Introduction
Whoever you are, wherever you live, life right now probably feels a bit uncertain. We spent the past year launched out of all normalcy: our roles and routines thrown to the wind, our lives newly centered on avoiding a plague that stalked around every corner, watching in helplessness as loved ones and strangers got sick and died across the world.
From our own backyards to the other side of the globe, so many of our once-stable governing institutions have been struggling for survival too. …
You can Marie Kondo your mind, too.
A belief is a confirmation bias you think is true. It’s an ingrained mental habit— a pattern of thinking strong enough to condition your thoughts, your actions, and your life all on its own. You can hold beliefs that help you to achieve your goals, live happier and healthier, feel more satisfied or loved or free or worthy, and you can hold ones that create cycles of suffering and frustration. Beliefs impact you constantly, in small ways and large, so you might as well get choosy about the ones you’re going to keep.
For most of us, throughout most of…
Even your worst habits are satisfying a need you need met. Figure out that need, and you can meet it in a better way.
A few months ago, I replaced cigarettes with rock music. These days, when I get in the car or go for a walk and I’m feeling a little low, I throw on some aviators, blast Dorothy or All Them Witches and let the waves of electric badassery wash over me until my nerves are sufficiently cooled. That’s what cigarettes always did for me: they cooled me off. They gave me this cloud of protection from vulnerability. …
Why desire is in charge of us, punishment will eventually fail, and addiction is the root of suffering.
The root of all suffering is addiction. We can end suffering by healing from all addictions. Simple, right? Ha. This is a work of logic, not psychological or medical science, and I am writing it in the order it came to me:
Truth One: Desire rules. All other rules are made up.
All morality is unscientific. Every moral judgment you have is based on an assumption you can’t prove is correct. If you think something is morally wrong, you can keep asking “Why is that wrong?” again and again. Eventually you’ll hit a question you can’t answer, and realize that you actually don’t know. …
Need
Preceding chapters: Introduction, Belief
In our chapter on belief, we asked if the glass was half-empty or half-full, how what you say about it changes what it means to you. Our question today is this: Are you thirsty?
You might have heard the saying, “Opinions are like assholes: everyone has one, and everyone thinks everyone else’s stinks.” Well, everyone has needs, and everyone generally thinks their needs matter more than everyone else’s… unless what they need is to feel righteously moral and think this need can only be met through deliberate self-sacrifice.
Part One: Welcome Homeostasis
Look — I have needs. You have needs…
[JOURNAL] When you know God, it’s obvious.
I am not a God-fearing woman, but I do believe in God. My beliefs come from what I’ve experienced, and I experience what I believe.
I believe God is. To be more specific, I believe God is that which is, the intrinsic essence, which is another way of saying “I am who am.” Me, I am a Christian as much as I’m a Hindu, a Buddhist as much as I’m a Muslim, a Taoist as much as I’m #NewAge. When you know God, studying any spirituality becomes like going traveling to find yourself: wherever you go, there you are. …
Every relationship shows you a reflection of yourself, but no reflection tells the whole truth.
As much as I say I love my body, I’m a former bulimic and 20-something woman in America, so let’s get real: my body-love is not yet unconditional. In the past few months, between Covid and winter and general existential malaise, I’ve put on a bit of weight. Not much, I don’t think… or didn’t think, until I went to stay in an apartment with a full-length mirror.
I realized it was the first time I’d looked in a full-length mirror in months, and what I saw staring back at me was not what I’d hoped to see. I knew…
Belief
Previous chapter: Introduction
Content warning: This chapter briefly discusses the subject of sexual assault.
To begin the practice of lifting the veil, let’s start with looking at the veil. What do we believe to be true, but isn’t?
We spend so much of our lives acting according to what we believe is true, or what we believe is right or good or moral. We do our best to have the best beliefs, and for good reason: our beliefs are how we determine our actions. …
But all people deserve empathy.
I don’t trouble myself much about being “open-minded,” because I know that not all opinions are worth listening to. I also know that all people are worth listening to. These two statements do not mean the same thing, and we’d all do well to stop confusing them.
People are not fundamentally good or evil; we are fundamentally adaptable to our circumstances. When our circumstances are violent or traumatic, we typically adapt to the fear by hurting ourselves and others until we heal.
Harmful beliefs and violent behavior are forms of maladaptive addiction. Addiction is not a personal shortcoming; it’s a…
Some substances are just good at making us feel good.
I have a confession to make: I’m just not into festivals. To be honest, I’m not that into psychedelics either. I know, I seem like exactly the kind of person who would be, but there you have it. I’ve had powerful and miraculous experiences on psychedelics in the past, but they’re not something I enjoy or use much anymore. In fact, I have a bit of a bias against regular psychedelic use. It’s the same bias I have against chronic festival-going, or regular indulgence in anything that potently alters our experience. I just don’t think it’s healthy.
Festivals, like acid…
Anna Mercury
Level 5 Laser Lotus, writing for a world where many worlds fit || www.allgodsnomasters.com
