in between one's eyes, at the helm of the organism.

I have, in my power (and you in yours), the ability to look at any given situation in an innumerable amount of ways. Not unlike our own government, there are also countless "special-interest groups" (stay with me here) vying for their own influence. Who to pick? There's a lot of names for that process - soul? religion? philosophy?

The important thing, I suppose, is that although the world is quite an intimidating place, full of...well, everything...we have as much power over it as the other way around, in what we see and experience and accept as the world around us. Many of the answers are there, even though one may need to look around a few bends before getting a clear view of them. They're more afraid of us than we are of them.