BUDDHA IN THE MUD is a blog – a living book based on the Dzogchen teachings. Our teacher is life, and life is karma. We are all Buddhas in the mud of concepts.

Loneliness.

 This may be looked at in two ways: the first is from a relative point of view and the second, from an absolute point of view. From an absolute point of view, we are unique individuals who rub shoulders for a while in this relative state, and then move on. Some of us enjoy isolation, but we cannot ignore those who suffer from loneliness, as they need compassion. To be blunt, compassion isn’t as popular as personal goals nowadays.

 Loneliness is becoming an epidemic. It is the feeling of isolation, or separateness. Is this just an outcome of modern life, or is it social engineering on a huge scale? You will have to decide this for yourself.

 In general, humans are interdependent beings, living in social communities and sharing work skills. Over time, villages became towns, and towns became cities. Everyone took pride in their work, and those who could not were helped: it was a slower pace of life.

Many inventions and political manipulations have occurred since then, speeding up the separation of people, and so, increasing the effect of loneliness – even though there more communication networks. Strange that! The breakdown within families is vitally important, and is a key to this as it affects childhood and thus, later years.

The first great change was industrialisation. The next great change was digitalisation. The next insidious change was moving production and skills to a cheaper country. This resulted in more profit for the corporations, and cheaper products for people at home to spend their wealth, so giving it back the corporation. As things became cheap, we acquired items we did not need, and so shopping became a hobby/way of life.

Political parties – and the machinery behind them – separate people. Wars do the same. Inventing status symbols has the same effect…the list is endless.

Every change affects the independency and interdependency of this society. People are put out of work, pride in skills are lost, pressure within families to move away. Personal goals are set higher, and the class systems split people further apart, even within the same family. People are encouraged to better themselves…materially!

Could it be that we have been made too dependent, and too soft? If the source of our dependency is cut off, where does it leave us? With even more stress. We can put another word to loneliness – depression. That’s when we are invited to take drugs, and so we become dependent on the corporate chemicals.

People are so desperate to ‘get ahead’ that they lose their empathy for others. In time, each one of us will feel left out, unless we realise our true nature.

Everyone is now dancing to the tune of the large corporation – even governments. Marketing is very a finely tuned science! With surveillance and new ‘SMART’ toys, the corporations know everything about your spending patterns.

So what has this got to do with Loneliness?

People have become more interested in their personal life styles and wealth than in other people! How often does one see groups of youngsters at a coffee bar, heads down, thumbing their ‘SMART’ toy, addicted to superficial social forums?

If you can catch the younger generation, you can control them in later life. Trauma inflicted through a broken family life also have a huge effect later on.

The more one can isolate people, the more they will want ‘SMART’ toys to keep themselves from feeling lonely. Not only have people lost the art of communication and talking face to face, they are using fewer words because of texting. If you lose words, you lose a way of expressing how you feel. That is mind control.

However, this all stems from our own selfishness. Our selfishness is being used against us yet again.

We create our own loneliness by not caring about others. It’s not all our fault, we have just learnt – or been taught – to conform to the corporate standard model. The marketers grade us with targeted advertising!

When we can break out of this social engineering, this social I that we have acquired, and come know our true nature and that of every other sentient being, we will become human again, and not part of the machinery with a bar code.

Start by using your ‘SMART’ toys less. Above all, stop watching TV. All these ‘SMART’ toys are addictive, and pose health risks by producing EMF (Electro Magnetic Frequencies – another big subject). They affect our body and brain!

The world has artificially speeded up through an obsession with trivia. Start being human again, and ask someone, “How are you?” Then listen….listen…listen. Slowing life down, taking time and experience space. If we are too busy, life will just pass us by.

First, we heave to learn to be at one with ourselves (this is the unity of the two truths), and then we can be at one with others. However, let’s not forget that spiritual and religious groups are not outside this system. To become compassionate is challenging, and takes some practise!

Whether you see this is as social engineering or not is up to you.