Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Mockery of Legislated Compassion


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Philippines - The Reproductive Health bill passed in the Lowest (Lower) House and Senate will surely endorse the same to be signed by the Pilipin President. I told you, with the prevailing socialistic and parasitic mentality of the Pilipin society, legislation like this would certainly pass.

OK I believe, the momentum towards Marxism (a fucked-up hybrid of a fucked-up socio-political ideology called communism) is well underway. We need more socialist programs in addition to CCT and RH Law to speed up the folly. And soon we will see the real joke of it: that no society can advance to a form higher than that of society occupied by leeches who feast and survive off people's fruits of labor.

By the way, do you know why Anti-RH lost the first scrimmage in the Lower House? Because dimwits honestly believe that their religious arguments stand any chance at the face of a population dominated by dole-out minded citizens. Religious argument which includes anti-abortion, and you-will-go-hell threats, and RH bill caused typhoons, is a laughable stuff to put up in front of people whose overwhelming anticipation is on the oncoming flood of freebies from government. A bunch of over-eager, dole-out minded socialist people don't give a shit about prelates craps.

The strongest case against any socialist legislation like RH bill is to abandon religious arguments and focus instead on the idea that no man has a right over anyone's property. With socialist programs, government takes money from people through taxation and redistributes it.

The biggest corruption happens in the government. And in order to perpetuate the corrupt enterprise so that bureaucrats, politicians and interest groups could feast on taxes is to implement socialist programs like Reproductive Health, Conditional Cash Transfer, and a lot of other tax-funded subsidies. This can be easily done by showing-off to ignorant people they could benefit a lot from the program, which of course they do with lots of the funding goes to bureaucrats pockets.  .

Monday, December 10, 2012

A Simple Tax Computation to Expose How Slavish Idiot We Are


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Philippines - Let me show you how taxation is a form of slavery.

Assuming you earn P8000.00 semi-monthly with 2 dependents. Married or Single with dependents are already categorized as the same. For simplicity, let's not include overtime pay and deductions. BIR withholding tax bracket says that for the above specs, you are in the bracket of not less than PhP7,083.00 and not over than P10,000.00, with initial tax of P354.17 + [20% x (8,000-7,083.00). The computation of your tax would be: 
Tax semi-monthly = P354.17 + 183.40 = P537.57

From above computation of semi-monthly tax, your annual tax is:
Annual tax = 537.57 x 2 x 12 = P12,901.68.;

While your annual gross income is:
Annual Gross Income = 8000 x 2 x 12 = P192,000.00.

Assuming you work 22 days per month (or 264 days per year), with P16,000 monthly salary, your rate per day is: Rate per day = P727.27.

Here it gets intriguing. Your total tax of the year, P12,901.68, is equivalent to how many days of your work? To get the sense out of it, divide your annual tax by your salary per day, it will show you that there are about 18 days of work equivalent to your annual taxes.In other words, you work 18 days per year for no pay at all because the amount of P12,901.68, supposedly yours to take home, goes to the treasury of the state.


But pro-government taxation individuals would contend that you pay your taxes not for nothing. They say, your taxes comes back not in the form of money but in forms of various services like security, roads, judicial, health, education among others.That seems a good point. But what was missed?

It is time to point out that being against taxation doesn't mean one is against services. Social services are still available yet with a very important distinction: the coercive power of the government to tax doesn't exist. Free-market will deliver it.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Unmasking the Thief (the fradulent nature of modern central banking)


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Let us consider this thesis: Centrals Banks own us and our ignorance is their cheese for the rats.
Deceit by the deceiver and ignorance of the deceived is always an excellent and deadly mix – excellent for those who have know hows and deadly for those who are fooled. Unfortunately, we are all amazed, though none in his sane mind would ever accept being one of the fools (since it requires a peculiar encounter and honesty to recognize oneself as one of the fooled), majority of the population are so.

One economist said that the creation of money is so simple that in its very simplicity, paradoxically, lies the very reason why the mind deferred the understanding of it. Men unknowingly created web of tangled principles about it and at the same time developed strict adherence to these principles and from time to time slowly forgot the very basic principles that governs all about money. What is it that we need to know about money then? Is it not enough we are able to acquire money then save it or spend it?

Every time the prices of goods increase, majority of the population hurts. If the prices of good jumps 10% it means that the price of your money, which is the purchasing power, is reduced by same extent. Saving on a bank account or investing on a profitable business is encouraged by the incentive that you will get the principal back plus the interest or profit it makes. However with inflation or prices soaring up, when the time of profit taking comes, though your money seemingly increased in amount, its value is substantially less than when it was first invested. Its purchasing power simply declined over time. That is the mess we all need to recognize. Failing to do so will further add up to the mess created against our well beings. How did it come about is a very much less understood phenomenon. People like to ask but not persistent enough to really seek and at least understand the cause of the problem.

Unmasking the thief means knowing the truth how money is created, who creates it, why there is inflation (and deflation), how does it affect every level of society (the lower and middle and the elite).
We must understand the nature of money. Forget once and for all religious myths demonizing money, ergo money is the root of all evil. Money is firmly a lifeless object or representation of something subjected to our own and varying perceptions.  How then MONEY came into being?


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Insanity: The only art that really matters


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An insane man believes he is normal as that other man who never believes he is insane. Then what's the difference between the two? None if they don't argue. But even if they did argue, what hope someone would concede if you were the other man? Still none. 

Insanity is an independent art. It is a whole by itself. Not to depend a second man or a third man's opinion. Not even the whole society against it. It is your insanity against all odds. And you've beaten them all before they can even muster a fight. 

Who is to argue against an insane man? He is as normal as everybody who lay claim on the same? They have their own brands. Each unique brand for every unique man. That is why it is unbeatable. You have to give up life to give it up. Not in this lifetime. You are alive and insane and there is nothing can be done about it. Not even hell. The Satan bows down before an insane man. The gods respects his views. Who can beat an insane man? No one and nothing. He is always right though always wrong for others. But he doesn't care. He is a solid man in his own and by his own. All outside murmurs are like bubbles ready to pop before his presence. He is what he is. An insane man owning the whole world can 'go-do' no wrong. 

Embracing insanity is what makes a man free. This is a no-mind business. Likewise it is a mind-your-own-business no technology can comprehend. Doesn't care anything but its own insanity. The whole of the worlds is owned. By him. And he couldn't care less what is not-what from him. Insanity is his own whole being; his whole own love; his whole own existence. 

Insanity is an art of being. The only characteristic of existence there is. No one can beat it. It drives its own. It survives in its own even when the whole world is dissolved in fronts of its eyes. There is only insanity and never been of any other kind. It has its own absolute calibration. Nothing to compromise. Nothing to give out. Nothing to sacrifice.

An insane man is holy. And the rest are just junkie puff of smokes. He is the only true confident existence while others are just beating the bush. Oh this is insanity and this is me.








If You Are not Aware, How to tell What?


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Light particles are best observed when not being observed. A paradox for both quantum and Newtonian physicists . The reason is simple. The act of observation alters everything. And that is because in observing light particles, an observer has to use light also in a hope to see what will happen. But by then, the light being used to observe the light particle affects the particles being observed. So it is futile attempt to observe light particles at all. The observer has no recourse but to give up and can only manage to come-up with probabilities and chances.

Just as the dilemma encountered in trying to pin down both the exact location and the momentum of a light particle at the same time, there is no way to answer how it feels like being asleep while in deep sleep. Only when it is done that a truthful result can be acquired. But even in delusional hope it can't be done. Someone has to be awake to ever answer the question about how it feels like to be asleep. But then the answer is necessarily incorrect. All that can be be done is imagine what it feels like.

The subjective position of the observer is obviously absent during deep sleep. There is no one to be questioned, no one to answer, no one to falsify, no one to confirm, and no one to interact. Nothing at all exactly as if there is nothing at all.With the subjective position absent, what's left to be done? No answer as if there is no way to both know and not know.

Upon waking up and after sometime the mind arises. Then thoughts accumulate. This sense of existence and self identity comes back forming again asserting itself a solid existence together with other individuals assumed to be having the same sense too. And there comes out the thing we call reality - an idea about this palpable existence. 

But is it not true that the idea about reality, as all other ideas, only came about upon waking up from deep sleep? This must be true since any talks about any idea in sleep is impossible to conduct much like it is impossible to know how it feels being asleep while asleep. In deep sleep, how to tell what? Again, no answer as if there is no way to both know and not know. Only in the waking state that we ever come to talk what is what, how is how and so on.

Reality is a paradox. Any talk about is a distorted one like the light particle being affected by the light used to observe it and thus there is no way to get solid observer-independent answers. We want to know what real Reality is? Leave it alone. Because there is no real way to know real what except to just see it is as it is.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Spirituality Junk Shop


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There must be something to do to be enlightened. So goes the commanding order. And without persistence, the adventurer will never realize the end, whatever that end maybe. And there should be no excuse at not finding what is sought for. There are tons of resources pertaining to spirituality. 

First, there is this tempting idea what enlightenment feels like. Next is to look for materials that is hoped to confirm such idea, and the unwavering practice enlightened is achieved.. Books, mantras, chakras, yoga, meditation, breathing, kundalini, postures, diet, ambiance, frequencies, retreats, satsangs, music, mysticism, Zen, and koans,  Name them all. All these are necessary to achieve what everyone has tried achieving for many years. Enlightenment. 

But hey, after so many years of thousand mantras, volumes of books, energy alignment instructions, penitence, chakra activation, kundalini awakening instructions and a lot more, did it bring anyone closer to the 'thing'? 

The truth is that all these are trickery. When the alarm clock goes off, you will still need to comeback to what you usually do. Thinking. Worries. Anxieties. What happened to the persistent practice now? After lots of promises there is nothing to be hopeful about. Frustrations after frustrations. As is as it was, full of raging craps in the head. 

Have paid a lot to visit to the shop only to find out nothing and go out empty-handed after. Nothing in there to carry for home. All are junks full of junkies. Just a repository colorful trickery of the mind.

But it has to be scouted nonetheless. The spirituality junk shop must be visited. What is necessary is to come back. And coming back will bring the understanding that it is as it is. Because the 'thing' has never been away for an inch or for a second.

Friday, November 23, 2012

The Cycle of Being


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First there is just is. 
Then curiosity and excitement.
Then came boredom.....
Next is discontentment.
Seeking came after. 
Then there is awakening,
Awakening to the Truth
Then the Truth is known.
And then Truth forgotten
Then there is just is.
Then there is everything.

~ Erro


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Fear of Losing Control


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To begin with, there is no YOU. And if you hear this from your already enlightened understanding of it, that statement would be a no big deal at all. You just know that it is true even apparently in contradiction to what has been said in your lifetime that there is you; action thus there must be actor; verb thus there must be a subject. 



However, for a man who is still tied up with the idea of doership, the ‘there is no you’ idea is utterly ridiculous - a seemingly huge dose of illogical shock that a mind has no way to absorb. But there will be always a point in time that an understanding will be revealed: that there is just “happening” happening by itself and there is no one forcing it to be done. 

So, for the sake of talking let us come to deconstruct why there is a natural refusal to accept the idea that there is no one doing anything. And perhaps there is a big hope to pinpoint the source from where the natural repulsion comes from. 

The culprit can be traced from the conditioning which started from childhood. Parents assigned a name for you and you thought your name is you. Dynamically, you and your society forged a personality of you. This personality is the fixed blueprint by which you and the society negotiate with each other. And it is no surprise that the dealing is so far so good thus strengthening even more the idea that your established personality is all that there is. You have no slight suspicion that something is wrong. You are an individual. You project to be so and you are in a comfortable assumption that your society acknowledges it to be so. Until someone pointed you out that your well-held identity is a phony one. And you just can’t swallow it. 

Obviously, the idea that there is nobody doing anything is the last thing most people would consider. Why? Fear or perhaps the absurd thought of it. For aside from being an extremely unconventional idea, it also threats the very sense a man has of himself; his self-established identity, his name, his personality, his I-ness from that of the others, or his ego. What crime could be a greater than turning against own self? So no, there is no hope that a man would readily surrender to the idea that there is no actor of the action; no doer of the doing; or no initiator of the happening. The idea that there is no one doing everything is an offense against the seemingly solid, compact, unshakable sense of being an individual. . In short, it is against the root of one’s pride, the ego, the me, the I, the myself etc. And every man is apparently strongly clinging to this sense of individuality. 

Being an individual gives the thought of being in control. The idea that there is no one doing everything is dreadful. It brings annihilation to anyone’s identity. An individual clings to his identify much like clinging for his life. Losing identity means death. So everyone is afraid to lose control. Having the grip to the feeling of control is what makes-up every man, he thinks so. Identity is resolved unto itself: to take hold of the control. It is a must to stay in control. Or else…. 

But first, what is thing we call control? Why almost all of us are consumed by the idea that we ought to have at least a control over anything foremost of it is the control of ourselves? 

We are afraid of disorder that is why we think we need to have a control. The feeling that we have control makes us whole. This gives us reassurance that our existence is solid and not a product of some random whims of nature. We basically don’t like the idea that we are bunch of nothing. We are always something. We are conscious matter. And so as to negate the idea that we are nobody, we are in constant battle to affirm our control. 

However, the degree by which we believe we have control is also the degree by which we are consumed in an illusion that we have control over anything. If you come to a situation wherein a chocolate candy is in your mouth and you decide to either chew or melt it, you may say that you have a control on the fate of the chocolate candy in your mouth. But the question is, how do you often caught your self deciding whether to chew or melt the chocolate candy in your mouth before consuming it? What about for all other kinds of foods, or for all other kinds of actions? Do you always take time deciding first how you are going to do what? I bet you don’t and you can’t. But isn’t true that things are always accomplished as they should be, with or without your conscious effort for it to be done? Things happen not with your permission but there is a whole lot bigger indeterminable conspiracy than what you limitedly think you do which makes things go as they are. Everything just happens by itself. 

In analysis, the idea that you have control is a phony feeling amidst the vastness of everything-ness happening around. And perhaps control is nothing but just a contracted state brought upon by yet another idea that you are an individual. You think you are an independent entity capable of autonomous decision thus this feeling of control over things that you feel you have autonomy with. 

What is true is that the fear of losing control is very much tied up with the fear losing the identity you have. You are not actually in fear of losing control. At the root of it is your fear of losing yourself. You think you will be dissolved, and the mere thought of it is a repulsive one. You simply don’t like it. You strongly believe you are an individual and you ought to be kept that way. 

Which brings us to the deeper quest of finding out who we really are. Who is this something in us that is afraid of losing the control? Who is this within us that is afraid of losing itself? Who are we? Who am I? What am I? Thus, you now have your own legendary journey of finding who you are. Who am I? Yet…..but who is asking? 



Saturday, October 27, 2012

Why do I Exist?


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I am aware, therefore I exist.
I am aware, therefore I seem to exist.
I am, therefore I
I am, therefore seemingly I.
I am.

What else could it be?

If I didn't wake-up, how to tell what?

~ Erro

Friday, October 26, 2012

What you are looking for is what is looking.


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St Francis of Assisi said, "What you are looking for is what is looking." It could mean different to a lot of people. Example, for a Christian whose belief is on monotheism, the statement would mean a pious understanding that god is looking after his creation and there should be no cause of worry at the part of his creatures. However, for a mystic, the words embodies a wider understanding of reality, wherein the Truth can't be ascribed from what we are trying to grasp. 

When we try to look for something missing, say a pen, we imagine the pen must be somewhere else apart from us and hidden from our sight. Apparently, in trying to find the pen we always have the notion of: 

                     1. the individual seeking the pen
                     2. the pen
                     3. the act of seeking the pen

And we might find the pen after a while and we call the seeking over. The notion of seeking (having the seeker or subject, the object being sought, and the act of seeking) is strongly in our heads as a necessary connection to implement the seeking successfully. Then we apply this seemingly effective strategy in looking for the thing we call the Truth. We have the Seeker, the Seeking and the Truth. And then we hope the Truth can be finally revealed just as the pen was successfully located.

Ain't happening that way......

Going back to what St Francis said, the same can be reworded to say, "What you've seeking for is already where you're seeking from". Having said this, the words simply mean that the Truth we are seeking is not somewhere out there. The Truth is already at the location and time where we are seeking from. The Here and Now. The Truth is no other than the presence felt and not the imagined object apart from what is already is at the very instance of every looking.

So, when we say we are the Seeker Seeking the Truth, the very same conception is the culprit of it all.  The Truth can only be revealed if we cease on our earnest seeking. There is no other moment other than the sense of now-ness. The Seeker, Seeking and Truth is just one. Everything else is just a concept.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Purpose of Life


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No one said that the prescription should be serious. The whole pill is never meant to bring you to utter seriousness as to what the purpose of life really is. You often encounter the term "a purpose-driven life" seriously pertaining to stuffs to attain happiness, a character of life in which there imagined to dwell the undying bliss of living. And then you go on to a strict regimen of following the prescription to happiness forgetting along the way the first and only essence of life and happiness which is already here and now. 

Happiness is not a goal in the end of the line. It is not the last bang of the gong in an orchestral presentation. Not when you're finished licking your favorite icecream; not when you're done with your orgasm; not when your hated neighbor is already dead or your in-grown nails have been removed. Happiness is the music along the music itself rugged or clean, rough or smooth, annoying or cool. If happiness is found at the end, then all people should already be happy by now. But no, because happiness is not at the end of the tunnel. Happiness is along the tunnel.

The purpose of life is not to be serious at finding out what the purpose of life really is. It is to live at this moment. Do not desecrate this moment by imagining there should be another kind of moment. There is none.  If you happen to find the purpose of life, what are you going to do with it? Parade it? Running around naked, shouting eureka? Looking down on people for not finding their happiness as you think you  just did?

The "purpose of life" is just a trick of the mind; a poetic language to deceive self from feeling the presence; a pious statement which belies the present moment in exchange of still inexistent notions and expectations. 

Monday, October 22, 2012

On Legalized Compassion


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There is an understanding worthy to arrive at:  that an action is ought to be done because it is the right thing to do and not that a Supreme Being or gods or the government tells it is so.

All are interconnected. And this is a very popularly accepted idea. Calamity, for example, unites people together. At hours of extreme distress, the will of men converges to help each other out. People don't waste time waiting for someone, say a free-riding politician, to say what needed to be done. A deeply seated impulse is acted out to help others. Cooperation comes out unpremeditated and compassion is a palpable sphere.

Out of unending difficulties, the aim of men is to fulfill compassion effectively. And perhaps there is no other way to signify the intent to help others than forming an organized compassion delivery system called Government. Social services, which aim to grant to everybody the means to survive and improve their well-being, are in place.

Government social services are made possible through legislation. With such, the allocation of funds is guaranteed. However, government cannot be separated from taxation. Government is funded by forced contributions or taxes. And every government social program is guaranteed by taxes. There is a statist view that the best way to fix all social problems is to legislate the way through it. This is to demand everybody to contribute in the name of everybody's well-being practically to reiterate and to convince people of the "goodness" of the popular view that all people are interconnected. In a certain way, compassion through government is a legislated compassion, a compassion legalized.

But, though the intent of taking care of all people can be applauded, government social programs have ill effects that are later on to be seen. The intention is never wrong. What is wrong lies in the means by which society tried to attain the goal. The problem is to be blamed mainly on the legislation of compassion itself. 

The impulse to help others is an inherent part of human nature. However, there is a bad taste if the act of helping others is tried to be accomplished with government laws. Given the coercive nature of government laws, eg. tax collection, taxpayers can only give up to a limit. The social program is then unsustainable and is doomed to fail and can only be extended until the threat of jail against the taxpayers is effective. Another ill effect would be on the recipients. Constant dole-out services would create dull minded citizens not capable of appreciating self-worth and dignity and will eventually be consumed by a parasitic attitude.  But the worst effect worth mentioning last is that the funds will be likely squandered and plundered by in-charge bureaucrats. 

A strong lobby for more social services would be inevitable. People would require more from the government and other people and less from their own selves. People would be boldly parasitic on taxes supplied by the working class.And this would happen so easily in a society whose people already forgot the voluntary nature of compassion. 

A government-hosted compassion should be a no-no. Compassion is to be done from inside out. Not that the government says it is so. Not even when the gods ordered it to be done. Not even when your friends or parents insist you to do it. But only when you feel you love doing it because you understand that it is so and not otherwise.


Sunday, October 21, 2012

The Laziest Way to Awakening


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I have discovered the secret formula of Awakening! Prepare yourself to receive the simplest and laziest instruction to  Enlightenment!(scroll to the bottom please)























Hey, stop....... Did you get it? hahahaha!
Forgive me, the joke is not that automatic. :-)

Friday, October 19, 2012

What is Enlightenment?


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Tackling Enlightenment will always be a Lie for me. So I was hesitant at first to spout words what it is. But seeing that the word Lie has never been lesser nor greater than the concept of Enlightenment, for these two are mere ideas, I came to juggle thoughts about enlightenment with joy in me that there is no harm and no benefit, no loss and no take to be made. Make no mistake because the play of juggling is no more than like when birds sing or when trees move with the wind with no desire whatsoever. It is just is.

So what is enlightenment? Enlightenment is a realization that there is nothing to be understood; there is no place to arrive at; and there is no goal to be achieved. It is to see that there is no other moment other than what your presence shows it is. It is to grasp that you can never be where you are not. Is to embrace the fact that you can never go to where you are now.

Understanding enlightenment may require you to decipher the underlying crypt on a lot of concepts about time and space. Time concepts like Now, Present, Past, Future, wrong time, right time, untimely, in a short while, a little while, yesterday and a lot more. Space concepts includes, here, there, where, far, near, center and many more. You will come to understand that these concepts no matter how varying they may seem at first always converge into a single point of the mind. Everything is just a thought. Without a thought arising, there can never be any concepts at all. But there will always be a vantage position no words can be used to describe it. This will show you that everything you think, glamorous or not, sad or happy, terrible, horrible, glorious or hell, including your idea of who you are, are nothing but mere thoughts. What remains is the only the sense you exist in which rationalization is never required at all.

If you are confined alone in a perfectly dark box that no slit of light can enter, no glare of day can appear, you will still feel that you are there. You have the perfect sense you are there. It can never be otherwise. You just know you exist. And you don't have to interpret that you indeed exist.

Understanding the concept of Now may also bring the understanding of Enlightenment. Now is not the same as Present. Now contains the moment of Present. Now is the Presence, the Awareness wherein Present passes by. Enlightenment is therefore an understanding that awareness is all there is. What appears before your awareness are mere happenings wherein it can never be possible to be aware of without awareness first. What appears  is not a separate phenomenon from you being aware of it. Your awareness is what makes the happenings possible. Without your awareness, how can we tell what? Reading this piece can never be possible if you did not wake up from your last sleep.  And there is no way for you to know that this piece exists while you're on bed lying dead. How can you know?  It is not even possible to know what does it feels like doing something else than what you  are perfectly doing right now. So, you are just an awareness.

Enlightenment is to see that we are not what we think we are. You, I, Me, Us, They, Them, Mine, We are just thoughts. What we think we are are just thoughts, like all other thoughts which passes by while we are aware of it. What then? Answering that will bring in more thoughts. Discover it for yourself.

If you think enlightenment is to always feel nice, you got it right until you see it clearly that you got it wrong. Go inside you and see that enlightenment is a feelingless Feeling; choiceless Choice and a selfless Self. 

Property Rights for Beginners Like Me


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On your way back home you saw on the dirt a lustrous pebble. You picked it up and called it your own. Supposed another man saw what you got and said he wants that pebble too, you wouldn't give it up for nothing. You found it first, therefore you feel you own it. The other man might acknowledge your assertion and he will leave you alone with a pebble you call your own. Or insist on his demand that he owns the pebble and might beat you to a pulp just to get it from you and then, as you did, call it his own.

The dispute over the pebble can be solved by laws of property rights. It is a convention to materialize on paper the ownership of a property or economic goods. PR is a legalized assertion of possession of anything just to avoid protracted disputes over property ownership and disposal. 

Why disputes occur by the way? The short answer is that economic goods are scarce. If only there were two lustrous pebbles, the dispute would be less likely to happen. Property rights therefor exists to settle the issue of ownership over scarce economic goods. The air we breath is not scarce, so property right issues would not naturally arise. However, if such air comes in forms of purified air in a specialized packaging for special purposes, the manufacturer has the property right over those scarce packaged purified air. 



Thursday, October 18, 2012

Fake Compassion and the Sin Tax Bill


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Philippines - Well, a monkey catcher knows well how to catch a monkey. One of his clever ways to catch a monkey is to put a banana inside a coconut shell with a hole just enough for the hand of the monkey. The shell is tied to a fixed anchor. When the monkey puts its hand inside the shell and grabs the banana, the catcher will show up in surprise. Holding on to the banana on its hands inside the shell that was tied to a post, the terrified monkey can't pull its hands out. The job is now too easy for the monkey catcher. 

Now, when it comes to bureaucrats and society, the easiest way to trick the sheep out of the people is to deceive them there is super bushy green pasture ahead awaiting them. Or better yet feed them what they really like along the way. 

The Philippine Sin tax bill is about to change to landscape of cigarette and liquor industry.in the country. Both farmers and puffers; both brewers and tomadors. Sin tax will raise prices on tobacco and liquor products by charging more taxes on these products. The higher pricing is claimed by sin tax proponents will effectively reduce people indulgence on tobaccos and liquor thus could bring positive health effects into the society overall. Also with so much emphasis on the potential huge collection of taxes to fund government health services, proponents says the sin tax is good for the public health. The agenda is glaringly noble (it seems): FOR THE GOOD OF THE PUBLIC. Who doesn't want public good by the way?

So, the typically dole-out minded Filipinos is once again subjected under a socialistic propaganda of Papa Government taking care of its children. Sin tax will collect more funds to take care the poor. Health services for the poor; hospital rooms with air conditioners for the poor; free MRI for the poor; free healthcare for the poor.  Indeed. Without these typical sweetcoats do you think poor people and their representative wouldn't ram for the sin tax bill? Heck. Everybody wants a sugar-coated lollipop even it was a pepper lollipop.

But what is wrong with Papa Government taking care of the people?  What is wrong with taking care of the people by the way? None. Taking care of poor people is a sign of compassion and love. What is wrong is that we already developed this mentality that it is only through government that we can express our compassion to poor people. No longer it becomes people taking care of people. So we let bureaucrats and politicians legislate ways to enforce compassion while assuming poor people have every right to be taken care of. But to be taken care of is not a right. Bullshit. It is a privilege. We afford privilege to interest groups, the poor sector, through government laws which can only be enforced at the expense of the actual rights of the the ones taxes are taken from. 

So no. Though Sin tax is being taught as a way to take care for the poor, it is only a step closer to a socialistic mentality of parasitism and dole-out mindedness. Compassion must naturally grow from within each person. Not by government force of laws but by mere understanding what true love is. Not while bureaucrats, lobby groups and interest groups parasitically benefit on the taxes forcefully take from the productive sector of the society.

Freedom or No freedom at All


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No one is born democrat or republican, liberal or conservative, right or left, donkey or elephant. One is only born either alive or dead human baby. No one is even born free or slave. Again, just alive or dead babies.

Freedom is just an idea. Just like all other ideas, freedom only matters to the ones still living. Never been to the dead. We can only have the time to bicker about it as long as we are still alive. Once we're dead we're done. So allow me to bicker and I chose to bicker about it sensibly. 

There are two options we can take in the name of talking. Either there is freedom or there is none at all. Since I am a believer of another idea called unlimited rights I chose to believe that the  idea of freedom is better that the idea that men have no freedom at all. But though just an idea, freedom is an excellent idea for humans to have. Freedom is not a separately existing phenomenon in our realm (more precisely my realm). It is a part of the whole sense of existence we call consciousness (more precisely my consciousness). Freedom is the number one ingredient to feel the totality of being. 

On the other hand, the idea that no man is free is also a viable idea to cling into. There is nothing wrong with that. But for me that can only be possible if there is a plausible reason that I can use to say that I own a part of  someone's inherent feeling of his or her own totality with him or her necessarily agreeing that it is so. Unfortunately, I have yet to find one so I have to reject the idea that no man is free. In short, all men are born free.

The sense of freedom is a feeling that does not need any rationalization. The feeling of it arises on its own. There is always a desire to be free from any kind of control. Controls may come in the form of government laws and taxes, mob rule, parental control, oppression or religious control. Self-guilt, worries and anxieties are also forms of control anyone would want to be free from.

There is no time men never wanted to be free. The mind has the propensity to be go beyond. That is a bold manifestation that indeed humans didn't wish to be enslaved by anything or anyone. There is always a struggle to keep up above bounds and to be at a place beyond limits. Insisting that men has no freedom will contradict the inherent and unthought and unprovoked sense of freedom.
 Prosperity resides in a society of freemen.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

We All Want to be Happy


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Just be.
Objects of consumption can't be marketed without exploiting the human's idea of pleasure, contentment, and happiness. The element of improved well-being always comes in. To buy the product, people must be enticed to believe that the product they are about to buy is a well-packaged pleasure and happiness. People would not pay attention without the anticipated satisfaction upon consumption.

The nature of men is often baffling yet the reason behind it is very simple: all men wanted to be happy. Who would want to live in misery? The lingering dissatisfaction drives a man to act for good for himself. The sense of incompleteness pushes a man not to be idle in pursuing what might bring him pleasure or what might end his misery. That woman craving for beautifully crafted clothes, that child wanting his favorite ice cream, that neighbor who is about to hang himself to death, that rich old man who is about to pay for a young lady he can have sex with tonight and that evil dictator committing genocide to keep his power are all manifestations that men wanted to be happy. All men wanted to make themselves feel complete. 

Our nature is to be happy. However, humans are trapped in the idea that happiness can be achieved through the satisfaction of desires. So they try to acquire anything they think can give them what they want and then live happily ever after with it. But that is impossible. The fulfillment of desires may bring a sense of completeness but that ends sooner or later. To be totally happy, the only way is to realize that anything gained will only last in a short while.

True happiness can't reside on or in anything. What was gained will be lost. What was acquired will be dissolved. What was born will meet death soon. Happiness can't even reside in anyone. How can then true happiness stay? True happiness can only stay when it is realized that we are happiness itself. That is why it can't even reside in us because it is already us. The thought of incompleteness may persists but it is only in and by the mind. Without the mind struggling what happiness ought to be, there would be total happiness. True happiness is not even the idea of absence of sadness. It is beyond the idea of happiness. We are beyond the mind.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Who am I?


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Who am I? 
What am I?
I am not really looking for an answer. 
I am looking for the one asking it. 
When the one in doubt is found, 
The question ceases to exist. 

The answer will be revealed not that the question was satisfied. 

The answer will be revealed only because the question resigned first.
And the question will only stop when the questioner is found.
Who am I?
What am I?
Find the one who asks. Find the questioner.
God will be revealed.

~Erro

Sunday, September 2, 2012

What is I Am Practice by Ramana Maharshi?


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The great Hindu Sage Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi taught about the practice of I Am. But many followers were asking, and many seekers even today, ask what is this I Am practice Ramana was talking about. It seems I am is very difficult to grasp. For if it easy, the realization will come so easily.

The main purpose of I Am is to know the thing every seeker is wishing to have: the Reality. At first it is honestly not easy to grasp what Ramana meant with I Am practice. He said remain in I Am and if one is ardent in this, he will understand who or what he is. But seekers are at lost what this I Am is all about. What kind of idea is it? How to implement it? How to begin it?

Reality can be known through I Am. There is one short explanation of this I Am which beginners could start from. I Am is simply a feeling. How is that? Being aware that you are here reading this piece is an I Am feeling. I Am is the the feeling that you exist. You can begin from this inherent sense that you do not don't exist. Whenever you are aware there is a feeling of existence amidst everything happening around. That is the I Am feeling.

You are never not aware. This is I Am feeling. Remaining in it will bring the understanding who you are. You are the unconditional bliss. Nothing more. But you need to know and verify it yourself. It can be done through the practice of I am.



Saturday, September 1, 2012

When the Student is ready, the Teacher appears


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All of a sudden my teacher appeared from nowhere. 

And he didn't appear by himself. 
He appeared not for any other reason;
Than me becoming an able student first. 



When the inquiry arises from within;
An able teacher will come to visit. 
And this happened not that it has been by doing. 
But primarily this came upon because it just happened. 



When the student is already ripe;
The teacher now ceases to exists;
Along with the student, the two will go.
The student and teacher now merges. 

Nobody does anything. 
All is happening. 


Saturday, July 28, 2012

Life is It is as It is


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Joy is...
not when the debate of existence is settled;
not when theories are finally proven;
not when the intellectual opponent is dead or put to shame;
not when the judges awarded the winning prize;
not when the Endgame is finally reached.

Joy is while it is as it is.
That is what I call Life!

~Erro

Friday, July 27, 2012

An Invite to See WHO AM I?


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After all the bets had been placed, will you concede that having you here reading this material  is a result of a thrown trillion of trillions of dices up in the air then all landed with faces of 1 up? The probability of that ever happening is negligible but obviously in a rather interesting fashion, you ended up in here against all odds of being in here.

Owing to the rarity of people, or more precisely to say rarity of computers using an internet app that is configured to see this kind of document, plus the vastness of the momentary space-time, being in a fact that you are seeing this thingy means you are  caught and trapped in a cosmic conspiracy to have a look at something of extraordinary nature. The once perfect improbability of finding this kind of internet write-up and once perfectly unknown possibility of being in this exact circumstance has already collapsed. A new dawn of intellectual and spiritual encounter along the way of knowing the true being of existence is already in your front.

The bidding for daily usual activities appears to be as predictable as it could get but here you come in a blink of an eye and before you lies something that is seen as an unexpected deviation from your daily activities like perhaps you should be busy worrying the next pay for the rent or enjoying a chat with friends over a cup of coffee. But I tell you, this is not a deviation from the normal program of the day. You can still enjoy a cup of coffee while reading this. It is just that things, as all other things before growing with them in familiarity, have the unavoidable circumstantial genesis or the one we call “the first experience”. So it is not a deviation in a strict sense but rather just a first taste, a first date, a first slap, a first palpable encounter of something that now begins to confirm what has been hiding beneath your mind for the most part of your life.

Of course you can always opt out, go back to your usual ways, like worrying a lot of things, and close this computer window and never to be here again. But I don’t need to force you to indulge into it if you have the natural itch, not the type that irritates you, to know something. You would come back to it no matter what perhaps not on this same material but in many other forms out there. It is your subconscious boiling up and trust me when I say just relax and let nature, or whatever you want to call it, takes its course.

For now, let me say this is just an invite not that I, or anyone, have chosen you to take part nor you have chosen it yourself to be a part of it but rather just to take part because it has arisen to be so. That is why I called it a cosmic conspiracy. All things obviously connive with each other just to bring you here. All we are doing is celebrating the once completely impossible probability of celebrating it. Oh yes I am only talking about the obvious circumstance that never appeared to you to be possible in any manner before. This is the first taste, a never planned, surprising, and completely unexpected first taste of big things to come.

To See

We are looking for an answer. But first we want to know the question first. Up to now you might be guessing what this is all about. But your indulgence have brought you in a place to see first not what the answer is but what the question is. 

But I am warning you that the question does matter only when at some point in past times of your life you were so honest to have ever asked what is this all about. What is life? What is existence? What the hell am I doing here? Or perhaps you are naturally inclined to deal with things which are beyond the superficial affairs like judging a fellow lady worker how awful her dress was or engaging in gossips about people you hate just to make your own selfishly happy for a moment.

You can resign from here and go back to what you usually do and forget everything you have read so far if you can’t feel a pull from the inside. The pull from the inside is an honest feedback from the subconscious, your inner being, which is not really verbal but just an intuition saying you are worthy to go on honestly beyond this sentence.

The question is: WHO AM I?

The question does matter, doesn’t it? Does it ring a bell inside? I hope it is. Now, I tell you the only way is forward from hereon. You have a choice to stop? None. Not a chance of ever stopping. And you will know why later on.

Monday, July 23, 2012

The Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question


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Why do we exist? Aha!

Good God..Here we go again. Damn. The deathless question about existence. Why do we exist? Oh brother, how can we ever answer that question?

I think there is no answer. Why? Because it is pathetic asking such. But somehow, asking such question may come as noble as it sounds. This shows a good mark of intelligence to ever come to a place of asking in such a tone. I call it the upper level or the higher consciousness. However, to be stuck in higher consciousness is never a guarantee that one is better than his older self. Asking the question and never finding the answer is still as good as being stuck.

There can never be a complete answer to the question of existence. Perhaps there is a reason why there can't be an answer. Perhaps the question itself is wrong at the first place.

Look. Long time ago, you were born.....sent to school...taught by people around...and then arrived to a moment you can be proud of every knowledge you have accumulated your entire life. But there is a lingering problem. The problem of NEXT. What is next? What is next. Hell. what is next? And it can only be possible to question that way because deep inside you are quite bored. So the next question would naturally arise, the ultimate question, WHY DO WE EXIST?

But then again.....the question is perhaps wrong. The question is false from the onset. What I am saying therefore is to look for the right question first before we can ever hope to find the right answer.

So what is right the question then? Oh damn! That is the answer!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Eureka! They Found the Testicle (God) Particle


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Higgs Boson might have been finally found. This is the particle better known as the God Particle.

Higgs Boson or God Particle is known to be the last particle to fit the puzzle how universe started. This is the particle associated with mass or the sense of weight and can be called the gravity particle.

Now scientists say they might have finally found it. Well, good. But you know what, this post yet another problem for them. For sure, one way or another, a bigger question would arise out of the discovery of  Higgs Boson. My best guess is: What does Higgs Boson made of? Sounds so ridiculous is it not? I will wait and see.

But in my own terms, I can't refuse to call God Particle in most practical term I can come up with: The Testicle Particle. I agree it is not as sophisticated as it sounds. But I believe God Particle is the same particle my testicles are made of. If it's not then why my testicles dangle downward at the force of gravity? There is only one answer to that. My testicles must be made up of God Particles. Higgs Boson is what's contained in my scrotum.

Well, seriously, I am happy that humans of my own specie are reaping off the fruits of their tenacity to find where they came from. This only shows humans want to settle for good and hope to cast aside the stubborn problem of creation. I know what is in the head, consciously and subconsciously. That every humans aim is to be happy. Happiness is what motivates every struggle, is it not? And this includes finding what we really are. The Reality.

Happiness is the essence of Life. Nothing brings it perfectly than a man knowing what he is or what reality is. So good luck. The Buddha already pointed out what is it. The scientist just opted to look for it in another way. I am confident man would arrive, after so much scientific experiments, at the place the Buddha had thought for ages.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The Endgame is not the Goal


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The desire to win any challenge, say in a sport, is what exactly motivates every competitor to train really hard. Coaches will demand that every member of their teams must give all what they got at every practice. Setting an objective lesser than winning the top spot is not a good way to start. Winning the top, knocking all the rest who once coveted the same, is what matters most.

However, if winning is calculably impossible, the competitor is expected to give a good fight so that in the end when he look back, though lost the fight, is still considered a winner in a different sense apart from that of the one holding the winning bag.

Looking at it in subtlety, there lies the intent to reach the goal or the endgame not just merely to win it rather more importantly to reach the finish line with high spirit intact knowing there is contentment as to how ample effort has been well executed.

Apparently, the only reason to fight is to be fulfilled. That is the apparent goal, is it not? To be fulfilled. Not necessarily winning it though winning it may come as a big bonus in itself. The closest motivation is to have that sense of fulfillment at the end.

But there is a problem. If the goal is expected to be found at the endgame, why is it still necessary to spend an effort in competing while under the regulation of time, ie. 4 ten-minute quarters for basketball? Why not just use the classic head and tail game to determine the winner? The reason is perfectly simple that the Endgame is not really the Goal. Much like in an orchestra which is not aimed at banging the last note but rather playing the entire music beautifully, the goal is not found at the end of the game rather the goal is the game while it is being played.

In all wisdom, there is no goal at the end of every challenge. The goal is itself to remain playing as long it is required to go on playing. And because playing is itself the goal, the execution is always perfectly fulfilling because it comes as it is so spontaneously.  That is when the true winner emerges. The dance didn't aim for the last step. The dance number is aimed at the dance itself.

Same thing is true with Life. That is why the Buddha emphasized his teachings not on desires and goals rather on the present play of the moment That is the beauty of realizing that the goal of life is never at the end of the tunnel; never when men will find out where they came from or where they are headed; never when Higgs-Boson particle confirms the Creation or Big Bang; or never when String Theory of Everything  is confirmed to be true.

Now is the Goal. Now is the Endgame. Nothing else.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Guilt by Orgasm: A Wanker's Confession


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When I was a teenager, I used to masturbate a lot everyday. My record is seven in one day. And I did get blisters on my penis. And when I shower and begun to use the soap, oh man, that really hurt a lot. But then at every chance in every corner I can find, my hand seems to have its own brain to wank my thing. Jacking-off is often the menu of the day back then.

I was a religious kid and a devoted member of a Christian sect. Every after masturbation I would pray for forgiveness of the sin (which I was thought it is) I have just committed. Imagine it's kinda a meal prayer before every meal. In my case I got it reversed. Jack-off first then pray. But then I grew bored. No. Not on masturbation. Rather, I got bored praying. So eventually I stopped praying and got myself into a masturbation spree everyday for a long time.

Honestly I don't masturbate anymore. Well, uhhhmmmm, I just lied. I still play my own thing. But minus the pray part already and certainly not as frequent. I am already a married man.

My focus now is to tackle the pray part. What made me did the praying? The answer is SIN. Inside every Christian church, I believe, there is a crusade happening. A crusade against lust. Lust is considered as a sin and could amount a ticket to Hell if someone dies with his lustful sins.

Sexual desire is considered lust by the church leaders. And since masturbation is an exhibition of this "sin", this activity should not be tolerated in order for followers to inherit the physical place called Heavens. With the promise of inheriting the Heavens in mind of every Church member, including me, everyone must weigh in themselves what habits they would choose. One is to jack-off or not to jack-off. As for ladies, the term jack-off is not appropriate. Their thing is too delicately small. It is more of like of stroking or fingering. But everything amounts to the same habit called masturbation.

Guilt

The pray part was necessary for me to wash away my sin. I was taught that way. The rule is simple. everyone must have a clean life. And at moment it can't be done, asking for forgiveness is a very important. Violating the rule will result in the automatic feeling of guilt. This guilt feeling is not a good sensation. It is like cursing the own self why it did something it believes should not have done. Guilt was the reason why I did pray every after ejaculation. I need to feel free of guilt of violating a rule of clean living. But that's before.

Sexual Desire a Sin?

Come to think of it. Why does sexual desire have to called a sin? On what axiom they based that assertion? Stealing your neighbor's wife might be obviously offensive to her husband (but glorious to her) and worth a guillotine But hey what you gonna think about while wanking? A female martian? Trying to imagine how a martian vagina looks like would be a huge problem.

Since masturbation includes only a desire, as opposed to getting a quickie with a neighbor's lady, I can't imagine why some people would think sexual desire is not as natural as desiring for food when one is hungry. Humans got to be consistent on this one.

Masturbation is a Sin?

If masturbation is a sin, that would be the biggest reason why I will never stop doing it. My short answer is NO. 

Orgasm is the feeling associated whenever the one masturbating reach the peak of the activity. That is when the mind is blank, the tongue is tied, the eyeballs are tilted in abnormal direction, the jaw is locked, and the testicle is in its most contracted state. I forgot to mention the semen shooting out. Most of these conditions appear at every peak whether in masturbation or having a partner or having a wet dream. My question would then be: At what point does orgasm is different in each of the cases? NONE. Again, humans got to be consistent on this one.

I think I have amply justified why I need no prayers to wash away my sins after masturbating. There is no sin. Besides, sin is just a concept. What I need is a clean napkin to wipe my semen off.

I Am Aware, Therefore I Exist


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I Am Aware, therefore I exist. Of course these are just words. I couldn't have possibly coined them in such fashion without first learning the language. Institutionalized learning also taught me to adhere to grammatical conventions.

No other question have ever bugged me my entire life than the question WHO AM I? I have desperately tried to look for an answer for a long long time. This is the question of existence itself. And I believe there is nothing more productive in life than to contemplate on this stubborn question.

The debate about existence is superficially deep in any side you will look it from. In every manner there is no escape from the fundamental deception posited in the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness, wherein conceptual framework is wholly taken as real i.e. resorting to words and intellect (which are products of conventions) and then struggling to explain reality (which is wordless) using these lingual conventions.

Intellect can infinitely assign labels for anything under the sun. There are words allotted for groups, races, preferences, color, degree of pleasure and pain and so on. The intellectual database has a vast array of concepts which can be used to refer to anything. Description is indeed ample.

But the problem is that words can only tell about something. It is not the thing. Words are dual in nature. A word is exclusive for something only. The dilemma then comes when one tries to look for one grand term to refer to the Groups of all groups. What term would that be? Reality? Nothingness? Everything? God? All-encompassing? Big electron? It can't be possible. Most of what we can end up to is surrender to the fundamentally simple idea that there is no term sufficient in itself to describe the one thing we can't.

So what is next?

The answer is intriguing. To put it as honestly as I can, there is NONE. But wait. Verbally it is none. The answer being sought is not another word, not another thought, and not another concept. The answer of WHO AM I? is nothing but an intuition

The answer is so simple. There can be no other way I can do anything without first being aware. Putting in a simpler manner, I can't be in here mumbling without first waking up in the morning. If I didn't, then I am not here. Since the only vantage point that can be verifiably true is my own standpoint and though onlookers may protest they have their own too, I can only assume that they have and there is no way for me to be in their space-time location to prove it. The thing is I am just aware. Nothing more. 

Therefore, to amply satisfy the mind I am cursed to use yet another insufficient term called Awareness. Thus,

I Am Aware, Therefore I Exist or I Am Aware, Therefore I Am .
 .