Something has been troubling me for the past few months. I'll try to keep this short and rant at a minimum.

Before I took psychedelics I was a mess. I was depressed, unfriendly...The works. I took DMT and after about 3 uses it showed me the way out. I had just met a new group of people and they didn't know me well yet. I decided to change myself and start fresh. It's been working well and I have been able to preserve this new freedom even after stopping DMT use. I owe DMT and this community alot for helping me out.

What I'm faced with now is knowledge. Knowledge that the hamburger I eat comes from an animal that lives on dirt and is probably abused. If not physically, then psychologically. Nobody likes being confined. I'm seeing things in other people that bothers me. I see poverty, hunger, anguish and it's impossible to ignore. I want to help but I really don't know how. I can't stop eating meat because I get sick, I can't help the poor because I'm barely getting by. I can't help people's grief because they need to get over it on their own to an extent.

I see pollution, oil spills, war...How can I ignore it? The psychedelic experience showed me how to relax. It showed me how to be a better person, not to judge, and to let go of yourself. It didn't show any sympathy for starvation, poverty, and sickness.

Almost everyone who's done psychedelics will tell you the same thing: Enjoy life, just go with the flow. I cannot relate to this. Sure, I can volunteer at an animal hospital and feel better about myself, soothe my conscience. But there's always going to be all this shit in the world. We can't recover from it, people are blind. Take for instance a recent article about a woman who dumped a cat in a garbage bin to die.

They're trying to argue she's mentally ill...Of course she is, we all are, we're all sick. She dumped that cat to hurt someone. If some family would feel sad about the loss of their cat, then good. Makes her feel better about herself. People would tell me to stay calm at something like this....I'm enlightened and must set an example, show self restraint and forgive her actions.

I hate this, it's like being stuck in a vice. You stay close to one side of it and you don't get crushed. But sooner or later the other half is on the way. DMT showed me how to embrace all that is good. But now the bad stands out like a speed bump and I can't ignore it. I think what really set me off was the bill hicks show I watched last night...The one where he just loses it on the crowd and says we all need to die. I browse online forums and everywhere I look there's people who enjoy hurting others. There's a popular game minecraft where you build things like lego in 3D. People actually log on just to ruin artwork and they think it's fun. They enjoy seeing people getting angry and frustrated. How can we possibly recover from this.

"Human kind needs to abandon earth if we hope to survive". Why, so we can move elsewhere and screw everything up again?

I don't know where I read this, hell maybe I'm just making it up as I go:
"I worked my whole life to become enlightened and now I'm forced to watch the whole world go insane."

You might enjoy this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt0deUiGO-E (it's actually a 4-part interview)

All I can say is: I hear you, my brother, from the depths of my soul.

I was originally working at a steakhouse when I first drank Ayahuasca. The food was so generally unhealthy that I have seen people DROP OVER and get wheeled out on stretchers... I drove my gas-guzzling car to work, courtesy of the death of millions in Iraq.

You know, we are raised certain ways, taught certain things are okay. It takes a huge amount of fortitude to look deep into the soul and decide that the reality is different. It's also stepping out into less-defined territory. If you want to dump a pre-defined value system, you have to replace it with something new. It's up to you to define those variables. Society won't always make it easy, but empathy, compassion, and humility (rather than judgment and ego) can hopefully ease the shock value, in the case of clashing value systems.

This is a call to value the Earth as a whole...

The first time trees made it clear that they could speak to me, I ran away from the forest because I was honestly terrified to hear what they had to say. I was complicit with the madness. I was contributing to the insanity.

So, slowly, ever since then, the giant quest of my life has been to do no harm. It doesn't stop the madness, but sometimes it eases, and it definitely does not AUGMENT the madness. Tiny, steady steps have made the most progress...

We have to do what we can... Like someone reminded me in another thread, we touch people, all the time, in invisible ways, with our words, with our actions, with our smiles.

It comes back to Ghandi. Be the change you want to see... It's a good start. All together we are the answer. But we have to make the start.

*hugs*

You Nailed it Ms M, that is exactly what I would suggest Jacetea , It is the only thing we can do.

Your shoulders are not big enough for all the worlds worries , just do what you can.

Hahahah this is exactly what I was going to reply

Just be happy you are aware of this and you are in the good team
Just do your best and you'll be fine

i feel where you're coming from jacetea as i have pondered the same things for a long time. but you see, there's something that is at work here, which is beyond the boundaries of the limited mind...and that is consciousness. within this matrix of consciousness, all possible outcomes already exist. It is wiser than our mind, and it knows EXACTLY where its headed, for it is all that exists. what we see now, is like looking at a single frame of a movie; the entire sequence of the movie will be revealed eventually. every event arises from its former preceding moment..this HAS to happen, in order for THAT to happen. No person, and no being can stay unenlightened forever.
i know how paradoxical this all appears, but even in the face of all the "bad" in this world, consciousness has a plan, and we must learn to TRUST. McKenna said, Shaman's are not easily disturbed by such violent occurrences because they have "seen the end." Eschaton is pulling us to ever more higher dimensions, which means at some level, history has already ended. However, even though fate is already decided, its conclusion rests completely onto us, and the decisions that we make NOW.
"If a problem can be solved there is no use worrying about it. If it can't be solved, worrying will do no good."

And always remember..


P.S.
this person may have "worked" towards enlightenment, but he wasn't enlightened

Oh yes, trees can be harsh and even cynical in ways you won't expect from a tree!!
Propably because they such an abused species.

About the OPs seemingly paradox situation...it is not. Beeing at ease with the world is just the first step, as it establishes a situation of strength from where you can act from. Moreover, beeing serene person does have direct effects on the negativity in the world. By showing love through body language, way to speak...you automatically take away reason for other peoples egos to fight. This directly reduces harm.

This advice rubs me the wrong way, too. The right path is NOT the path of least resistance.


My advice is to first understand the limited nature of your ability as a single human being to heal the sickness in the world. Accept that you are not, and should not be expected to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. But then, decide how you think that you can make the best contribution to humanity, and put everything you've got into that cause. Keep on running and don't look back!

And then you can close your eyes at the end of each and every day knowing that you lived it to its fullest.

Just get your house in order, everything else follows.
The outside world is just a reflection.

I know that stage where everything in the outside is "broken" and needs a fix.
You can't fix it.
Love, choose light.

Be aware

Very nice answers so far. What I can possibly add is that you have stumbled on The First Noble Truth and, probably because of entheogenic use, you are living it fully.

Cheer up! There are 3 other Noble Truths to take you off the quagmire:

There is a cause for Suffering
There is Cessation of Suffering
There is a Path that leads to that Cessation

You are doing just fine!

Very wise words applecore. No life experience is flawed but I believe it's the impact that these higher states of mind have on our normal everyday life that make them so special.