Being responsible to yourself in a healthy way is probably one of the most difficult things to master in life. If you give too much of yourself away to others to the extent that you drain your own batteries, you find that there is little energy left for your own peace of mind. If you become selfish and devote most of your efforts to taking care of only you, you become isolated and miss out on the best parts of life. Nature provides us with some clues as to the proper balance, as the plant and animal kingdom work together to achieve maximum profit for all involved. And where there isn’t that healthy partnering, there is plenty of evidence of adaptation.

The other day I was sitting near the ocean on some deep black rocks that had been formed where molten lava had met the sea, a snapshot of a collision from who knows how many millions of years back. I was enjoying sitting on my little isthmus where, out of the corner of my eye, I detected a little movement. It was a crab about the size of my hand moving along the sea line. He was almost impossible to spot when he moved, because he was the exact color of the rock. On his back were some markings that looked like the shield of an ancient African warrior. He was invisible, but, if you saw him, he looked fierce.

If you have ever found a dead crab along the shore and picked it up, it is surprising how light they are. Their weight is all in their aggressive life force.

In part 2, I made reference to the local cultures that surround us, drawing the simple parallel that conformity is death, because it allows systems of power to enslave us in predictable patterns of behavior. This, in turn, makes us weak, because we are cut off from the internal voicing that tells us we deserve more than what is so readily handed to us. I identify that voice from within as a little sliver of God consciousness trying to be heard.

If you are reading this, chances are you have a laptop or a nice home computer. Chances are you aren’t living under a bridge. I’m going to assume you have some form of power, because, at the very least, you’ve demonstrated the power to click on this website and read.

Let me tell you, there is more power in that than you know. Most propaganda these days comes through the eyes. Have you noticed there aren’t as many parades as there used to be? No need, when there can be a parade of absolute junk placed in front of you daily to keep you medicated and placated.

If you draw a line of frustration from within yourself to the very top of what ails you, for example, a company that is polluting your air, or a runaway government, that line must pass through the smaller culture around you that says that it is ok. They say ok through saying nothing. The more we think that leaving a comment on a blog is protest, the more we play right into the hands of those that hold the strings.

I respect anyone with an opinion who wants to play by the basic rules of moral decency. I, too, used to believe in the idea that I could profit from attacking someone or something. From time to time, I will still mouth off, but, honestly, it has never gotten me anywhere. If I say anything these days, it is probably because I can’t resist gloating when hypocrites get their karma bill in the mail. Hopefully, I will grow out of that soon as well.

So far, in pts. 1, 2, and 3 of this little series, I have talked a lot about a state of mind, but have offered little in the way of action. That is because the proper state of mind is the majority of the action that must take place.

So, let me illustrate a simple beginning to what kind of action I am talking about, coming from a holistic state of mind. I will go back to the coffeehouse, and our happy ‘laptop’ couple drinking their drinks like two peas in a self-absorbed pod. For the sake of dignity, I will skip over what band they are probably currently listening to because it makes them feel smart. As I said, I hope to grow out of my need to illustrate even that minor point. But I jest…

Ok, so, you walk in and spot this happy pair, and you feel angry. Some would say, “What is worth getting angry about? Just mind your own business and move on, blah blah.” I’ve heard all that junk for years about how I should just worry about myself, and I’m not so perfect, and who am I to judge, blah blah.

You see, I have to understand that it is these two, sitting right next to me, that are fucking me up good. Now, is it just these two? No. There are many more of them from whence they came. They must mass produce them in a factory somewhere. But yes, these two, sitting right next to me while I sip my iced green tea, are fucking me. They may not realize it, but they might as well be hacking into me with whips.

If you have made it this far, I commend you! Thank you for giving this a chance to be understood; these are hard points to make, and it took me a long time to figure them out for myself. So, let me take a small step back and say this: my anger against this couple is not personal. I don’t want to hurt them, slander them, or anything of the sort. I wish that they were not enslaved to systems that are hurting them. My anger comes from the fact that their subservience to a false god is making it almost impossible for me to be free, to live as happy as possible.

So, first and foremost, there is a spiritual lesson here, the lesson of detachment, proper detachment. I can not look at this couple as my enemy. I can not see them as anything but the divine beings that they are. First, I must serve God and His understanding above my limited mortal one. So, sitting there watching them, I am not thinking to myself, “I hope they die.” Rather, I am thinking compassionately, “I hope they live.”

You can spot conformity a mile away. It is pretty rare to see a saint walking around in khaki pants. But, let’s just say this couple is cooler than that. They go to art galleries, and they don’t just order any drink, they get theirs custom made. Heck, they even blog! My anger comes from the fact that they are not free. My anger comes from the fact that they have sold themselves on a loving union based in their own reflection. My anger comes from the fact that, by thinking they are free because they choose one candidate over another, they made a choice. My anger comes from the fact that the pills they take at night to help them sleep are shortening years off their life, not to mention running poison into the groundwater. The list is endless.

I am furious, because, deep down, they don’t really want to know! They donate after one disaster far, far away, while ignoring the disaster that lives just down the road from them. You know, the people who don’t have laptops who live under the bridge.  Why can’t we care about everyone equally?

Yes, you gotta get mad at the people who don’t want to see clearly. You gotta allow yourself to feel that indignation for how a thousand little surrenders make it impossible to affect any real change. Look around you and see that nothing is going to change as long as the majority doesn’t mind that we are not only living in the End Times, but that we are all making sure we each get a starring role. But I jest again…