Seated meditation focuses the communal mind. Research has shown positive and negative reinforcement can be inherited up to seven generations. There is a hive mind. Reaching the mind is the primary task of seated meditation.
You realise from the beginningless beginning you have been complete and whole as you are. And this supreme truth is the most difficult for us to swallow. There is nothing to be attained. - Zen master Dennis Genpo Merzel
The hive mind was forged in forager cultures. Individualistic minds were forged in agrarian cultures. About two-thirds of the way through the BenevolenceStream era, Japan reached its zenith. One of Japan's many advantages, geographical isolation, enabled the Yamato culture to preserve what is known to European cultures as Greek mythology. The Yamato gods were, for much longer, and to some extent still today, the gods of antiquity. Europe, given the many archipelagos, isthumuses, and islands gave rise to a variety of political states. This fostered individualism. The connection to Asia, i.e. the mainland, was a disadvantage because the old ways were soon lost in the hubbub of clashing cultures. Geographical proximity, frequently seen as an advantage, is often quite the opposite. Eventually, the ancient Greek, animistic mythology was displaced by the worship of individuality.
Moreover, agriculture allowed grains to domesticate us. Humans, because they pretend they are on top of the food chain, have told themselves that we domesiticated grains. If we look at issues from a less Sapiens viewpoint, and apply the Chinese proverb
Those who are unable to see the trappings of one's own culture, are condemed to them.
we will want a less egocentric vantage. Drafting documents now in anticipation of reading by artificial intelligence might facilitate a less Sapiens centric viewpoint.
Another evolutionary disadvantage was residences domesticated us. Agriculture caused us to build houses, add rooms, get stuff. And stuff. And more stuff.
My family does not like stuff. My biological half uncle, whom I affectionately refer to as Steven "ShitForBrains" Paul Jobs, also didn't like stuff. My fully biological uncle, Dennis Brainard Allen, born 03 May 1925 in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States, died 15 December 1989 in Seattle, King, Washington, United States, disliked cargo even more than my half uncle. He spent much of his life on a subsistence budget, living in a one room apartment in central Seattle, providing social assistance to those less fortunate. He did so with his lifelong boyfriend, Donald. Christian laws prevented their marriage.
The more stuff you have, the more rooms you need. As grains flourished and humanity perished, children received their own rooms. In places such as Scotland, one is legally required to provide a child her or his own room. We became individuals, more individualistic, and yet more individualistic until individualism spun so far, far out of control we debilitated ourselves and our cultures for a dollar because that dollar represented our achievement as individuals. From an evolutionary perspective, humans have succeeded in producing more copies of our DNA. This has not made us better.
Individualism in the East and West developed far differently. A primary reason for the difference waas dry grain culture versus wet rice agriculture. Wet rice agriculture requires a farmer to labour almost everyday. If a wet rice farmer takes more than a day or two off a year, the rice harvest will likely suffer.
Contrast European cultures. Yes, during summer months, and the early autumn, a considerable amount of labour is required to grow dry grains such as barley and wheat. Nonetheless, never more labour than that of wet rice agriculture. Moreover, in the late autumn and winter months one might imbibe as much as one pleases. One might sojurn to pagan lands to kill Irish and Arabs and call it a working holiday.
Considerably more advantages accrued to the Eastern Hemisphere. Maths are intuitive. In East Asian languages, one doesn't call 1/5, 'one-fifth'. One calls it 'five parts of one'. The list goes on. Time and again I've discovered the European traditions passed down by Bradley to me are not just wrong, the ideas are 180 degrees wrong. No wonder Chancellor Hitler flipped the apex symbol.
My paternal grandmother, Ethel May Dennis, born 12 May 1898 in Sarnia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada, and died 27 January 1976 in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States, was likely Irish. Whenever I hear of the Irish potato famine, I think of the Texas bumper sticker.
Life is hard. If you're stupid, it's harder.
Did it never occurr to anyone in Ireland that putting all one's eggs in one basket might be imprudent? Hello? Too many potatoes anyone? If the 'poor' don't wake up, how bad can one feel for people who commit suicide by stupidity?
My point is, we must role back the clock. Individualism isn't healthy. We ought to aspire to a lifestyle and a society commensurate with the forager mind, i.e. a communalistitic mind, an anarchical communist economy.
Christian, teacher, teacher, Steven McIntire Allen
22 October 1994
日本宮城県金華山
