I spent yesterday afternoon entranced by this book, The Lazy Man’s Guide To Enlightenment, by Thaddeus Golas. This book strikes on profound-but-simple concepts that had the power to open me, and a large readership who expressed great appreciation for The Guide, to drastic, new perspective on not only my subjective reality, but the universe as a whole. I’m aware that this book isn’t a new arrival, but isn’t that a staple of good literature? Timelessness. Persistence. It kind of reminds me of the brilliant yet underrated movie, Orange County. Once Collin Hanks' character achieves a higher level of awareness, his journey can move forward from the quest triggered by the content some book that happened to come into his hands. Once TomHank'sSon comes to this state of revelatory acceptance, he tucks the book carefully under some sand on the beach, just as he had found it so it could find its way into the next deserving hands....Lil' Tom Hanks might've made a real good boy scout....never know....good at knots and making fires, and what knots?
The psychedelia movement of the ‘70s is a heavy influence in Golas’ writing. He uses terms like “vibrations” or “vibes” to express a recognizable level of consciousness that influences the harmony of individuals when relating to each other. "Music shows us how to maintain pleasure and ecstasy," he writes, noting that you must let each note pass and let go of its beauty so that the next note can come. Then the song can progress towards completeness. Golas is suggesting that existing on different vibration levels (space, energy and mass; space is to energy as energy is to mass) and the movement between those planes can maintain constant pleasure if we open ourselves up to a broader awareness - the big picture. He acknowledges an openness which every individual has the capacity to reach, thus becoming “space.” His “no resistance” approach to consciousness is based on bold, metaphysical concepts like “Whether I am conscious of it or not, I am one with the cause of all that exists,” and “Love is the action of being in the same space with other beings, which means that love is real, as real as we are.”
Golas offers this advice to the reader:
“Whatever you are doing, love yourself for doing it. Whatever you are thinking, love yourself for thinking it. Love is the only dimension that needs to be changed. If you are not sure how it feels to be loving, love yourself for not being sure of how it feels. There is nothing on earth more important that the love which conscious beings feel towards each other, whether or not it is ever expressed.”
He defines the universe as our relations to each other as equal beings. By accepting that these relations have always, ever and are occurring exactly as they are intended (as a result of every equal being acting with free will), any personal experience is as essential to the universe as any tree is to the forest. There is no fault in contributing any experience to the collective whole; therefore, there is no sense in doubt or regret. This brief overview is not sufficient in the understanding of how “far out” Golas’ manuscript gets.
There is a movie called Bickford Schmeckler’s Cool Ideas that is pretty much a rip off of Golas’ story and his book. The movie isn’t all that bad, though. The kid from Almost Famous costars with super hot Olivia Wilde.
The fact that she, Meaghan Fox, and the lesbian parts of Black Swan exist is enough enlightenment for me.
Would you rather be older Patrick Fugit with his book of cool ideas and OliviaWilde, or
tiny reporter Pat surrounded by sex, drugs, rock and roll, and of course Miss Penny Lane?
After I finished the little piece of lobotomizing literature, I felt that this book served to me as a much needed checkpoint. I feel capable of complete control over my attitude, even when I fall into an unpleasant state. I know that once we as individual beings relate a certain way, "it's always within us to relate that way." As always there was the constant traffic of the impossibly attractive girls that swarm campus on pleasant Spring afternoons in Oxford. So I had that goin’ for me, which was nice. Cannonball coming! Cannonballll coming. -- B.owel M.ovement
My friend Monty* introduced me to this song called “Crave You” by Flight Facilities, and simply stated, it’s a real neat one! It keeps this awesome background keyboard progression throughout the song, and layers it with some electronica beats and the sexcellent voice of 20 year old Australian female lead singer Giselle Rosselli. She's awesome-looking.
The song also has a cool music video with Rosselli being all sexy and doing cool things like eating a popsicle chilling on her kitchen counter, and another girl playing the character of the guy Rosselli is “craving” in the song. Lesbianism is cool.
Also, when I finally forced myself to do work for class, I read a pretty awesome story about John McCain from a speech he gave during his 2000 campaign. Apparently during McCain’s FIVE-YEAR stint as a POW in North Vietnam, one guard would loosen his handcuffs every night and then tighten them up in the morning just before the next guard would show up for his round. Then one day in the prison yard, the cool handcuff guard walked up to and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with McCain, and in a moment of shared awareness, the guard drew a cross in the sand with his foot, which spoke more loudly than any words, then shuffled it away. The guard's actions derived from a high level of love, which Golas describes as "the action of being in the same space with other beings." In the wise words of the prophet Vincent Vaughn, “People helping people; it’s powerful stuff.” However, McCain’s war story was probably bullshit, more scripted than the witty quips Vince Vaughn improvises that are so money, trying capitalize heartwarming stories of human empathy to gain votes. Politics is a cynical enterprise.
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