Causation

At some point, we have to stop asking what the world expects of us and start asking what we are actually here to do. Not in some grand or abstract sense, but right here, in the middle of whatever is presently unfolding. Beneath the noise, beneath the accumulated assumptions and inherited stories, there remains a quieter position from which we can see, choose, and move differently. Perhaps that is where causation begins.

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The world tells you to focus on the effects, face reality, and adjust, adapt, and train to better tackle what life throws at you. The world is what it is, life waits for no man, so you’d better prepare. For others, it’s better to “fake it till you make it.” We act as if things are how we’d prefer and desire them to be, and life should reconfigure itself accordingly. Perhaps there is some truth in both, but, to me, they’re also elements of an inversion. If the goal is to consciously compel outcomes in the manifest, material world, one cannot resort to endlessly trying to deceive oneself, nor to reacting to or being a victim of circumstances, and most certainly not to defending a position, a standing, a story, that may not even be yours to begin with.

If you think about it, everything about commerce, the market, capitalism, corporatism, governance, institutions, is about compelling outcomes, certainly, but it is, at least in my view, brought about in a parasitic and predatory fashion. How many times need we be made into evident fools, mindless sheep, or unwitting and passive, blindly trusting and naïve automatons before we finally admit to the growing fatigue and perpetual unease, notice the pattern, and realize it’s time to break free of the shackles? The system around us doesn’t operate in ways that are human or humane; it is about profit, market shares, dividends, speculation, and then refinement of the same old, repackaged ideas, coercion and marketing schemes, and all manner of nefarious agendas to maximize returns and usurp ever more control.

For the conscious human, the one who has stared into the shadows, within and without, and is capable of and willing to assume responsibility for all aspects of identity, mindset, worldview, cosmology, ontology, epistemology, natural law, compelling outcomes is about being so fully present and awake, aware and discerning, that we move through the world aware of and perhaps acknowledging its effects and outcomes from past beingness, activity, and choice-making, but not lingering in that space. Instead, we remain fully aware of the position and freer standing of a deliberate and conscious compelling of outcomes in line with what it is we truly wish to pursue or experience or aspire toward. In this way, we repurpose “the system” to work for us, rather than an eternal psychological and spiritual adversary.

It may be measurable, it may be intangible. It may be a mix of both. It may only be in theory until it is expressed, tested, and experienced in our so-called reality. It may be something you have to be willing to finally let go of in favor of something even greater, truer, more authentic. It may require you to finally progress and process through what you thought you wanted to find something even more profound — or at least, less distorted by expectations, assumptions, and now outdated and incompatible goals or dreams. The idea is to be less passive and reactive and to be proactive, a proponent, a true champion for your aligned beingness, for your better knowing, for your hard-earned wisdom, for your actual creative expression that is authentic to you, to your own mission and message, not to that of a consensus or mob influence, or something borrowed or adapted to that may have been impressed upon or inculcated through your lived experience thus far. You don’t need to keep dragging along that baggage out of misplaced shame, guilt, or unnatural attachment.

Being awake and aware in all things, in all places, situations, and circumstances, throughout all of the evident effects and eventualities, necessitates a presence, position, and standing that remains outside of time; outside of the confines of linearity. If we’re simply reacting to an effect that presents itself as real, usually because of fear, worry, or anxiety, we continue only within that limited scope, within that limited framework, from that constrained, contained, and lesser-structured foundation. This type of problem-reaction-solution activity can take us through and occupy our senses for an entire lifetime. Perhaps many lifetimes.

Is that good enough for you? Is that satisfying and fulfilling? Does it scratch that itch? Is it an adequate challenge to what you believe yourself to be capable of? Do you want to be capable of more? Do you want to experience something unknown, unpredictable, vast, impressive, thrilling, or terrifying? Have you let consensus reality, the accepted science and ideology and belief system, subdue and dominate your perspective and your capacity for critical thinking and discernment?

Everything in your life right now is an effect. Everything that you can observe around you — the money in your bank account, the home, its furnishings, the health of your body, your mindset and your mental status — are all effects. None of that changes until we adopt, and own, the role of causation. To understand that we can reorient and reconfigure this reality at any moment.

And the only way to prove that to ourselves is to try. And then try again. And then get rid of the idea and set aside the notion that you are trying at all. Because it’s not about trying, is it? It is about truly and fully being you, in the moment. In the now.

If we lean into the negative aspect of trying, one built upon lack and scarcity, wanting and needing, we may, in effect, close ourselves off from the source of infinite potentiality. We’re never negating the infinite, because life moves, flows, and continues whether we’re engaged and interactive or not… we’re just dissociating our consciousness from the process. Again and again, we restrict the visibility of options and opportunities, the doorways and the portals to something more aligned with what is true and possible for us. It doesn’t have to be so, but it does require an extraordinary standing in the present, a curiosity, a willingness to embrace the mystery, but also a certainty and confidence in who and what you really are; in who and what you really desire, and furthermore, that what you genuinely desire has viability, validity, and value, and not only to yourself.

Consider that living into what is true and real and fulfilling for you reverberates throughout the collective, into the field as it were, and benefits the whole. And consider, too, that endless drudgery, apathy, immorality, passivity, toxic empathy, and fatigue have the opposite effect. Observe the world around you and consider which you prefer, because it seems that anything goes in this realm. But if you’re keen to tip the scales toward the uplifting, the human-centric, the organic and natural, and amplifying the light, you’ve probably got some work to do.

The world has shown us how relatively easy it is to suppress, to depress, and to constrict, limit, and handicap millions, even billions, of humans in very short order. The past hundred years alone has given us numerous such events. Wars, conflicts, “pandemics,” clampdowns, lockdowns, internments, everything is just down. All that is anti-human and pro-synthetic, pro-technocratic, pushes us downward, condenses us inward, compresses our innate, unlimited potential into very distinct, discreet, and overly rigid and religious expressions. The exact opposite and inversion of a truly embodied, conscious human, and vibrant, liberated human collective.

I ask again, is that good enough for you? It probably isn’t. It certainly isn’t for me. And while I certainly continue to struggle with all of the ideas presented herein on a day-to-day basis, there is that better knowing that whispers, nudges, re-emerges, and resurfaces, pushing itself to the fore, over and over and over again. To give in to the endless noise and nonsense of the parasitic and predatory few would be tantamount to giving “them” far more credit than they deserve. It’d be silly, small, and cowardly.

Truth is, by default, emergent. It always finds ways to surface and to break through those artificially and synthetically imposed ceilings and barriers, paradigms, ideologies, and belief systems. All of these things are certainly useful on our journey through this realm, and this one short life. But we must not linger.

We’re not here to figure everything out, to save anyone, to save the world, nor do we need a savior. We’re not here for long enough for any of these grand abstractions to pan out in any meaningful way. Nor can we rely on what may have come before, the fractured, sparse, and endlessly reinterpreted remains, relics, and artifacts of a supposed past.

We are here now. This is the only place from which we may operate in any meaningful way. This is the only place, I would argue, we are supposed to work in a meaningful way. The idea of stepping outside of the moment, be it to the past or to the future, defeats the nature and greater purpose of your human nature. At least, that seems reasonable to me.

Focus on causation. Focus on detaching and dissociating from mere effects, from what has come before. What has yet to come can change in an instant. Test it. Prove it to yourself, right or wrong, good or bad. But don’t simply give up because you keep falling back into the same old habits and routines, or into the same mental traps and emotional pitfalls. Ten or more years led to who and what you are now, so don’t think quick fixes and resets will reverse that trend. Respect yourself enough to stay the course.

You might keep falling for the same propaganda and state-sponsored news feeds. You might keep getting hooked into the trending, high-traffic fabrication of the week. That too is a choice. And for everything that is presented to you through this artifice, this living simulation, through their storytelling and narrative manipulation, what the hell can you do about any of it? Nothing. And that’s the point.

The world is simultaneously not enough, and too much. The system is, for the most part, oriented toward feeding off your feelings of being powerless and without choice, agency, and authority. But you do have it. You always have, and you have it right now. You are reading this essay, and you’re nearing the end. You can choose to click away, close the screen, and realign with yourself, realign with what is authentic, real, and true.

Or you can continue to find another input, more content, another lesson, more opinions, someone else’s feedback, and a thousand other methods of fractioning your limited amounts of time, attention, and energy.

For now, remember, most essentially, you are the causative force. This doesn’t mean wishing, or hoping. Those are purely passive and reactive and very weak, even victim-like, stances. Reconfigure. Recalibrate. Remember.

You are the implement and the instrument. You are not here by mistake, you’re not lacking or missing anything, you are not broken. And you most certainly are not alone. It’s highly likely you’ll be “wrong” more than you’re “right” in this life. Stop counting.

Effects are effects. Leave them where they lie and get busy creating. Keep walking. Cause something new. Cause something true.

Solvitur ambulando

Inspired in part by Tom Barnett’s video “The Superior Mind & The Natural Laws”