Friday 9 September 2016

WELL BEING


WELL BEING

 

            “And all will be well” – as the theity say.  Well, they’ve been saying that for at least 2,000 years.  So when will all be well? 

            Isn’t 2,000 years or more a long enough time for all to be well in?  Surely by now in the 21st century, we should all be well and being the magnificent manifestation of wellness that previous preachers were willing us humans to be.  Those headstrong toothsayers used five short-letter words to seduce the sheople of the past and future generations into gullible sucking on a patronising prediction.  But as with the weather forecast and the end of the world, it has not come to pass.  Why not? 

            Well, I think it’s time to take a more than literal look at this ancient phrase and perhaps benefit from a bit of 2016 hindsightical adjustmentation. 

            First of all, “all” is all too encompassing and pretentiously magnanimous.  The theity should have known that humans, and their various gods on high do not distribute fair shares of the world’s wellness, and said – “some will be well.” 

            Secondly, “will” or “shall” is didactic and pompous in its denial of the blood and guts of nature’s life force.  They should have said – “some might be well.” 

            Thirdly, even “some” seems all too willfully generous.  They should have said – “few will be well.”  So now the phrase should read – “And few might be well.”

            To some, if not many, this re-writing is not so re-assuring as the delusional hopefulness of the original phrase.  Sheople prefer the comfort blanket of hopefulness rather than hopelessness.  But neither hopeful nor hopeless are necessary – they are just two indulgent extremes, not dissimilar to heaven and hell – just two of the amazing tricks performed by the human monkey mind.  Nor is there a so-called third or middle way, which would only be the other old trick of a restricted choice of three.

            Others say that reality rules, but what is reality?  At present there are 7 billion different human perceptions of reality without a ruling majority.  So if Darwinian reality is the survival of the fittest, then all cannot be well. 

It’s only a miniscule minority who will be well, well, at least well off the scale of a fair share of the planet’s resources.  Willfully wealthy humans do not need crazy phrases and wishful thinking in order to plunder the planet and predate on millions of their far from wealthy fellow humans, who are not so well endowed with wellfulness. 

            Evangelical human notions and words about wellness for all are by definition man-made, and are less than a tinker’s cuss left languishing in the omnipotent forces of nature and the solar system which sustain all life on earth.

            What is commonly called the natural world in which humans play a rather un-natural part, does not comfort itself with words such as “all will be well.”  Even though a well trained parrot could say those words, I doubt whether anyone has heard the phrase trotted out by a horse, a hedgehog, a fish, an ant, an elephant, a garden vegetable or a mountain stream – no matter how much anthropomorphic sentimental entertainment is available via TV commercials and YouTube. 

            Given the way the man-made world stumbles from one crisis to the next, it is not pessimistic to suggest that too many major and minor human endeavours, including Nuclear Bombs and Power Stations, the European Union, Diesel Fuel and Plastic Bags (but not some sink plungers, sheds, bicycles and builders’ wheelbarrows) cause more problems than they are meant to solve.  And if we accept the popular PC stupid excuse of ‘unintended consequences’, then all will never be well. 

            The consequential consequences of any action, be they intended or unintended, already exist in that action.  So-called 1st world humans seem to prefer suffering from an endless series of self-inflicted non-improvements and unnecessary actions that are supposed to be better than before.  Where’s the wise hindsight and foresight?

            Perhaps the unintended consequences are the price we pay for so-called progress.  This can be a high price to pay, which we kindly call ‘two steps forward and one step back’, or ‘humans are their own worst enemy’.  Or less kindly, ignorant arrogant greedy stupid humans being hell-bent on destructive consumption, rather than being well-bent on being well with the energy of natural creativity. 

            As far as we humans know, all the other creatures on the planet are not intentionally or unintentionally killing their own kind (except perhaps a few spiders, piranhas and meerkats) and they don’t destroy their habitat for survival, re-production and well being.  They instinctively do what they do and don’t leave a filthy toxic mess when they’ve done it.  They don’t rape, pillage and plunder the planet’s natural resources and they don’t consume more than they need.  However, they are the victims of mighty human predators. 

            Also for thousands of years, extremely vicious predators in small groups of power-crazed male political and religious leaders have incited and conscripted their fellow countrymen to carry out the mass murder of millions of other human beings.

            Today, after two 20th century world wars, these barbaric killing sprees continue to be enjoyed by presidents, prime ministers, dictators, deranged despots and brain damaged little boys in long trousers with their deadly hand-held penis extensions, just for the sake of a political ideology or die-hard sophistrifical religious delusions about ruling the world.

            Is all that the all will be well as promised by the ancient rhetoricalators?

            Come off it, you super-egotistical old clerical egg-heads pickled in mystical vinegar.  Nothing in the world will be well, unless humans become aware of already being well enough for well being – the consequences of which might result in some sort of all being wellness.

            When the hopelessness of the hopefulness of “all will be well” is accepted, then in the fullness of time, if not more soonly than the end of eternity, or before the sun swallows the planet, the all and everything on earth might be well.  In the meantime, the grandiose religiosserty of the ancient phrase will not work.  

What may well work, is when humans wake up to being awake, and therefore aware of being much more than brain-stained victims chafing in the chains of parental, educational, cultural, religious, political, commercial, emotional, social and self-induced conditioning.  The human mind’s innate consciousness can re-train the brain’s electro-chemical transmitters, signals and neuro pathways towards making fresh synaptical connections.  This could be the most efficacious use of what is called free will. 

In other words, a progressively interactive process between mind and brain for fully functioning well being.  Changing the mind can change the brain, and in reciprocal motion the brain can change the mind.

A few new neuro scientists and a few more old and new Buddhist monks have shown that awareness of the adaptability of the mind interacting with the plasticity of the brain can be developed into experiencing well being – even that elusive transitory state called happiness.  This natural practical process of sorting the clarity from the clutter is also constantly available to millions, if not billions, of ordinary people who don’t have wall-mounted framed diplomas for Brainery or Buddhary.

Mindfulness is at present a fashionable faddish introduction to the beneficial power of conscious awareness – a simple derivation of Buddhist meditation, namely full sensory cognition of what is, rather than what is not. 

Without a magic wand Made in Utopia, or a global catastrophe, it is realistic to suggest that the well being of all life on earth in the 21st century depends on healthy human brains functioning well with healthy minds (still in somewhat short supply) and definitely not on wildly willful wishy-washy worthless words about a fantasy wellderland for all, in an unknown future. 

For all we don’t know about the unknown, it could well be that all is being well right now according to what might be nature’s grand plan.  And although man is at present the ‘top dirty dog’ on the planet, it is too vainglorious to believe that man’s ignorance, greed, stupidity and suffering is all his own work.  It could well be exactly what nature intended for human evolution – albeit perceived as a painful snail’s pace in human hurry time.

Moreover, despite the most amazing advances in scientific knowledge, no-one actually knows what the power of nature and universal energy intends for the evolution of all life on earth, whether or not human words will it to be well.

            So in daring to assume that all is well enough in our puny little lives at this time in the evolutionary process, let’s at least dismiss the god-botherers’ evangelical interfering with nature and universal energy by using delusional rancid phrases, and just enjoy our innate innocence, playfulness, curiosity, wonder and well being, which could also easily be what nature intended.

 

            “And all will be well” – said the holy man.

            “When?” – said the wise man.

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