To save the world

July 18, 2008 - Kathmandu, Nepal

Here is somewhat of a more serious entry. It does happen that I have thoughts going through my mind, and it happens that I even manage to find a way to express those thoughts.
For other news, I opened a blog for the tattoo studio, which you can check out here.
Also, check out Ananda's blog, which contains many philosophical considerations worth while reading. Ananda has been a great help around here. Thanks for his donation to the orphenage, as well as computer work for UPF. And he makes super salads!

Now here is some thoughts on helping others. I have been looking a little bit into the new forms of tourism, such as equitable and responsable tourism, which motivated me to write these thoughts.

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« Modern man develops like an earth worm : a tube that swallows and leaves little piles behind it. If one day Earth disappears because man ate everything, he should not be surprised.”

I don't want to save the world.

I find those that want to save the world to be selfish beings. To want to save the world, we first have to create an idea of how the world should be like. To want to change the world, it is wanting it to match my ideas about how it should and should not be.
Me, I have no idea of which world I’d like to live in. Imagination, human memory being without limits, I can imagine an infinity of worlds in which I could live.
I would even go as far as to say that I like the world we live in, just as it is, just as I live it. For now, I live in this world, so I must make the best out of it.

Of course, I see things that can make me sad. I would be a monster if there wasn’t. Kids that have no childhood, hungry families, war on tv. I am a modern kid, I see the wars and horrors on tv. I know the world comes with it’s problems.
”The world is full of suffering” says the budhist mantra, “we all seek happiness” it keeps on chanting.

Too often, this suffering makes us incapable of dealing with things when faced with what we see as problems. We like to think of happiness, but we rarely live it. Happiness remains like a far away land, in which we only take refuge in our dreams, instead of living it right here and right now.
A simple truth is that the more we seek happiness, the more we go away from it.
Each continent of the world comes with it’s own set of problems. Wheter the continent is in development stage, or whether it is full on technological, nobody seems to fully escape this human suffering.

Each lives this suffering very personaly.

I do not want to change the world, I just want to live in it.

Those that want to save the world often have gods to which they can dedicate their acts. Me, I do not have such thing, seing God in everything, even in this suffering that ties us together. Those that want to change the world have reasons, morales, they know how things should be done.
Me, I do not know anything.

I do not dream of better days, because these days are already the best. I do not dream of perfect humans, of super men or super powers, because all of this, man already has. In my eyes, man is already perfect. A magical creature capable of the most amazing creations as well as of the crulest of monstruosities.

This is man. A creature in constant formation, a creature which discovers itself day by day, learning with each step.

Me, I do not know anything. I travel the world barely touching the world under my feet. In the world, staying slightly detached from it. Every day discovery of the outside world helps me to relate better to my inner world. Every day, the both become more and more indistinguishable.

Me, I know nothing, and I like the world just as it is. I will keep on my little way, quietly and in music. I will keep on helping others when I can, not because of some sense of moral code, just because I feel like it.

I do not have any hope that my actions will give such and such result, for the simple reason that I can not tell the future. I do not have any hope that my acts could help or not, I do not have any hope that tomorrow things will be better. Hope is also a projection of things as we would like them to be. It is better to all together give up this selfish hope.
If I paint an orphanage, it is because I feel like it, if I give some rupee to a person that has less than me, it is because I feel like it.

Maybe I am just a selfish person, but really I think we all are selfish beings. Too bad ego has been rolled in the mud by most if not all religious systems. Ego became a dirty word, it became something we are supposed to get rid of.
Yet, this ego I have, is all I have, all I can hold on to. I can not seem to see it as something that I should get rid of. I can make an infinity of experiences with this ego, I can transform it, but never can I fully get rid of it.

This Atman of the Hindus, it is me, it is you, it is everything.
And Atman whispers: “I am nothing. I know everything. I am everything, I know nothing.”

So, let’s enjoy the moments that pass, me and my ego. We watch things pass by, we fully experience things, all while knowing that really, we do not know anything at all. We are alive, and it’s already a lot.

Super breakfast salad recipe:
Fresh tomatoes, lady fingers (okra), chili, olive oil, rock salt, freshly squeezed lemon juice, super seeds.
Clean and cut your veggies. In a seperate container, cut your chili finely.
Mix it with olive oil, so that the chili flavor sips into the oil. Add super seeds.
Mix everything. Add lemon juice before serving.
Enjoy