Are we Having Fun Yet?

When gauging the wellness of the world media and governments use ridiculous abstractions such as GDP or National Indexes.  I believe the much simpler question of, "Are you having fun?" would be a better method of discerning how people are feeling.  Art, community, and all the higher human aspirations appear once people are satisfied with their lives and are living in the moment.  So without people having fun who cares about national product or indexes.  Isn't fun and other people what we are really all here for? 

Witnessing the Soul

Everything is happening automatically.  Choice exists only in the fleeting moment and can only be utilized to change the direction of our self and its desires.  Once the self is changed it operates autonomously until another change is made in the present.  We are not the doer but are rather witnessing the experience changer(soul) from an even higher perspective.  When one isn't changing experience consciously but is allowing their experience to change naturally as it progresses they are sitting outside the soul as a witness.  Most people never even become consciously aware of their soul's power to change their experience and live life like a plastic bag caught in an updraft.  Many homeless people live the life they do because it is the only life where the self(soul) can be free to transform experience according to its will by constantly traveling, using drugs, seeking food and comfort, and meeting new people.  Much of modern society prevents the soul from coming to prominence since people live in a state of comfortable apathy they never seek to change their experience.  To awaken the soul one must find their self in a disagreeable experience and will to change it.(Career change, kicking addiction, changing locales)  Once the soul is activated people  then seek to "come home" to non-duality which is achieved after a time once the self is completely understood and transcended.

Obsession versus Self-Realization

What keeps most people mired in worldly pursuits without ever paying heed to the spiritual side of life is obsession.  In order to better the self-consciousness one must train and better the organism holistically, body, heart, mind, and soul.  Most people's obsessions are a misdirected attempt to better their own consciousness by only heeding the desires of one part of their psyche.  Heeding one aspect of the self over all others always causes problems for the self.  For example, an alcoholic seeks happy emotions and escape from his mind while at the same time poisoning his mind and body.  A collector of objects amasses toys yet languishes in the areas of interpersonal relationships and personal growth. 
Because our society considers true self-infatuation narcissistic people divert their natural obsession to better themselves into activities society deems appropriate such as entertainment addiction(TV, internet, and videogames)  These single track obsessions do not serve to better the person as a whole spiritually.  There is nothing wrong with TV, alcohol, or collecting inherently but, pursued single mindedly they eventually lose their luster and begin to instill more unconscious compulsions in the self. 
If people could realize the futility of narrow-minded obsessions and would rather, seek to better their selves in every conceivable aspect then society would begin to spiritually grow.  Obviously those who amass wealth and power do not wish people to grow holistically but would always rather them pursue paths that lead to more purchasing and economic growth.

A Sufi Story

I once heard a sufi story about a man riding his donkey rapidly through a crowded city.  The man did not stop to greet any passerby and his face held an air of intense determination as he galloped through the city.  One man, a beggar, was fed up with seeing this strange man every few hours and resolved to figure out what the man was after.  The next time the man passed by the beggar jumped out in front of his donkey and yelled, "Stop!" The man stopped immediately.  The beggar asked, "What makes you gallop around this city everyday in such a hurry?"  The man with the donkey replied, "I'm looking for my donkey."

Often we are like the man and his donkey as we continue to seek that which is right underneath us.  Our experience.

Translator for Experience

Many people live as if their personal train of thought acts as the engine for experience when its operation is more akin to that of a translator.  If thinking stops experience doesn't stop.  One's thoughts are brought forth from what one perceives, yet, thoughts try to describe experience even though, because of their very essence, thoughts cannot encapsulate  true and full experience.  When one thinks endlessly it is as if one thinks in an attempt to explain and unravel the secret of existence.  The secret is that there is no secret to find, only more and more experience to be had.  The function of the mind is to translate this experience into a communicable form so it can be understood by other experience engines.(people)

A Strangely True Answer from a Truly Strange Guy

Chasing the Self

Once one finds oneself firmly embedded in the present either through self-work, exercise(body-work), or as a natural state of being, the next spiritual pinnacle to reach becomes the experience of self.  The self is a slippery thing to get ahold of because when one believes they have attained it it slips right through their fingers and they find they are actually more or less than they  previously believed.  This slippery aspect of the self originates from the fact that the self can never be complete in of itself at any one time.  The self we were yesterday is not the same as today and the same is true of even twenty minutes ago.  One continuously creates the self through experience which arises from the ever-changing self interacting with the ever-changing outside world.  This synthesis of variables coalesces into a state of being where one is experiencing every unique moment through a unique self.  This paradox underlies spiritual living and the growth inherent in it.  The self is continuously created through a lifetime, not achieved all at once.

I believe the true-will is the influence our future self (from the end of our life) has upon the present moment.  The self that has already experienced our life paradoxically influences the path our present life goes through.  This "ultimate" self may not just have experienced our current life path, but, all possible life paths we could have chosen based on any conscious decision we made throughout our life.  So this "ultimate" self which influences us through intuition or conscience knows us better than any present self could.