Day 200: Product Brands and Conspicuous Consumption

In 6th grade I got introduced to brands and what I have learned only now to be conspicuous consumption. My schoolmates were crazy about Nike shoes and Benetton clothes, and if one had any of those, one's value would dramatically increase in the eyes of my peers. I started desiring those brands, and I even managed to get my hands on some such items. I immediately felt elevated, like my value went up, I felt so much better about myself, I felt respected and appreciated. A memory that stands out is from before I managed to get my own Nike shoes. A classmate, who sat next to me in most classes, and whom I considered to be my best classmate/friend in 6th grade, got Nike shoes, and she demonstratively threw them on the table a few times and said that they bounce a lot. In my mind she was doing that in order to show off the brand and enjoy a little more of the attention that came with Nike shoes.
Then in high-school I adopted the skater style from my best friend because the clothes were baggy and comfortable, and I wanted to hide my body, which I perceived as too overweight to clothe with regular clothes, so I started desiring Airwalk and Vans shoes, and later DC, and clothes from Blind, Billabong and Girl brands. I felt approximately cool in those clothes, but still not good, because they weren't too girly. I really wished I could wear clothes that model-like women wear, and I really longed for the experience of wearing haute-couture type clothes like Prada, Dior, Escada, Max Mara... all the brands that I saw at my rich aunt's place. That is who I wanted to be like, and now it is time to release all of those thought patterns, because brands are part of the construct of perceived separation between people in this world that make us unable to see and treat each other as equals.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to think/believe/perceive that owning goods of a certain brand will increase my value in the eyes of other people, and within this I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed within myself the belief that brands define people's status and their worth.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to think/believe/perceive that I am worth more if I own certain pricey items of pricey brands, such as Nike shoes, Benetton clothes, Skinny and Palmers underwear, Prada, Dior and Hugo Boss products.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to buy products of different brands that I perceived/defined as superior in order to make myself feel superior and to increase my own value and think/believe/perceive that buying certain products of brands that I have defined/perceived as superior to others will increase my value in the eyes of other people, instead of realising and understanding that I am participating within my own self-accepted mind construct of increased/decreased value due to owning products of different brands, not realising and understanding that by allowing these constructs to exist within me, I am supporting and perpetuating the illusion and abuse of separation between people, I am supporting and perpetuating classism between people and am limiting myself from seeing/not allowing myself to see and treat all people as equals.

When and as I see myself wanting to buy a certain product only because of its brand and not taking into consideration its practical use, I stop and I breathe. I realise and understand that I am participating within and fueling my mind's definitions about that certain brand, therefore I release the definitions/perceptions and all thought patterns I have about the brand with self-forgiveness and I direct myself in breath towards purchasing products that I need by considering their practical functionality.

I commit myself to stopping and removing all my preferences towards certain brands and my definitions of brands that I have defined/perceived to be superior, because I realise and understand that those/my preferences and definitions have no base in actual physical reality, but are based on my mind's polarity constructs, where I will want to use/purchase products of those brands in order to make myself feel superior, and will not take into consideration first and foremost the product's practical physical application.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel good about myself and feel superior to other people, whenever I am walking on the street wearing/carrying products such as Nike shoes, Benetton clothes, Skinny and Palmers underwear, Prada, Dior and Hugo Boss products, Apple products, anything that is pricey and recognised as a "respected, quality brand", instead of realising and understanding that with these products I am trying to increase my value and feel superior because I feel like I have low value as a person and feel inferior in other areas of my life, thus I am participating within my mind's polarity construct, where I try to compensate for my perceived inferiorities with brands in order to make myself feel superior and balance out the feeling of inferiority, not realising and understanding that I am with these thoughts and actions generating energy for my mind to exist as ego.

When and as I see myself wanting to feel proud of myself and/or superior to other people when walking on the street and/or socializing with other people, when I am carrying/wearing products that I have defined/perceived as "respected, quality brands", I stop and I breathe. I realise and understand that I am participating within my mind's polarity construct of comparison and competition, where I will feel superior to others while carrying/wearing certain brands in order to compensate for the feeling of inferiority about myself as a person and about my appearance and being overweight, therefore I release the trigger point and thought pattern with self-forgiveness and I direct myself in breath towards what is best for all, and I do not allow myself to go into the superiority/inferiority polarity game within my mind about brands, because I realise and understand that with this I am only generating energy for my mind to exist as ego.

I commit myself to stopping and removing my mind polarity constructs about brands and remove from my mind the symbolism of brands with which humans/we validate ourselves, because I realise and understand that perceiving and defining some brands as more than others solely because of the brand name and not because of their use/usefulness is perpetuating the separation of perceived value that is attached to different brands, and is preventing me/people to see each other as equals.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to be jealous and envious of people, whom I see having/carrying/wearing products of brands that I have recognised as "respected, quality brands" and feel inferior to them, if I do not have products of such brands, instead of realising and understanding that I am participating within my mind's polarity construct of comparison and competition, where I will feel inferior to people whom I see having those brands, and on the flip side will feel superior to other people, when/if I have products of those brands, and within this I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to want/need/desire to own products of brands that I have recognised as "respected, quality brands" in order to make other people jealous and envious of me for having those brands so that I can make myself feel superior to them, with which I am compensating for my own perceived inferiorities and am trying to feel equal to other people whom I perceive to lack those inferiorities.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to want/need/desire to have certain products of brands that I have recognised within myself as "respected, quality brands" in order to compensate for my feeling of inferiority about my appearance and about being overweight, when I walk on the street and am socializing with people, not realising and understanding that with this kind of thinking I am participating within my mind's polarity constructs of competition and comparison, of inferiority and superiority, and am generating energy for my mind to exist as ego.

When and as I see myself being jealous/envious of people who have certain brands of cars, clothes, food, products of which I recognise the brands, and when I see myself desiring to have those brands, I stop and I breathe. I realise and understand that with jealousy/envy I am participating within inferiority and with the desire I am participating as the desire for superiority because I have defined those brands as something more, as something that increases people's value, therefore I release that perceived value with self-forgiveness and I direct myself in breath within the realisation that a few letters/symbols on a product does not make people superior/inferior.

I commit myself to stopping within myself the perception of brands increasing/decreasing people's value, because I realise and understand that with these perceptions I am only perpetuating the illusion and abuse of separation between people and am not allowing myself to see all people and myself as equals.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to be interested in and to some degree follow fashion, look at new collections and define myself with knowledge about fashion in order to make myself feel superior to others in order to compensate for my feelings of inferiority, instead of realising and understanding that fashion industry brands with their seasonal/yearly different collections and people who participate in following them and buying them are hugely contributing to the wasting of earth's resources and garbage creation/accumulation, and are abusing this physical existence in order to keep going the separation of status and perceived different worth of human beings who own different brands.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to want/desire to be and fantasize about being a supermodel in the fashion industry, and be able to wear designer clothes, have lots of money and mingle with "high society", and within this I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to define/perceive models to be superior to other women due to their appearance and jobs, and within this I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel inferior to models and their appearance and jobs, not realising and understanding that with these thoughts I am participating within my mind's polarity constructs of comparison and competition, with which I generate energy for my mind to exist as ego and am limiting myself from perceiving/seeing all human beings as equal.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to develop a hatred towards the fashion industry and models and designers, and judge/perceive/define models as stupid women, bimbos that have no other good attributes in their lives except for their looks, instead of realising and understanding that I am participating within these thoughts in order to make myself feel superior in order to balance out my own feeling of inferiority because I perceive that I cannot be a model and cannot wear designer clothes due to my body shape, due to being overweight, not realising and understanding that I am with these thoughts abusing myself, my physical body in order to generate energy for my mind to exist as ego by participating within my self-accepted constructs of inferiority/superiority through comparison and competition.

When and as I see myself reacting with hate, anger, frustration, resentment towards the fashion industry, models and designers, I stop and I breathe. I realise and understand that I am participating within my mind's polarity construct with comparison and competition, where I feel inferior to the fashion industry for not having enough money to be able to afford its products, and feel inferior to models for not being able to wear the designer clothes for thin people, and am therefore balancing this perceived inferiority with superiority as hate, anger, frustration and resentment towards the fashion industry, models and designers. Therefore I release the trigger point and thought pattern with self-forgiveness and I direct myself in breath, and I do not allow myself to participate within comparison and competition with models, designers and the fashion industry.

I commit myself to stopping and removing all of my energetic reactions, thoughts, perceptions, definitions, feelings and emotions towards the fashion industry and people within it, because I realise and understand that otherwise I am limiting myself into mind polarity constructs about the subject and am not allowing myself to see things as they really are here in equality to all that is here.

Day 199: How I cracked Buddhist mysticism and learned to Stop Desire

Almost everyone with a Facebook account has seen this one, right?

Sounds commonsensical, right? You simply remove the ego and desire, and all of a sudden you are a happy camper.
What this little illustration fails to explain is just how one removes the ego and desire. Even the Buddhist monks and scholars do not know how to explain that one, otherwise Buddhism would have worked, and we would all be happy campers living in a world of peace. But we are not.

I'm sure many people will say that one has to meditate on it. But meditate on what? What exactly is one doing in meditation? Looking at one's own mind. And/or trying to clear it. But what is one looking at, and/or trying to clear, when one does not even know how the mind works? What conclusions and realisations does one come to through meditation? The ones that his "teachers" have told him to come to. Screw that. It is not real, because one has not actually come to any conclusions; one is at best pretending to understand the knowledge one was told by "teachers", who are pretending to understand the knowledge. If they weren't pretending and really understood the knowledge, then they would have been able to transfer that knowledge effectively onto others, Buddhism would have worked, and we would all be happy campers living in a world of peace. But we are not.

In my life I was just enough attracted to spiritualism to try get the answers that science could not give me. And that failed spectacularly.

What really did the trick for me was stumbling upon Desteni, the single greatest source of knowledge still largely unknown to mankind. I learned the power of self-forgiveness, how the mind/ego works, how this whole existence works, and through practical application of this knowledge I was able to suddenly crack all the nice mystic words that spiritual "teachers" fail to explain on a daily basis. I learned not only to remove desire, but to remove the underlying causes of it, along with ALL other mental monsters that make humans unable to enjoy Life and to really Live with themselves and each other.

So if you're ready to stop spending time, effort and money on "teachers" who are pretending to have some greater knowledge than yourself, and become your own Teacher, your own Master, then click on the links bellow and start your own Journey to Life.

https://eqafe.com/ - the knowledge treasury
http://desteniiprocess.com/ - on-line course that presents the knowledge and tools in a structured way
http://lite.desteniiprocess.com/ - FREE version - not as voluminous, but just as amazingly effective
http://desteni.org/ - mother site with forums and people, who are ready to assist and support you on your journey

No one outside of oneself can fix self and/or this world. It must be Self. Join us.

Day 192: Feeling threatened by other people's success

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel threatened, compromised and diminished by someone else's success.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel inferior, less than and bad about myself, whenever I see that someone has succeeded in a point which I would like to or am trying to succeed in myself.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel jealous and envious of someone whom I perceive has succeeded in a point or points that I am trying to succeed in myself.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to attach a positive value to the word success and within this I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel superior, whenever I perceive that I have succeeded within something and on the flip side feel inferior, whenever I perceive that I have not succeeded.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to attach a negative value to the word failure and within this I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel inferior, less than and negative and bad about myself, whenever I perceive that I have failed in/with some point.

When and as I see myself feeling inferior, whenever I see/perceive that someone else has succeeded in/with something that I would like to succeed in/with as well, I stop and I breathe. I realise and understand that within that moment I am participating in comparison and competition constructs of my mind, therefore I immediately release the trigger point and thought pattern, I forgive myself for comparing and competing within my own thoughts, and I direct myself in breath and do not allow myself to have any energetic reactions towards the success of others. 

I commit myself to stopping and removing any and all energetic/emotional reactions towards other people's successes and my own as well, because I realise and understand that any kind of emotional reactions to success spring from my own comparison and competition mind constructs, with which I abuse myself and potentially others as well while allowing my mind to run rampant with polarity constructs thus feeding it energy to survive as ego.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to connect and equate success with winning, and within this I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel like a winner, whenever I perceive that I have succeeded at something, and on the flip side feel as a loser, whenever I perceive that I didn't succeed at something. Within this I also forgive myself for feeling like a loser in the light of another's success within a point that I myself would like to succeed in.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel sad and angry with myself and blame myself for failing or not succeeding, whenever I see/perceive that someone else has succeeded in a point that I would like to succeed within as well, instead of realising and understanding that I am judging myself and with that limiting myself within comparison and competition.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to react to myself in the face of another's success with the thoughts/words: "They can do it, they are strong, you cannot do it, you are weak", instead of realising and understanding that within that very moment of addressing myself as "you", I am experiencing and allowing and accepting the ultimate separation of myself from myself through energies of wants/needs/desires/competition/comparison, and I am allowing my mind as ego to have complete directive principle over me.

When and as I see myself having backchat and talking to myself about how and what I am like within comparison to another's success or failure, I stop and I breathe. I realise and understand that I am in that moment accepting and allowing myself to be severely separated from myself into multiple characters that are having a fight, therefore I stop my thoughts with breathing, I apply the necessary self-forgiveness and I direct myself in breath with awareness and do not allow myself to have inner conversations with myself.

I commit myself to becoming aware of my internal conversations with myself and stopping them, because I realise and understand that in the moment of having an internal conversation with myself, I am fragmented and separated into multiple dimensions which are run automatically by my mind, and I do not have any directive principle over myself, but am abdicating it to my mind as ego which is in that moment feeding itself energy to survive.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel superior, whenever I see/perceive that someone has failed in a point that I was working with as well, and within this I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel called and justified to give advice to that person and help them from the starting point of wanting to fortify and cement my feeling of superiority over them, instead of realising and understanding that I am participating within my mind's ego polarity construct of feeling positive, more than and superior in the face of someone's failure, and on the flip side will feel negative, less than, and inferior in the face of someone's success, all stemming from comparison and competition of my mind as ego with which I generate energy for it to survive.

When and as I see myself feeling superior, positive and good about myself in the face of someone else's failure, I stop and I breathe. I realise and understand that I am in that moment participating with my mind as ego in constructs of comparison and competition, therefore I release the trigger point and thought pattern with self-forgiveness and I direct myself in breath, not allowing myself to have any energetic movement within myself towards another's failure, but direct myself in equality towards doing what is best for us both within the context of what is best for all.

I commit myself to stopping and removing all feelings of superiority in the face of someone else's failure, and all feelings of inferiority in the face of someone else's success with points that I am working with myself, because I realise and understand that with those feelings I am allowing separation within myself form myself and all that is here, and am not being the directive principle of myself, but am abdicating that function to my mind as ego and am feeding it energy to survive.

next point will be: misery loves company