Solutions

On a Personal Note

/ Iam Saums / 4 Comments

“Why would we want it the way it was, it wasn’t working anyway.”

Social Shakedown:

Beginning in March 2020 the world was shutdown.  Rolling lockdowns, restrictions, social distancing and masks littered society with the promise of protection, blended with heavy doses of fear and propaganda.  Even social perception was compromised; altered and manipulated toward an apparent intention for safety, yet rife with undeniable political and social agendas emerging from the unknown.  Years ago, I learned that whenever global events occur such as the pandemic, there is always more going on under the surface of reality than we choose to see or become informed.  Given the common attention span often struggles to sustain awareness, it always takes time for nefarious things to be revealed, even as they go widely unseen.    

Catch a Breath:

Upon reflection, my daily life did not change much over the last year and a half.  I still went to work, to the store, out of town for events and family visits, gathered with community, played music, wrote articles and stayed in touch with people in my life.  I did appreciate the lack of traffic on the roads and trails, at the shops and even in the streets.  There was a calm and peace in the world that happened overnight.  For those fleeting weeks, society was taking a breath, as was nature.  Something began to break the surface through the back and forth of the medical industry, mainstream media and the political arena.  In the wake of dis-, mis-, lack and no information, I felt a shift happening in the world.  Consciousness was growing within the madness of social reality.     

Stand and Create:

It became apparent to me global transformation was possible, and, to some extent, occurring.  The current events had captivated the collective attention of humanity.  This excited and inspired me.  The era some of us were envisioning, intending and expressing for years was happening.  Personal empowerment came to me as a rush of creativity, energy and imagination.  I started writing music again.  My writing style matured and shifted in a new direction.  My meditations and practices were all engaging, powerful and fulfilling, providing me with a new balance, experience, insight and perception into what is possible.  While much of the world was impacted and influenced by anxiety, fear, illness and uncertainty, I stood my conscious ground.     

Truth and Transmission:

As Spring turned into Summer, the energy in society grew more chaotic, intense and unstable.  The pensive calm and quiet turned into viral surges, gun violence, racial profiling and murder, social uprising and the US’s favorite pastime, politics.  Being aware of social conditioning in all forms, and having found the eye in humanity’s recent hurricane, I found myself remarkably balanced, centered, focused and grounded.  There were times when I observed and even engaged in the melee, yet soon found my breath, stepped out of the fracas and reset my connection with the universe.  This became a vital practice whenever my equilibrium was challenged.  It is in the stillness of the present we clarify and establish our truth.

“There are over seven billion truths in the world, and one gigantic lie.”

Electoral Fire:

The Summer passed and the US Election took center stage with all its pomp and circumstance. The ass and the elephant temporarily replaced the focus from the pandemic, setting the masses ablaze.  Suddenly, the flames of anxiety and fear from the virus shifted into politics. One side touted an arrogant and self-righteous attention monger.  The other side dusted off an aging, yet experienced politician who had a questionable backstory of his own.  I do not choose to engage in the political process simply because it is a racket.  A clever and deceptive system designed to disempower the masses, encouraging a timeless exorcism of the people’s power under the false pretense their choice in the political arena makes a difference. 

Ebb and Flow:

The election passed, apart from the childish tantrums of its loser.  The virus charts and numbers rose and receded like an inconvenient tide.  In many ways we were all separated from each other, though pre-virus comparisons would reveal we always had been.  I pressed onward through the melee of social reality, bearing my personal creativity, empowerment, meditation, prayer and transformation as a guiding light against the mounting, simulated darkness.  All the while enjoying the adventure, discovery and opportunity of my experience in an unparalleled, universal energetic shift.  Yet, for every powerful wave of enlightenment empowering our consciousness, the social undercurrents of anxiety and fear aimed to yank us back into reality.

Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back:

In my life, I have become accustomed to standing for my belief and truth with willful abandon.  This last year and a half have challenged my acceptance, tolerance and understanding of others in the wake of intensifying social criticism, judgement, opinion and prejudice.  Caught somewhere between self-defense and disbelief, I shook my head and smiled my way through it.  As often as possible, I express an immense empathy for humanity and society.  I choose to believe we all have the potential to observe ourselves from within and transform our way of being to the best of our ability in the spirit of making a difference.  Yet, fear is a social vortex devouring possibility at every turn. 

Jab and Weave:

Through Winter and into Spring, I rode the social waves of ease and malaise.  After a while, the pangs of emergency and urgency of the pandemic began to dull.  The social focus was instinctively turning to the old-world pastimes of amusement, entertainment, politics and sports.  Those beating the drum of anxiety were still thumping away on the nerve strings of society in a last-ditch effort to captivate all with their antiquated spell.  The heated debate between the vaxxed and the unvaxxed expired.  All who took the jab appeared to move on with their lives and all who declined followed suit.  Inevitably, most are eager to forget this last agonizing year and a half, replacing its bitter memory with the pastime of their fancy.

Beyond the Choice:

Now, we move into Summer with earnest hopes to leave it all behind, anxiety, chaos, fear, illness, inequality, isolation, lockdowns, loss, lunacy and uncertainty.  What remains are the ashes and embers of the world before everything went sideways.  An extraordinary, universal energetic shift continues, regardless of the mundane, social regression ebbing in tandem with the flow of our ever-evolving consciousness.  These last 18 months have been an affirmation of the power of our choice to either be taken under by the receding tide of social reality or ride the waves of enlightenment and transcendence into the embrace of our destiny.  Beyond this choice is our opportunity to manifest our universal being.  Seems quite simple to me.

“There is no way back, only forward…”

Community

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

The “I” Gene:

As human beings, we inherit a trait we accept as a belief that is conditioned into us during our social development. Inevitably, it becomes our common reality. It is a system fashioned on the principles of compliance, reliance and oblivion. For the sake of distinction, let’s call this trait the “I” Gene. The “I” Gene is an internal “schism,” (division). It is a separation not only from our external surroundings and the people in our lives; it is a severance from our self.

Before we have the opportunity to be introduced to ourselves, we are bombarded by society’s imposition of who we are expected to be. This collective obligation goes greatly unchallenged and is globally obeyed by humanity. As a species, we have maintained this solitary lifestyle for thousands of years. The “I” Gene has repressed our relatedness with our family members, our friends, our communities and ourselves. It has inhibited our consciousness, relatedness and fulfillment.

The “I” Gene is more than just a thought form, a feeling or an instinctual desire for our personal space. This trait has embedded itself into every aspect of our being. Its impression has been influencing us on a genetic level our entire lives. The “I” Gene uses our ego against us to keep us distracted with our worries, conditions, expectations and fears. Where the proactive side of our ego creates our personal power, the “I” Gene surrenders it. It is an inner “slight-of-hand” that may be the cleverest racket we run on ourselves.

We are preoccupied by our personal survival, the distractions in our daily lives, the relentless influence of our ego and our emotional dramas, upsets and attachments. We become the “I” Gene and it eagerly embraces us. It is a collapse in our being between who we perceive ourselves to be (which isn’t who we really are) and how society’s aggressive nature programs us to maintain its standards. The “I” Gene is so clever in its strategy; it conditions us to believe that who society desires us to be is who we are meant to be, and how our lives must to be lived. We not only obey it, we worship and promote it with our achievements (most often individual), yet curse it for our shortcomings. This is how we give away our personal power.

As children, life itself was creative and adventurous. It was customary for us to gather with our friends and wield our imaginations, wills, passions, talents and heroism freely and fully. We believed that anything was possible, until the demands of life, family, reality, school, career, and society methodically began taking our virtues, abilities and destinies away right under our naïve and unconscious noses. When we were young, the very notion of being alone and separate from our friends or family was absurd. Now it has become our commonly adopted “reality.” We are tethered to it by our fear, failure and social intimidation.

The “We” Gene:

Deep within the recesses of our repressed human nature resides our pure potential and possibility. These qualities connect us with the human race, nature, the universe and our selves. The “We” Gene is ever-evolving, all-conscious and all-inclusive. The “I” Gene ceases to exist in the presence of the “We” Gene, much as the darkness in the presence of the light. The “We” Gene is the magnificence we were when we were born, and who we are to become when we pass from this earth. However, it need not be only in our birth and death we experience this communion. It is possible in every moment of our lives when we transform the focus of our purpose from ourselves to all our relations.

There is something uniquely extraordinary when we experience the feeling of belonging. It enlivens and inspires us. It bestows upon us the wisdom of value, purpose, confidence and sustenance. In the now of this synchronicity, we achieve transcendence from our daily, ordinary life and we reclaim the innocence, wonder and enthusiasm we lived as children. It is not an “action” or even a “knowing.” It is our connection with true being. The majesty of belonging happens when we choose to experience oneness with all. A network of energy unites all whom are resonating on this energetic frequency. “Reality” disappears in the presence of awareness and the truth of our existence as human beings emerges in the expression of our consciousness.

Unity:

“If we don’t live together, we’re going to die alone.”

At some time in our lives, we were misled to believe that we alone are the sole sustainers of our lives. This is not true. We have all been corralled into institutionalized education, established religion, political viewpoints and social hierarchies. We have allowed ourselves to be placed into positions contributing more to our society’s problems than its solutions. We see the wisdom and strength of community only when our lives are severe and challenging. Only when our experiences humble our egos are we able to witness the faults in our social paradigm. The question we should ask ourselves is why has it become so natural for us to retreat back into the co-dependent security of ourselves?

We have been conditioned both within by our ego and without by society to not listen to others, therefore we don’t listen to ourselves. When we don’t allow ourselves the freedom and power of trusting others, we don’t trust ourselves. When we don’t convey confidence in others, we fail to establish our own. When we struggle with offering compassion and kindness to others, we aren’t able to be empathetic with ourselves. When we condemn the character of others, we denounce our own. When we are unwilling to express unconditional love and support to others, we will never be able to embrace the pure joy it is to love and be loved.

There is only one way to experience community. It is in the expression of our service to others. Not the service we provide to society for which we are compensated. It is the unconditional service we choose to give for the sake of giving. There is no greater fulfillment we will experience than the relation and belonging genuine service to others inspires. It is the essential foundation of our present and ultimately our future. When we as a society view community as an option, we will merely survive. When we as a society choose to experience community as a necessity, we will always thrive.

Community is our living truth as human beings.

It is our destiny.

It is the only thing besides love that will transform our world.

http://www.zengardner.com/community/

Trump This and Bern That!

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

Elective Bargaining:

It is a presidential election year and the masses are emerging from their political slumber.  Every four years the nation becomes encumbered and ensnared within the duality that is the American voting process.  Like a college sports rivalry, politics divides couples, families, friends, business associates and communities.  As always, the powers that be are ratcheting up the politico machine to amuse, deceive, distract, enrage, hypnotize, intrigue and stupefy society.  The establishment plays us all like a maestro their instrument.  Every time, we take the bait, note for dissonant note.

Elusive Leadership:

We are all born leaders, yet we are not educated, empowered, encouraged, raised or supported in our leadership.  For most of us, this lifestyle is not an option.  Not because we don’t choose this path or aren’t adept in its practice.  It is mostly because we are discouraged, distracted and suppressed by the arrogant and bold sociopathic few that were born into the right family.  We are bewildered, enchanted, envious and ultimately subservient to politicians because of their charisma, celebrity and popularity.  We acquiesce to their inauthentic guidance and importance for fear or lack of our own.

Slight of View:  

Education, media, religion and parental influence prepare us for our inevitable servitude.  Numerous distractions are invented everyday by political authorities, news networks, social media, editorial commentary, advertising, sports events and entertainment outlets.  We are bombarded by a plethora of drama that triggers our contempt, outrage, upset and eventually our resignation.  While we are preoccupied by the multitude of diversions, our freedoms and rights are gradually and systematically distorted and taken away from us.  The spell is cast, the trick is set and the illusion is performed.

Bait and Switch:

Every time it begins with a new collection of president-elects who roll out of their respective parties like a cluster of clowns from a compact car in the traveling circus.  They talk the talk, show up at appearances, kiss babies and invent new rhetoric to be noticed more than the next person in line.  At first, the public isn’t interested, nor is it prepared for the measure of their eventual exaltation or fanaticism of the candidate-elects.  A sequence of events, statements, propaganda or posturing occurs that whips their voter base’s adrenalin and ire into a fever pitch.  Game on.

Feel the Fear:

Politics is a sport of fear.  It has nothing to do with leadership.  If it truly did, politicians would be inspiring the people to lead themselves.  Instead, they find new and clever ways to discourage the voting populous by preying upon their anxieties, distress and ignorance with the implication of defeat, veiled threats and dire consequences.  The worst is not in what we know about what is going on, it is in what we don’t know and don’t witness.  Everything that is repressed from the populous is used against it for the purpose of furthering a concealed agenda that most often is to the detriment of the general public.

Contest of Conquest:

One of the greatest spectacles of political theater during an election year is personified in the debate.  It is the age-old practice of attempting to prove to the constituency the validity of one’s candidacy.  It begins with the initial intention of commitment, goodwill, honesty, information and the declaration of oaths.  Yet, it usually devolves into an exchange that can be seen on any elementary playground during recess.  The aim is no longer a presentation of the candidate’s character, experience and purpose.  It becomes an opportunity to debunk, discredit and defrock the opponent.

Ways and Means:

Politics is an elite club from which the people are excluded.  Their only participation is how much money they can donate to their candidate, how much tax they pay and the casting of their vote.  There is no other requirement of the public.  It is a systemic convenience that has cost us our economy, freedom, rights, future and citizenry.  There is an implied expectation of entitlement from candidates and incumbents that the people simply hand over their personal power.  A pledge millions in this country are more than willing to give for the sake of an artificial belonging, security, happiness and peace.

Heads or Tails:

We believe that we have a choice as to who is elected.  We don’t.  Since the dawn of democracy, the people never had a choice and perhaps never will.  Our “choice” is based upon the decision of a few influential individuals whom select the candidates they believe will best further their agenda.  When these candidate-elects are chosen, they are then funded, initiated, lobbied, promoted and programmed by political officials on what to say, how to act and react and motivate their voter base to the polls.  If given the choice, most if not all of us would choose a candidate not listed on the ballot.

Pyramid Scheme:

Our world is run by a small collection of elite wealthy families perpetuating a bloodline that has existed since before history was recorded.  They thrive in the shadows of our apathy, compliance, cynicism, ignorance and fear.  Their network maintains and manipulates a system of international central banks that fund national central banks.  These national banking institutions in turn administrate commercial banks that finance corporations.  This “Corporatocracy” exploits, lobbies and utilizes governments to draft legislation and pass laws to protect their investments, profits, power and status.

Return on Investment:

Millions of dollars are spent by corporations, donors, lobbyists and financial institutions to ensure the election outcome that benefits their interests most.  Yet, billions of dollars are generated, secured and disseminated through covert legislation, corporate tax cuts, no-bid contracts, “defense” spending and subjective scientific research.  In other words, the value we believe our vote has is merely a raindrop in an ocean of financial and corporate exploitation.  As has been stated before, if our vote really made a difference, the banks and corporations would never grant us this liberty.

Seasonal Selection:

As an electorate, we often tend to engage in the political process once every four years, cast our vote and then return to the “reality” of our standard and subliminal servitude.  Our vote is merely an inauthentic expression of artificial power.  By no means do I intend to discourage anyone from fulfilling upon their civic rights.  True freedoms in this world must be claimed and exercised.  We as citizens need be present to where our attention, energy and money flow.  These are the essentials of our lives that determine the prevalence of our liberty or the degree of our captivity.

Power to the People:

We are at the bottom of the pyramid.  We are no longer identified as citizens.  The elite perceives us as consumers.  We enable our enslavement by unconsciously purchasing their products and services and denying and refuting their existence.  We the many significantly outnumber the influential few.  We the people can transform the maniacal network of centralized banks and trans-national corporations.  We can choose to become aware of where our money is going by simply exploring where it leads.  All it requires of us is our dedicated focus, inquiry, practice, purpose and willingness.

Evening the Odds:

We have an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference in our lives and in the world.  It begins everyday with our choice of who we want to be, how and why we want to live and what we want to manifest.  Our destiny does not live and die when we cast our vote.  It is declared in our intention and action to be an expression and stand for all that enlightens and inspires us.  We need to vote first for ourselves and claim our leadership then encourage others to do the same.  Only then will we truly be the consciousness, love, possibility and transformation we yearn to see in the world.

http://www.zengardner.com/trump-this-bern-that/