The Ecstasy of Curiosity and Insatiable Drive for Knowledge – Jason Silva (Video)

The Ecstasy of Curiosity and Insatiable Drive for Knowledge - Jason Silva (Video) | Third Monk

In this Shots of Awe episode, Jason Silva talks about the fundamentals of the cognitive ecstasy we experience from the chase of knowledge. Knowing provides closure, but the mystery of not knowing inspires curiosity, wonder and a shared quest for answers.

To entertain such ontologies is to re-contextualize one’s self as a marvelous conduit in a timeless whole, through which molecules and meaning flow, from nebulae to neurons and back again. – Tim Doody

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Terence McKenna at His Best: Drugs, Legality, and Love (Interview)

Terence McKenna at His Best: Drugs, Legality, and Love (Interview) | Third Monk image 1

Terence McKenna is one our favorite psychedelic luminaries. Here is a short interview of his where he talks about many ideas concerning drugs, legality, and love that are increasingly becoming commonplace among a larger and larger portion of our global populace.

Ideally, we’ll look back at this time in history and laugh at our collective foolishness and hubris.

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My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with facts. – Terence McKenna

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The Illusion of Good and Bad, Animated Short – Alan Watts (Video)

The Illusion of Good and Bad, Animated Short - Alan Watts (Video) | Third Monk

The Story of the Chinese Farmer is a parable about life and nature narrated by Alan Watts, animated by Steve Agnos, and with music by Chris Zabriskie.

The whole process of nature is a process of immense complexity and it is really impossible to tell whether something that happens in it is good or bad.

Because you never know the consequences of the misfortune. Or, you never know the consequences of good fortune. – Alan Watts

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Calvin and Hobbes – The Existential Buddhist (Comic Strip)

Calvin and Hobbes - The Existential Buddhist (Comic Strip) | Third Monk

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We last left Calvin and Hobbes as they contemplated the stars.

Now, they question existence itself.

Calvin and Hobbes Contemplate Existence.

Calvin: Let’s say life is this square of the sidewalk. We’re born at this crack and we die at that crack.

Calvin: Now we find ourselves somewhere inside the square, and in the process of walking out of it. Suddenly we realize our time in here is fleeting.

Calvin: Is our quick experience here pointless? Does anything we say or do in here really matter? Have we done anything important? Have we been happy? Have we made the most of these precious few footsteps?

Generators of Imagination, The Historical Purpose of Human Beings – Terence McKenna (Video)

Generators of Imagination, The Historical Purpose of Human Beings - Terence McKenna (Video) | Third Monk

From a 1991 lecture entitled Where Does Reality Begin and End?, Terence McKenna talks about the role of human beings in nature and reality.

We can become a highly evolved and aware species that acts as the voice of nature but artificial conflicts are holding us back.

We are energy storage and release mechanisms, sanctioned by nature for some purpose which will be visible somewhere downstream in the flow of time but which is opaque to us now.

– Terence McKenna

Soundtrack: DJ Shadow – Transmission 2

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Trust Yourself – Terence McKenna (Video)

Trust Yourself - Terence McKenna (Video) | Third Monk image 2

Experience is real. This moment is real. How much of your own experience on this planet is tainted and perverted by different ideologies, looping thoughts, and enshrined beliefs?

Terence McKenna urges you to trust yourself. Question everything, and embrace the chaos of the world.

Claim your identity, your vision, your being, your intuition, and then act from that without regret.

Take responsibility for what you think and what you do.

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Empower Experience…

What do YOU think when YOU face the waterfall?

What do YOU think when YOU have sex?

What do YOU think when YOU take psilocybin?

It’s a wonderful thing to learn to be able to stand up and yell “Bull Shit!”. I did it when I was about 18 years old and it was the meme of the hour and it did blow their minds. It was uncivil. It was rude and crude and correct. – Terence Mckenna

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> Terence McKenna | Eco Hustler

Failure is a Gift – Amy Poehler, Zen Pencils (Comic Strip)

Failure is a Gift - Amy Poehler, Zen Pencils (Comic Strip) | Third Monk image 1

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Amy Poehler has been making people laugh since her days at SNL. Parks and Rec has been a huge success in large part to Amy’s fantastic attitude that helps bring the whole cast together as a cohesive unit.

Amy’s inspirational words have been given new life through the latest Zen Pencils installment.

Inspirational Words From Amy Poehler

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Amy Poehler is one of my favorite funny people, known for her portrayal as Pawnee’s Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation, which I’m a big fan of. She’s also a Saturday Night Live alum and co-founded the influential improv school, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

Besides being an incredibly talented and hilarious performer, Poehler has started projects to promote women’s rights and empower young girls. Her website Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls is a hub for young women to learn and be part of a community, and in her YouTube series Ask Amy, Poehler gives advice and answers questions from fans.

– Gavin Aung Than, Zen Pencils

Amy Poehler as Ruth from Deuce Bigalow

Don’t Believe in Anybody Else’s BS – Robert Anton Wilson (Video)

Don't Believe in Anybody Else's BS - Robert Anton Wilson (Video) | Third Monk

Robert Anton Wilson shares his view on belief systems and offers us a glimpse into the framework of his own.

A must see for anyone who is having trouble harmonizing their expanding beliefs (many of which may be contradictory).

If one can only see things according to one’s own belief system, one is destined to become virtually deaf, dumb, and blind. – Robert Anton Wilson

Omega Point created this video, his youtube page has a number of similarly themed works, featuring luminaries Alan Watts, Terence Mckenna, & Carl Sagan.

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Ayahuasca Is Helping Western Minds Align with the Earth’s Vibrations

Ayahuasca Is Helping Western Minds Align with the Earth's Vibrations | Third Monk image 1

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Rak Razam is an Australian journalist whose gonzo-style coverage of ayahuasca tourism explores how the ancient Amazonian spiritual healing tradition is impacting the lives of more and more Westerners—and vice versa.

Q: What are the healing benefits of psychedelics, and ayahuasca in particular?

Rak Razam: This is the thing, which has been missing on a core level: trying to look at the root causes of issues, not just the symptoms. The entire world is, at the moment, out of balance.

Our relationship with the planet is out of balance. The ecology is out of balance. The politics are out of balance. The monetary system is out of balance. You name it. It seems to be unsustainable “isms” that we’re living in that are not in right relationship with the planet.…

It’s very strategic and very serendipitous, really, that many, many tribal peoples all across the world still are caretakers for, and have the knowledge and the heritage of, ayahuasca and this entheogenic revival of looking at what the planet gives us with these plants and their substances.

They have held the flame, while, basically western culture—the dominating culture, which has subjugated so many of these cultures—is now getting ready again to come back into balance. Ayahuasca is going out into the world.

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Q: What makes it important to you to educate people about these substances? What drives you to talk about and to share what you’ve experienced with other people?

Rak Razam: I’m a writer and I’m a journalist and I’m communicating and documenting what used to be called the counter culture and I call the alter culture now: this multiplicity of communities which are engaging in archaic practices or ways of being which bring them closer back to the planet and its rhythms—whether that’s altered states or counter culture or sovereignty movements or using technology.

I guess ultimately I’m more of a mystic, or as much a mystic as I am a writer. … Things like ayahuasca or psychedelics, they’re only the tip of the iceberg. They’re the finger which points at the moon; they’re not the moon itself. What these things have revealed to me is that there’s a deeper pattern and a deeper game afoot, I guess. I really feel that in the planetary organism of the Earth itself, and then the larger, deeper cosmic ecology, there are rhythms within rhythms. We’re one species among many on the planet and we’ve thrown the world out of balance.

I feel with these psychoactives or these entheogens, which the planet itself secretes—which basically only the higher mammals get high off—there’s a reason. There’s a synergy between the planet and these creations and there’s a larger pattern unfolding, despite all the war and heartache and seeming evil in the world. … Things are changing. There’s a new cycle beginning and I can really feel that. I think many people around the world feel that. I’m hoping to help give language to that and give perspective to that. It’s deeper than ayahuasca. It’s deeper than the psychedelics. It’s a return to I guess what Terrence McKenna called this archaic revival….

It’s like John Lennon [said]. Peace is there if you want it. Utopia is there if we want it, but it’s all about consciousness. I’m not pushing my agenda here, or saying that we should all elevate our consciousness.

What I’m saying is I think the Earth is in cahoots with with our subconscious here. It’s bringing us back into the garden, into this sustainable frequency of being with it, and that is elevating our consciousness.

> Life-Altering Lessons of the Psychedelic Ayahuasca Plant | AlterNet

The 4 Stages of Enlightenment According to Buddhist Scripture

The 4 Stages of Enlightenment According to Buddhist Scripture | Third Monk image 1

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As he guided his followers over the 45 years he taught, Buddha recognized four distinct levels of realization, each marked by a deep and unmistakable experience of selflessness, followed by certain changes in outlook and behavior.

The experience generally occurs during intensive meditation, when the attention has become one-pointed, and follows extensive study and understanding of the basic truths of Buddhism (especially the three marks of existence: selflessness, impermanence, and dissatisfaction).

The four stages of enlightenment are Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arahant. The teaching of the four stages is a central element of the early Buddhist schools, including the surviving Theravada school of Buddhism.

The 4 Stages of Enlightenment

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Stream-enterer

The first stage is that of Sotāpanna (Pali; Sanskrit: Srotāpanna), literally meaning “one who enters (āpadyate) the stream (sotas),” with the stream being the Noble Eightfold Path regarded as the highest Dharma.

The stream-enterer is also said to have “opened the eye of the Dharma” and is guaranteed enlightenment after no more than seven successive rebirths, possibly fewer. The stream-enterer can also be sure that he will not be reborn in any of the unhappy states or rebirths (an animal, a preta, or in hell). He can only be reborn as a human being, or in a heaven. The stream-enterer has attained an intuitive grasp of Buddhist doctrine (samyagdṛṣṭi or sammādiṭṭhi, “right view”), has complete confidence or Saddha in the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, and has good moral behaviour (Sila).

When you become a stream-enterer, you can never again believe that you’re really a separate self that lives inside your head and looks through your eyes. Your experience forever eliminates this illusion. When you look within, you can’t find a self anywhere.

In everyday life, however, you may still feel like a separate somebody and may still get caught up by greed, anger, ignorance, and various other negative feelings and patterns. Fortunately, the stage of stream-enterer also brings an unshakable confidence and dedication to the Buddhist spiritual path, so you’re motivated to keep deepening and refining your realization.

I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles. I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags. – Buddha

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 Once Returner

The second stage is that of the Sakadāgāmī (Sanskrit: Sakṛdāgāmin), literally meaning “one who once (sakṛt) comes (āgacchati)”. The once-returner will return to the human world only one more time, and will attain Nirvana in that life.

After you become a stream-enterer, your practice includes reminding yourself of your new realization of “no-self,” as well as paying attention to the ways that you’re still attached and your resistance to life as it unfolds. After a period of time (generally years of devoted practice) in which your concentration gets even stronger and your mind becomes even more tranquil, you have another direct insight into no-self. (Remember, knowing this truth as a concept or memory is one thing, but experiencing it directly, beyond the conceptual mind, is something else entirely.)

This insight (essentially the same as the first but even stronger and clearer) brings a significant reduction in attachment and aversion and the suffering that accompanies these states of mind. For example, occasional irritation and preference replace hatred and greed, which no longer have any hold over the once-returner.

Again, someone who reaches this stage has only one more rebirth before becoming completely enlightened.

I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil upon my foot. – Buddha

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Never-returner

The third stage is that of the Anāgāmī (Sanskrit: Anāgāmin), literally meaning “one who does not (an-) come (āgacchati)”. The non-returner does not come back into human existence, or any lower world, after death. Instead, he is reborn in one of the worlds of the Rūpadhātu called the Śuddhāvāsa worlds, or “Pure Abodes”, where he will attain Nirvāṇa; Pāli: Nibbana; some of them are reborn a second time in a higher world of the Pure Abodes, but in no case are born into a lower state.

An Anāgāmī has abandoned the five lower fetters that bind the mind to the cycle of rebirth. An Anāgāmī is thus partially enlightened, and on the way to perfect and complete Enlightenment.

After the experience that signals entry to this stage, all of the worst hindrances, such as hatred, greed, jealousy, and ignorance, completely drop away, but a hint of a self-sense (a “me”) still remains — and with it, the slightest trace of restlessness and dissatisfaction sticks around as well. The experience itself is rarely accompanied by any emotion or excitement, just a clearer recognition of what has already been seen twice before. These people appear to be extremely content, peaceful, and without desire, but the subtlest preference for positive rather than negative experiences remains.

I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream, and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one’s eyes. – Buddha

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Arahant

The fourth stage is that of Arahant, a fully enlightened human being who has abandoned all fetters, and who upon decease (Sanskrit: Parinirvāṇa, Pāli: Parinibbāna) will not be reborn in any world, having wholly abandoned saṃsāra.

At this stage, the path bears ultimate fruit in nirvana — any residual trace of a separate self falls away for good. The experience, frequently accompanied by unimaginable bliss, has been compared to falling into the depths of a cloud and disappearing. At this point, the circumstances of life no longer have the slightest hold over you; positive or negative experiences no longer stir even the slightest craving or dissatisfaction. As Buddha said, all that needed to be done has been done. There’s nothing further to realize. The path is complete, and no further rebirths are necessary.

I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, nirvana as a nightmare of daytime. – Buddha

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> Four Stages of Enlightenment | Tamqui

> Four Stages on the Path to Nirvana | Dummies

> Buddha | Lucid Cafe

Swiss Plan to Pay Monthly Basic Income to Each Adult

Swiss Plan to Pay Monthly Basic Income to Each Adult | Third Monk image 2


Switzerland may start paying every adult (whether they work or not) a salary of over $2000 per month.

Based on the idea that their citizens will have more time to devote to things they are intrinsically interested in, instead of spending the majority of their time worrying about how they are going to survive; as many individuals with entry-level positions find it hard to meet their needs.

The income initiative promises every Swiss citizen a living wage, so they can always survive without basic financial worry.

The 2,500 francs would work out to be an income of 30,000 Swiss francs per year. Statistics released by the European Union in 2002 showed that Switzerland was the third most expensive country in Europe, after Norway and Iceland, to live in.

Switzerland currently has a population of 8.02 million people, equivalent to that of large cities such as the San Francisco Bay Area which has a population of 7.15 million. The Swiss pay particularly high prices for meat, cooking oil, fish and vegetables. Basic utilities (electricity, heating, water, garbage) are around 200 francs per month, and the average rent of a one bedroom apartment in the city center runs about 1,400 francs.

Imagine you are being born and society tells you ‘Welcome, you will be cared for, and asks you what you want to do with your life, what is your calling? Imagine that feeling, that’s a whole different atmosphere. – Daniel Straub, Co-founder, Basic Income Initiative

Basic Income Swiss

Parliament was presented with a petition signed by over 100,000 people, proposing to afford every citizen, regardless if they are working or not, a monthly paycheck of 2,500 Swiss francs.

To mark the day, a truck full of 8 million five-cent coins was deposited on the square and spread out in front of the Swiss Parliament in Bern, supporters gathered around and spread the coins out using shovels. A typical fast-food worker in the US earns roughly $1,500 per month. Anything less than that specified amount of 2,500 francs, would be deemed illegal, even for people working in one of the lowest paid jobs.

A date for the vote itself is yet to be confirmed, however, it could take place before the end of 2014.

The money to fund the measure would likely be supplied by the Swiss social insurance system, so in other words it would be taken from taxpayers. We know that the government has no money itself, everything that it gives to others it must first take from others or print it out of thin air.

This new system will force business owners to pay their workers a certain wage, regardless if their labor is considered worth less than the stipulated amount. This idea aims to set the minimum standard of living higher, but this might prompt business owners to take their company elsewhere, where they have more freedom over wage decisions. Of course, this would also mean they get no cut whatsoever of the Swiss market.

On the other hand, the new income may also lure new business owners to the country in looks of attracting those new consumers. One prominent CEO in Switzerland has stated that if the measure passes, he would seriously contemplate moving his company out of the country:

I can’t believe that Switzerland would cause such great harm to its economy. – Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg told the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.

The unemployment rate currently remains at 3 percent in Switzerland and is arguably one of the most stable economies in the world. The nation has built the reputation of having some of the most friendly laws toward foreign investors.

Will this measure make more money flow, by putting liquidity in the hands of those more prone to putting it back in the economy, or will it drive investors away and cause the Swiss economy to stumble?
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> Swiss to Pay Minimum Wage Per Month | Earth We Are One