Passion - Third Monk

Sep 30, 2013Jun 17, 2016

Nature Loves Courage – Terence Mckenna (Comic Strip)

Terence Mckenna provides encouraging advice on walking lightly through life as you pursue your passion.

Terence McKenna was a psychedelic warrior – a writer, lecturer and expert on ecology, botany, shamanism and spiritual transformation. McKenna’s books discuss the benefits and mind-altering effects of LSD, psilocybin and other hallucinogens, and the role they’ve played in human history and culture.

I had an impossible dream (become a web cartoonist) and I made the commitment and hurled myself into the abyss (quit my job and sold my house to fund the dream) and so far, it’s worked out better than I could have imagined.

Now I don’t want to give people a false sense of hope – that all you have to do is take the leap and everything will work out peachy. For me, ‘making the commitment’ means working my ass off, drawing these comics 6-7 days a week. But the work is satisfying and meaningful to me. So I would say that hard work, planning, skill, commitment and grit make up 90% of the equation, but maybe that last 10% is just deciding to hurl yourself into the abyss. – Gavin Aung, Zen Pencils

Terence Mckenna – Nature Loves Courage , Unfold the Stone (Audio)

Sep 11, 2013Jun 17, 2016

Bruce Lee – 4 Steps to Creating Your Own Path

Daniele Bolelli is a professor that emphasis engagement and humor in his teachings, endearing himself to creative stoners who can’t tolerate stale lectures. Most people know Bruce Lee for his movies, but Bolelli, like many thinkers, is influenced by Lee’s philosophy on development and potential:

Styles, according to Bruce Lee, limit the tools available to martial artists and restrict their freedom. Styles, with all their traditions, rigid rules and methodologies, are ideological prisons where innovation and experimentation are not welcome.

“Art lives where absolute freedom is, because where it is not, there can be no creativity.”

“Man, the living, creating individual, is always more important than any established style.”

– Bruce Lee

What Lee suggested instead was a process of constant personal research. Rather than entrusting oneself to prepackaged conclusions, Lee openly advocated for the necessity to create one’s own path.

Every individual is unique, he reasoned. Therefore it is suicidal to follow another person’s method and path. His approach was as simple as it was effective:

1. Research your own experience.

2. Absorb what is useful.

3. Reject what is useless.

4. Add what is specifically your own

In these words, Lee distilled an incredible dose of bravery and intellectual honesty to be applied to the martial arts, knowledge in general, and to life itself.

> Bruce Lee: Courage of a New Path | Datsusara

Aug 28, 2013Jun 17, 2016

The Progress of Technology Makes “Earning a Living” Obsolete – Buckminster Fuller

Buckminster Fuller was an American architect, inventor, and philosopher known to many of his friends and fans as “Bucky” Fuller. He developed numerous inventions, the most famous of which is the geodesic dome.

Bucky designed his inventions with the core belief that there are more than enough resources available to feed and house every single human being in the world.

Fuller’s philosophy claims that convoluted politics and unnecessary labor are the biggest obstacles of human progress:

The Sale of Existence

We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest.

The youth of today is absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living.

We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors.

The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.

Pressure from an Illusion of Scarcity

Man is operating on a fundamental fallacy that assumes there is nowhere nearly enough resources to go around and never will be. The idea that man is supposed to be a failure and therefore has to prove his right to live has led to a division in consciousness:

“It has to be you or me. I must show I can earn my living, and let other people go die.”

On this basis, society has been assuming it is a handout or socialist system if you’re not “earning a living” at some job somebody has set out for you.

So we have the idea of a job as something you have to do that you don’t like in contrast to what your mind tells you needs to be done or what you’d like to do.

The Inventions of Buckminster Fuller

A brief look at Buckminster Fuller and his legacy, now more relevant than ever.

Jul 8, 2013Jun 17, 2016

Inspirational Quotes to Refocus Your Mind

Inspirational quotes are perfect for refocusing the mind and reawakening the excitement that fills life with passion.

Happiness is Here. Not There

“The trick is to enjoy life. Don’t wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead” – Marjorie Pay Hinkley

Do Not Be Your Own Worst Enemy

“You are confined only be the walls you build yourself.”

Life is Not About Winning or Losing

“Take risks: if you win. You will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise” – Author Unkown

Moving Forward is About Moving Now

“Success will never be a big step in the future; success is a small step taken just now.”

Love Yourself, It Will Show

“Love yourself first & everything else falls into line.” -Lucille Ball

Laugh, Smile and Be Happy; It Does Not Need to Be Complicated

“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” -Lord Byron

Do What Drives You and You Will Go Farther Than Your Imagination

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

Focus, Experience and Enjoy. Everything Is Happening Right NOW

“No matter how hard the past. You can always begin again.” – Buddha

Relax, Be Yourself and Leave Your Mark

“Work for a cause, not for applause. Live to express, not to impress. Don’t strive to make your presence noticed, just make your absence felt.” -Unkown