The Choice To Opt Out

We’re all part of the foolish game of following followers.

Using huge surveillance systems to monitor our foolishness is even more foolish than the foolishness they’re tracking 🙂 as all we hear people talking about follows the one rule: only speak about the past. This is our dream state.

Most of human chatter relies on memory, narratives, and social performance. When we strip away the past – recounting things that happened, digging up old grievances, repeating identity stories – this eliminates future plans, anxieties and projections, and the present moment becomes remarkably quiet.

Why does the present feel silent? There’s no script, and therefore no ego, and the ego needs the past to define who it is, and the future to state what it wants.

Pure presence is without these two illusory tenses. When the illusion is dropped, all that is left is just spontaneous silent perception. This is why retreats are held in silence. When the silence is broken, all hell is unleashed. 🙂

Opting out means choosing presence over performance. Few people are ready to meet us there, but the connections made in that space are entirely real.

Opting out is the release from suffering.