Freedom, Suffering, and Changing Normal

[Discovery Fuel]

Dear CN Clan,

I am no writer, but I am loaded with insight. So I ask that you piece together a very large picture that I am attempting to squeeze into a space below that is very small and flat. Apologies for set of strangely organized sentences. But see beyond my words to my pont. I think THAT is revealed here .. enough for you to ask questions; to write your own insights ... TO CHANGE NORMAL .. DAMN-IT!

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Changing normal - It has a bit of an elixir buzz to it, doesn't it?

But, most of us don't really want to deal with changing what is 'normal'. Instead, we just want 'normal' to change ... right? Have you every addressed yourself directly regarding this strange mind-fuck? It's inside each of us? We so much want things to change, but, but, .. "could someone else take care of it and let me know when it's done?"

I assume that you are all 'busy' trying to 'change normal' in your own way, yet I have seen the chaos of none of us knowing how to change it! And instead of reaching out in a healthy way, we either go internal and avoid the pain that comes with this idea, or we push it on someone or some organization, hoping that 'they' will change normal. Hell, I don't know how to do it ... right? Well, this is what initiated my attempt at building this 'changingnormal.com' site.

Now, it's disappointingly true that the Ning site framework, of which I chose to be the medium for describing "Changing Normal", doesn't come even close to having what it takes to engage a deeply-thinking audience like yourselves. And, although I've tried to help them improve the situation, they've only got drones at the computer who respond with corporate bullshit like: 'thank you for you interest in us. We value your opinion and ... bla bla bla." Guess they are doing the best they can, but in my book IT NOT ENOUGH. It come to mind that the Matrix movie is actually much mush closer to reality that you might guess.

So anyway, let's go from here. Persistence is one of the keys to change, and I stand as an icon for that. Since our community is mostly not yet ready to do what it takes to change, then may I suggest (and this goes for me too) that we come to terms with this fact and look at what it takes to "be change" rather than to make change. Gandhi once said: "Be the change you want to see in the world." What he didn't come to terms with (I believe) is that the human race is not ready to align in groups that are intelligent enough nor conscious enough to deal with the incredible pain involved with being change.

Know this: Fear is what keeps you and me from going to the edge of our being! You will never never never become change until you are ready to "be" with the fear that comes up in you and know how to share it in the sacred presence of others that are ready to "be" with it for you, and for themselves. You must accept it as apart of who you (and they) are. For, it is in this place that we 'be'come transformed. Otherwise, the word 'freedom' is merely a bullshit word that no one gets but pretends to understand. Worse yet, noone 'wants' to know what it really means. Tell me you are different!

To know freedom, you must know both the level of your own and others suffering. To be sure, this has been a struggle for myself, so I do not speak of it just as an idea. From my own experience, freedom is not suffering that is behind us, but rather it forming a presence with suffering and learning to bring a joyful heart into it.

(Geeez, the words I am using just do not give justice to what I'm trying to express!)

Look ... I often wonder how amazing our world will be when the time comes that we can know freedom without effort! But right now, you, me, and we, must know suffering to know freedom. It is a part of the alchemical transformational process. We must know not just of it, but also how to be with it. this is how we can sense freedom. It does not mean that we 'make' suffering for ourselves (hell is something the Christians have all wrong). Nor does it mean we cause suffering upon another by placing our own belief systems upon them. Consider instead that knowing freedom is to know the portal into a changing of what is normal. And understand that all normalcy is temporary.

I once wrote a small article called the 'ecology of leadership', which indirectly addresses this strange paradox human freedom. It drives home the idea of what kind of leadership will be necessary to truly change normal. Read it sometime and tell me what you think. I'd be curious if you see the correlations.

There is so much more to say about all this. I will write more on this subject as time passes.