Tripping

The human brain is an intricate and delicate machine. It deserves to be treated with extreme care and respect. Too bad we only give it the benefit of our neglect. We don’t give the brain a thought, even as we burden it with so much unnecessary thinking.

Just as our bodies need to get up and move, we need to exercise the brain and provoke a lazy mind to be rigorously honest. The brain’s good health improves the mind’s agility. As you must know by now, a complacent mind doesn’t learn. It doesn’t evolve.

We rarely ask our minds to produce challenging thoughts. How often do we demand that it tell a new story? Are we ever willing to reject the old ones? Do we make the effort to really look and really listen? Do we ask the mind to be silent long enough to hear the low rumble of life…creating things?

A ‘trip’ usually refers to some kind of disturbance in your reality. For whatever reason, your little world gets turned inside-out and topsy-turvy. And that can be an awesome thing. Shaking up your idea of reality has its benefits, for sure– but it’s far more effective to do that kind of tripping while you’re sane and sober.

You need to prepare yourself to see truly. This takes time and a clear head. You need to face your fears and delusions. What you don’t acknowledge, you can’t change, so you need to listen to your mental stories. And then you need to discredit them.

And, as I see it, you need to be in love. It’s self-love that drives a spiritual seeker to shake up and wake up. Being willing to change takes a great love for the dreamer– and the dream. Life’s most exciting secrets lie beyond your little bubble of perception. Unconditional love pops the bubble. It laughs at all the nonsense. It introduces your reality to truth– something that lies can’t survive.

Love supports the process of transformation. It makes all your defenses seem silly. It allows pure wonder to take the place of certainty. Loving, without condition, strengthen your trust in the unknowable.

Some of us don’t appear to love ourselves. We abuse our brains on purpose. We bang our heads around like nerf balls. We celebrate getting drunk or sedated, but there’s nothing cool about assaulting a brain with drugs. There’s no spiritual advantage to it. And there’s no lasting insight once the high is gone.

There’s no virtue in degrading life’s best miracle. It makes practical sense to take responsibility for your brain’s health and safety. It makes spiritual sense to take charge of your own mind. Try turning mental ‘tripping’ into daily practice. Challenge your own beliefs, and shift your view of reality gently, patiently.

Be open to new ideas. Try to imagine more and think less. Don’t put such stock in opinions. Sure, you’ve been conditioned to please and impress other people, but opinions aren’t the glue that holds your world together. Opinions are…just opinions.

Let other people have their views. Everyone’s dream should be respected. Meanwhile, give yourself respect by being skeptical and listening better. Learn from observing without judgment. Gain wisdom by loving generously.

Life is a trip, any way you take it. It can be rough, full of conflict and emotional turmoil…or it can be an active meditation. You can appreciate its infinite scope and still take care of daily business. You can live life fully, even when conditions restrict you. You can communicate without having to be right. You can accept the chaos and not take it so personally.

You can trip out, without losing touch with real-time events. You can bend your perception of reality without putting your elegant brain in harm’s way. You can choose to rise above the dream…because you truly love and respect the dreamer.

❤ B.E.