I believe we must be approaching the End of the World.
You see, usually weather around here in the Pacific Northwest is nice during the week (if nice at all). Then when you get time off, when the weekend arrives, it gets lousy out.
But last weekend it was beautiful. Now this weekend is supposed to be beautiful. During this week, not so much.
So, I'm suspecting that (as usually, third is a charm, right?), the world will be ending the weekend after next.
So? Nice knowin' ya'll. Later. Much, much, later....
NOTE: Don't you just love how ethnocentric I'm being? Okay, geocentric. Geez, picky, picky, picky. Like the meaning of words beyond their initial statement impact should count? It really is fun. I think those idiots in the media all the time, who are always spouting this kind of crap, are really on to something.
After all, what's more important than you are right?
I mean, the universe does revolve around yourself. Right?
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
My latest Interview by Sumiko Saulson
Ever hear of Sumiko Saulson's page ("Things that go bump in my head")? No?
Well, she's a writer who likes to inteview other writers. Check it out, it's pretty cool.
Okay, yes, there's more.
Yesterday (Sunday 8/5) she posted her most author interview, with uh, yeah, you probably guessed it... with me.
Which explains why I'm writing this. But she's more interesting than just my interview, so maybe take a look, give her pages a look, maybe say hi. You see, she was kind enough to interview me about my writings, so I thought I'd return the favor. Here. By telling you, about her and her writings.
You just might find something interesting there.
 |
| See? Things that go bump in my... well, you get the idea, right? |
Okay, yes, there's more.
Yesterday (Sunday 8/5) she posted her most author interview, with uh, yeah, you probably guessed it... with me.
Which explains why I'm writing this. But she's more interesting than just my interview, so maybe take a look, give her pages a look, maybe say hi. You see, she was kind enough to interview me about my writings, so I thought I'd return the favor. Here. By telling you, about her and her writings.
You just might find something interesting there.
The Blame Game
When I was seventeen I left my parent's house. For some years after I would blame anyone but myself for my problems, most especially, my parents. Things always seemed to happen to me because of how I was raised. Everything seemed to be my parent's fault. And things kept happening to me. It was nothing terrible, but just stuff, when it would happen, always seemed to be because of something other than me.
But once I accpeted that things in my life were mostly my own fault, or better and in not even "blaming" even myself, of my own design, and started to take responsibility for who I was and what I was doing, I stopped feeling so negative about life in general and about the people around me; even when it was indeed someone else's fault. I started to tell myself that yes, who I was had a lot to do with my parent's efforts (or lack of) in raising me and the home life that they created which at times, was very negative.
But at age eighteen, or at the age at which I moved out anyway, it then became my issue, my "fault" if you will and my responsibility to take what I had been given, and make myself who I then thought I should be. As adults, we are responsible for who we are. Prisons are full of people who never took on that responsibility.
Once I started looking at the bad things in my life, even when in some instances it truly was another's fault, life was just, better. In most instances things probably were my fault simply for allowing myself into a situtation that would allow for something bad to happen. Once I instead considered that had I simply made better, more well thought out decisions and consciously chosen the best of all possibly alternatives, then whatever bad thing that would have happened, very likely wouldn't have happened.
It was at that point, once I truly began to believe and accept it, that my life become more positive.
At that point, my relationships with people grew in quality and substance and life just seemed more friendly to me. Before that, I had few friends because once someone did something that I judged wrong, well, that was it for them. I had very high ethical expectations for people. Too high, I think.
But in the end, we're all Human. Right? We are falliable. We do make mistakes and hopefully, for some of us anyway, we do learn from them.
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me", certainly has some merit; but it leaves an opening for bad feelings. But, "fool me once shame on me", has even more power, more personal responsibility; it requires of you, more awareness in life and as long as you don't take it emotionally, but functionally, you are actually protecting yourself more, and the others from their harming you, or even themselves. You can trust them more openly, albeit with restraint and intelligence.
Someone once told me after they had ripped me off, "You were naieve in trusting so much, why did you believe me?" Why? Because I want to be able to trust those around me. Who wants to go through life not trusting everyone. It makes you paranoid after a while.
So from then on, if I got "burned" by someone (and understand that my bar for being "burned" back then was pertty low, it was almost, in a way, like I was setting people up to fail), it didn't mean that I wouldn't have you around, it just meant that I wouldn't allow you to burn me again, as it then became my responsibility not to let it happen. I put the burdon on myself for not allowing others to take advange of me and the responsibility became my own. At that point, I saw people around me with more empathy and concern, too.
It also meant that I got "burned" much less in the first place. In my opening up to them after the fact and sharing all that with them (if I did feel I had been burned), it did me more good, it helped them more (or gave them more opportunity for change) and it helped the relationship; IF there was anything there to help in the first place. After all, some people are just out to get whatever they can out of you. And at that point, if they weren't very good people to begin with, you know knew that and they usually made the decision to leave themselves, as I was no longer a source of abuse for them.
So as the Dalai Lama says, in this new way to viewing life and the people around me, I did feel more peace and joy in life and from then on, I was simply much happier with my life and who I was.
Responsibility, really can bring you Peace and Joy.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Whale Wars Captain Refuses German Interrment
Captain Paul Watson Sends First Message To Supporters Since Departing Germany
Read the link above for Paul Watson's statement about why he left Germany rather than waiting to be jailed and extradited to Japan.
Rutger Hauer posted this on his site today. Interesting coincidence? Maybe great minds just think alike. :) Okay, maybe not. But I appreciate Rutger pointing it out. Also, check out his Starfish Association AIDS charity page. Back to Paul....
I've been watching Whale Wars for a couple of years now. Having become a SCUBA diver in 1970 and growing up around the Puget Sound, I've always been attached to our oceans. One of the guides in my life has oddly enough been to not live too far from salt water. I've lived inland and frankly, didn't care for it.
I love Japan and historical Japanese culture. Having started martial arts in 6th grade, I was much more aware of Japan than I was our oceans for many years before that. I've always had a fascination for Japanese martial arts (I'm still on the Board of Directors for our local Aikido Dojo), cinema, foods and so on. But this is something that bothers me about them. I understand the arguments for and against their whaling and I fall on the side of being against. Sometimes we have to change our orientation, it's painful. But that's all there is to it. Cultures evolve. If your culture has always lived in wood houses and all the trees die, you change. So how about changing before they all die?
The idea that any country should be allowed to kill a thousand whales for "scientific purposes" is ridiculous. Japan is now killing around 1200 whales each year for its "research programmes". If their actions are scientific, then their testing is done through tasting, and all over Japan, out of fish markets and restaurants. Considering the size of whales, how in the Hell could you need 1200 whales for science and what scientist is going to be party to killing 1200 whales a year for their what, experiments?
We already know about Japan's relationship to dolphins and sharks (shark fin soup). I find it sad that they need to be beaten down to do what is right about this.
Read the link above for Paul Watson's statement about why he left Germany rather than waiting to be jailed and extradited to Japan.
Rutger Hauer posted this on his site today. Interesting coincidence? Maybe great minds just think alike. :) Okay, maybe not. But I appreciate Rutger pointing it out. Also, check out his Starfish Association AIDS charity page. Back to Paul....
I've been watching Whale Wars for a couple of years now. Having become a SCUBA diver in 1970 and growing up around the Puget Sound, I've always been attached to our oceans. One of the guides in my life has oddly enough been to not live too far from salt water. I've lived inland and frankly, didn't care for it.
I love Japan and historical Japanese culture. Having started martial arts in 6th grade, I was much more aware of Japan than I was our oceans for many years before that. I've always had a fascination for Japanese martial arts (I'm still on the Board of Directors for our local Aikido Dojo), cinema, foods and so on. But this is something that bothers me about them. I understand the arguments for and against their whaling and I fall on the side of being against. Sometimes we have to change our orientation, it's painful. But that's all there is to it. Cultures evolve. If your culture has always lived in wood houses and all the trees die, you change. So how about changing before they all die?
The idea that any country should be allowed to kill a thousand whales for "scientific purposes" is ridiculous. Japan is now killing around 1200 whales each year for its "research programmes". If their actions are scientific, then their testing is done through tasting, and all over Japan, out of fish markets and restaurants. Considering the size of whales, how in the Hell could you need 1200 whales for science and what scientist is going to be party to killing 1200 whales a year for their what, experiments?
We already know about Japan's relationship to dolphins and sharks (shark fin soup). I find it sad that they need to be beaten down to do what is right about this.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Batteries are primative
Dr. Michio Kaku says that Batteries are primitive. Check it out.
He has a point but not in the way he is thinking. For years I've been saying our next important breakthrough needs to be in batteries. Consider that many of the technologies first exhibited in the original Star Trek TV show are not available, cell phones (communicators, though not as powerful yet, still a huge advancement), the doors on the ship (yes, believe it or not), and other things, even tricorders to some extent.
But not a battery powerful enough to emit a plasma beam, or energize a shuttle craft. Batteries are primitive. But we don't need to be building better batteries to hold energy for use later.
Consider this for a moment. We need to eliminate batteries altogether. We need to build power sources or portals to supply unending power and there are many advances in that area. There are some major changes coming. Changes that will not elimiate the petroleum industry as we still make more products out of oil than you know about. But the energy companies, may simply disappear. So I've been investing in energy companies. Why? Because they are working toward better batteries and better energy systems. Although it is quite possible the true advance may come from an unforeseen sector, much like robotics has made great strides through toy companies and the military (though that isn't such a big surprise).
Here is a video about this. Don't believe any of it if you don't want to. That's not the point in my sharing it with you. Thinking in this direction, however, is. Check out: "Tesla The race to zero point free energy. I've known for decades what a raw deal Nikola Tesla (and the American and World public) got. The powers that be really put the screws to us in wanting to charge money and become rich at the expense of the public. Many, or even most of the things shown in this video may be just hype or at least not what they are professed to be, but it does prove the point that there are other ways of looking at energy production.
“...these features chiefly interest the scientific man, the thinker and reasoner. There is another feature which affords us still more satisfaction and enjoyment, and which is of still more universal interest, chiefly because of its bearing upon the welfare of mankind. Gentlemen, there is an influence which is getting strong and stronger day by day, which shows itself more and more in all departments of human activity, and influence most fruitful and beneficial—the influence of the artist. It was a happy day for the mass of humanity when the artist felt the desire of becoming a physician, an electrician, an engineer or mechanician or—whatnot—a mathematician or a financier; for it was he who wrought all these wonders and grandeur we are witnessing. It was he who abolished that small, pedantic, narrow-grooved school teaching which made of an aspiring student a galley-slave, and he who allowed freedom in the choice of subject of study according to one's pleasure and inclination, and so facilitated development.” Nikola Tesla
Just possibly there are ways we can eliminate our current ways of energy production that are so detrimental to our world and our lifestyles. We need to support these, even if they lead no where at times. We not only need to think outside the box, we need to throw the box away.
“...the idea gradually took hold of me that the earth might be used in place of the wire, thus dispensing with artificial conductors altogether. The immensity of the globe seemed an unsurmountable obstacle but after a prolonged study of the subject I became satisfied that the undertaking was rational...” Nikola Tesla
Maybe Tesla didn't have all the answers, but had we gone his direction with Humanity at mind and not the bottom dollar, had the US Government perhaps funded these types of things toward making them free, had we not been so capitalistically minded, and had the heads of industry not been so greedy and money minded, if we had just suffered through it a bit longer way back when, perhaps we would now have free energy. I know the over $200/mo I spend alone for myself for energy could easily go to other things far more interesting to me.
“But we shall not satisfy ourselves simply with improving steam and explosive engines or inventing new batteries; we have something much better to work for, a greater task to fulfill. We have to evolve means for obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever.” Nikola Tesla
We really don't need to be paying our money every month and so much of it, to Public (or private) utility departments for energy, PUDs need to disappear. Power should be free. So should healthcare but that's another issue. If we're going to try at all to move toward the utopian society exemplified in Star Trek (and why shouldn't we?), we need to be able to use all we want, to be power users to the utmost sense, without it destroying the planet. We have embarked on the information age and passed that. It is powered by electricity and maybe that too is primitive. But for now we need to have all the energy we need and then some, free, and without polluting either our environment or life forms.
Think about it.
He has a point but not in the way he is thinking. For years I've been saying our next important breakthrough needs to be in batteries. Consider that many of the technologies first exhibited in the original Star Trek TV show are not available, cell phones (communicators, though not as powerful yet, still a huge advancement), the doors on the ship (yes, believe it or not), and other things, even tricorders to some extent.
But not a battery powerful enough to emit a plasma beam, or energize a shuttle craft. Batteries are primitive. But we don't need to be building better batteries to hold energy for use later.
Consider this for a moment. We need to eliminate batteries altogether. We need to build power sources or portals to supply unending power and there are many advances in that area. There are some major changes coming. Changes that will not elimiate the petroleum industry as we still make more products out of oil than you know about. But the energy companies, may simply disappear. So I've been investing in energy companies. Why? Because they are working toward better batteries and better energy systems. Although it is quite possible the true advance may come from an unforeseen sector, much like robotics has made great strides through toy companies and the military (though that isn't such a big surprise).
Here is a video about this. Don't believe any of it if you don't want to. That's not the point in my sharing it with you. Thinking in this direction, however, is. Check out: "Tesla The race to zero point free energy. I've known for decades what a raw deal Nikola Tesla (and the American and World public) got. The powers that be really put the screws to us in wanting to charge money and become rich at the expense of the public. Many, or even most of the things shown in this video may be just hype or at least not what they are professed to be, but it does prove the point that there are other ways of looking at energy production.
“...these features chiefly interest the scientific man, the thinker and reasoner. There is another feature which affords us still more satisfaction and enjoyment, and which is of still more universal interest, chiefly because of its bearing upon the welfare of mankind. Gentlemen, there is an influence which is getting strong and stronger day by day, which shows itself more and more in all departments of human activity, and influence most fruitful and beneficial—the influence of the artist. It was a happy day for the mass of humanity when the artist felt the desire of becoming a physician, an electrician, an engineer or mechanician or—whatnot—a mathematician or a financier; for it was he who wrought all these wonders and grandeur we are witnessing. It was he who abolished that small, pedantic, narrow-grooved school teaching which made of an aspiring student a galley-slave, and he who allowed freedom in the choice of subject of study according to one's pleasure and inclination, and so facilitated development.” Nikola Tesla
Just possibly there are ways we can eliminate our current ways of energy production that are so detrimental to our world and our lifestyles. We need to support these, even if they lead no where at times. We not only need to think outside the box, we need to throw the box away.
“...the idea gradually took hold of me that the earth might be used in place of the wire, thus dispensing with artificial conductors altogether. The immensity of the globe seemed an unsurmountable obstacle but after a prolonged study of the subject I became satisfied that the undertaking was rational...” Nikola Tesla
Maybe Tesla didn't have all the answers, but had we gone his direction with Humanity at mind and not the bottom dollar, had the US Government perhaps funded these types of things toward making them free, had we not been so capitalistically minded, and had the heads of industry not been so greedy and money minded, if we had just suffered through it a bit longer way back when, perhaps we would now have free energy. I know the over $200/mo I spend alone for myself for energy could easily go to other things far more interesting to me.
“But we shall not satisfy ourselves simply with improving steam and explosive engines or inventing new batteries; we have something much better to work for, a greater task to fulfill. We have to evolve means for obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever.” Nikola Tesla
We really don't need to be paying our money every month and so much of it, to Public (or private) utility departments for energy, PUDs need to disappear. Power should be free. So should healthcare but that's another issue. If we're going to try at all to move toward the utopian society exemplified in Star Trek (and why shouldn't we?), we need to be able to use all we want, to be power users to the utmost sense, without it destroying the planet. We have embarked on the information age and passed that. It is powered by electricity and maybe that too is primitive. But for now we need to have all the energy we need and then some, free, and without polluting either our environment or life forms.
Think about it.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Two new Psychology articles free through August
Just to share, today I finished two non fiction ebook articles to be online very soon:
Some Notes on Field Theory, Albert's Mind, and the Status Quo: The Necessity of Contextualism in Psychology
and
Psycho-neurologically Approaching a Field Theory Understanding of Schizophrenia via Research of a Non-normative, Non-pathological Syndrome: Synesthesia, and the need for more information
I know, you probably didn't expect that, right? But I do have a degree in Psychology from Western Washington University in their Awareness and Reasoning Division for Phenomenology, and mental processes and systems.
I now have them up on Smashwords. Oh, my God, what a pain that was! Now I know why I usually hae someone doing this for me (Zilyon Publishing).
Anyway, in celebration of my bithday month (August 30th being the day) here is the URL and coupon code (SY75X) for the double ebook Good through August:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/209495
It says it is pending review right now, but I believe it's available. It's pretty bare though, after all it's more a scientific journal article than any kind of popular reading. I took five hours yesterday finalizing editing on them toward making them ebooks and I just spent over three frustrating hours processing them on Smashwords, the first time for my actually getting something up online on my own after having it fail repeatedly all morning.
So, the info is all there, but not all pretty with graphs and special formatting (some of which was there when I started). eBooks kind of suck for fomatting to begin with and have a long with to go if you ask me.
Anyway finally now on to other things....
Some Notes on Field Theory, Albert's Mind, and the Status Quo: The Necessity of Contextualism in Psychology
and
Psycho-neurologically Approaching a Field Theory Understanding of Schizophrenia via Research of a Non-normative, Non-pathological Syndrome: Synesthesia, and the need for more information
I know, you probably didn't expect that, right? But I do have a degree in Psychology from Western Washington University in their Awareness and Reasoning Division for Phenomenology, and mental processes and systems.
I now have them up on Smashwords. Oh, my God, what a pain that was! Now I know why I usually hae someone doing this for me (Zilyon Publishing).
Anyway, in celebration of my bithday month (August 30th being the day) here is the URL and coupon code (SY75X) for the double ebook Good through August:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/209495
It says it is pending review right now, but I believe it's available. It's pretty bare though, after all it's more a scientific journal article than any kind of popular reading. I took five hours yesterday finalizing editing on them toward making them ebooks and I just spent over three frustrating hours processing them on Smashwords, the first time for my actually getting something up online on my own after having it fail repeatedly all morning.
So, the info is all there, but not all pretty with graphs and special formatting (some of which was there when I started). eBooks kind of suck for fomatting to begin with and have a long with to go if you ask me.
Anyway finally now on to other things....
Monday, July 23, 2012
What is your Passion? Your Life? Or your Religion?
I follow the "Buddha Dharma ",as it is said. That is different than being a "Buddhist" in my view.
But my passion in that realm is, Life. Something that many seem not to understand or agree with.
You see, to focus too much on one's beliefs is or certainly can be, missing the point. When the religion becomes the end all of one's focus, something has gotten lost in the translation. But then, that's a point of view from someone following Buddha Dharma and therein lay a difference perhaps, between someone like that (me) and a, "Buddhist".
People think I just get down on Western Religions, but that's simply not true. I tend to get down on religions or things that turn into a religion. I've met many "Buddhists" who haven't exactly "lost the point" of it all, but rather, they never really knew it in the first place. This can easily happen to people who were born into a religion. Not that "Buddhism" is a religion, it's really more of a mind discipline and some people or groups have tried to turn it into a religion. Humans seem to be perdisposed to turn anything into a kind of "religion".
Live your Life. Practice your beliefs within your Life. Don't make your beliefs your Life. It's a subtle, but important, difference.
A therapist I was seeing years ago told me one day that her son wanted to move into a Monastery in order to be a good "Buddhist". She told him, "No, you have to practice your beliefs within your Life, not leaves your life to practice your beliefs from without. That's harder, but it's where you need to do it. To do so within a protected environment (such as focusing only or even too much, on your beliefs in Life) isn't really following your beliefs, because then the beliefs become the focus and not the Life and it can turn into a kind of "spiritual masturbation". Beliefs are there to guide you through your Life. Not to become your life. Not to take your Life over completely. To hijack it. Something that has happened all too frequently. Why? Because we are lazy, basically.
I think, maybe, we do need those who are fanatics (Nuns, Priests, etc.). But we have to remember, they are so immersed themselves that we have to take what they say with a grain of understanding, outside of what they are telling us. As I said, we tend to be lazy in Life and take what we're told and just do it. Why think about it when it's much easier to just simply do what we're told is right to do. But we need to think, to decide and act. Not just act. Love Life. It was a gift. A gift from whom? See?
No?
Understand that those who do live in a monestery, have access to "levelers" and moderators to their beliefs. These are their teachers, appropriate books, the other more knowledgeable people who surround them on a daily basis. People on the outside trying to do practice this kind of intensity, tend to get lost and don't have the checks and balances these othes do. That's why there are so many nuts out here who believe such really weird things about their religion or beliefs. No real checks and balances are watching them, honing them to refined thought and understanding.
The same can happen with people who are readers. You have to read, yes, but you have to read the "right stuff". If you read everything, especially if you believe it all, then you can easily get lost. Once you start off on a trail that is incorrect, you begin to enforce those wrong beliefs with more nonsense. I've known many people like that.
Reading requires you to have critical thinking involved. Critical thinking as well as cross checking. I've always tried to use the old journalist's method, three basic sources to verify what I will accept to believe and even then I try to be aware and ready to update my beliefs with even more correct information. But even then you can be wrong. Still living in that way is far better than someone who simply reads and believes without using critical thinking. Just accepting someone as an "authority" isn't always enough. The people at "Jonestown" had simply accepted their leader, Jim Jones, as their "authority" next only to God. And most of them are now dead.
So learn as you can, think critically about what you believe. This is something that fits well into even a deeply involved religious person. Because if someone feeds you nonsense, you have to be able to tell between nonsense and what is considered "real" within your religion. Too many Theists simply believe what they are told. No "God" wants that. Any "God" would want their people to believe what that "God" wants them to believe toward appropriate worship. Therein lay another issue, "Worship". It seems to require non critical thought, just acceptance. But if you are being told incorrect information, you are not following what you think you are following or wanting to be following.
So use your brian that "God" gave you.
What is your Passion then? Your Life? Or, your Religion?
At least be sure what you are passionate about is what you are wanting to be passionate about. But even beyond that, consider that first and foremost you are meant to live your life and the rules, dictates and religion that you choose to believe in and follow (or are born into or in some cases forced to believe in) are really and fundementally there to help you do just that. They are not however there to hijack you into focusing solely on those rules, dictates or religion.
Life is good, don't ruin it by thinking you were meant to be a mental slave. No good "God" would ever require that and when people start to tell you that, allow the warning sign to explode in your brain. Begin to look at them more critically and take back your life. The problem at that point is usually that you would have to make major changes to your life and lifestyle and we are, after all, rather lazy as beings and hate change.
Live your Life, love your Life and when you find you aren't living and loving your Life, look at the reasons for that change or conditions and make the necessary changes to bring back the joy in your Life that everyone deserves to have.
But my passion in that realm is, Life. Something that many seem not to understand or agree with.
You see, to focus too much on one's beliefs is or certainly can be, missing the point. When the religion becomes the end all of one's focus, something has gotten lost in the translation. But then, that's a point of view from someone following Buddha Dharma and therein lay a difference perhaps, between someone like that (me) and a, "Buddhist".
People think I just get down on Western Religions, but that's simply not true. I tend to get down on religions or things that turn into a religion. I've met many "Buddhists" who haven't exactly "lost the point" of it all, but rather, they never really knew it in the first place. This can easily happen to people who were born into a religion. Not that "Buddhism" is a religion, it's really more of a mind discipline and some people or groups have tried to turn it into a religion. Humans seem to be perdisposed to turn anything into a kind of "religion".
Live your Life. Practice your beliefs within your Life. Don't make your beliefs your Life. It's a subtle, but important, difference.
A therapist I was seeing years ago told me one day that her son wanted to move into a Monastery in order to be a good "Buddhist". She told him, "No, you have to practice your beliefs within your Life, not leaves your life to practice your beliefs from without. That's harder, but it's where you need to do it. To do so within a protected environment (such as focusing only or even too much, on your beliefs in Life) isn't really following your beliefs, because then the beliefs become the focus and not the Life and it can turn into a kind of "spiritual masturbation". Beliefs are there to guide you through your Life. Not to become your life. Not to take your Life over completely. To hijack it. Something that has happened all too frequently. Why? Because we are lazy, basically.
I think, maybe, we do need those who are fanatics (Nuns, Priests, etc.). But we have to remember, they are so immersed themselves that we have to take what they say with a grain of understanding, outside of what they are telling us. As I said, we tend to be lazy in Life and take what we're told and just do it. Why think about it when it's much easier to just simply do what we're told is right to do. But we need to think, to decide and act. Not just act. Love Life. It was a gift. A gift from whom? See?
No?
Understand that those who do live in a monestery, have access to "levelers" and moderators to their beliefs. These are their teachers, appropriate books, the other more knowledgeable people who surround them on a daily basis. People on the outside trying to do practice this kind of intensity, tend to get lost and don't have the checks and balances these othes do. That's why there are so many nuts out here who believe such really weird things about their religion or beliefs. No real checks and balances are watching them, honing them to refined thought and understanding.
The same can happen with people who are readers. You have to read, yes, but you have to read the "right stuff". If you read everything, especially if you believe it all, then you can easily get lost. Once you start off on a trail that is incorrect, you begin to enforce those wrong beliefs with more nonsense. I've known many people like that.
Reading requires you to have critical thinking involved. Critical thinking as well as cross checking. I've always tried to use the old journalist's method, three basic sources to verify what I will accept to believe and even then I try to be aware and ready to update my beliefs with even more correct information. But even then you can be wrong. Still living in that way is far better than someone who simply reads and believes without using critical thinking. Just accepting someone as an "authority" isn't always enough. The people at "Jonestown" had simply accepted their leader, Jim Jones, as their "authority" next only to God. And most of them are now dead.
So learn as you can, think critically about what you believe. This is something that fits well into even a deeply involved religious person. Because if someone feeds you nonsense, you have to be able to tell between nonsense and what is considered "real" within your religion. Too many Theists simply believe what they are told. No "God" wants that. Any "God" would want their people to believe what that "God" wants them to believe toward appropriate worship. Therein lay another issue, "Worship". It seems to require non critical thought, just acceptance. But if you are being told incorrect information, you are not following what you think you are following or wanting to be following.
So use your brian that "God" gave you.
What is your Passion then? Your Life? Or, your Religion?
At least be sure what you are passionate about is what you are wanting to be passionate about. But even beyond that, consider that first and foremost you are meant to live your life and the rules, dictates and religion that you choose to believe in and follow (or are born into or in some cases forced to believe in) are really and fundementally there to help you do just that. They are not however there to hijack you into focusing solely on those rules, dictates or religion.
Life is good, don't ruin it by thinking you were meant to be a mental slave. No good "God" would ever require that and when people start to tell you that, allow the warning sign to explode in your brain. Begin to look at them more critically and take back your life. The problem at that point is usually that you would have to make major changes to your life and lifestyle and we are, after all, rather lazy as beings and hate change.
Live your Life, love your Life and when you find you aren't living and loving your Life, look at the reasons for that change or conditions and make the necessary changes to bring back the joy in your Life that everyone deserves to have.
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