I am reading a book called Veracity by Laura Bynum. Imagine a future where certain words are Red Listed and words gradually disappear from your vocabulary. This happens over time so you don’t know what you don’t know. That is until the main character meets up with The Resistance. She doesn’t understand half of what is being said. They have to re-educate her so she can join the movement and fulfill the role they have assigned her. More words for thought . . . more mind control tactics from the big THEY.

When I was at the beginning stages of writing my book there were 2 things that Ursula K. Leguin said about writing that encouraged me to keep at it. And I am paraphrasing here but they have stuck in my head for all these years and left a mark. If you stay with a story long enough you will be able to tell it. After 9 years of writing – it took me a while to find the story – these words kept me going. Also there was something about how writing in the fantasy/sci-fiction genres provided a cover for you to explore ideas without offending or drawing attention from the censors or the big THEY out there. In other words you can pretty much say what you want. THEY probably aren’t looking. Fantasy fictions are fairy tales and may be thought of in the same harmless category. Take Margaret Atwood for instance with her imaginative visions of our future. Fiction, right? But a pretty scathing commentary on our world. Words for thought . . .

What is a Bodhisattva Rising?  Much like Sapphire’s journey in The Bodhisattva of Attika we can discover what that means for us. I’m pretty sure it is different for everyone. Is there a nascent Bodhisattva in you or are you fully formed and active in the world? Are you a person motivated to help other persons? Tell me how you do it. What is your inspiration?

Habituation

I’ve been running into this word a lot in the last few days. Habituation equals conditioning and it becomes our personal signature. Habitat becomes habit. Who we are becomes a habit. A life lived in a box. For the Plebs of Attika it is the Imperial Ruling Thought that forces them into habits that rule their lives Would you rather wake up in the morning and know there is something truly on in you? Not just habits. What would that be like?

Not habitual.

The Plebs of Attika are enslaved to their environment. They have a reality that continually conforms to the Pleb mind. What could they be thinking? Would you want a reality that mimics the maniacal, circular thinking of your mind? Feeling, attitudes, environment. Repeat, repeat, repeat . . .  every day. The same old, the same old . . . habit.

The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva  is a Mahayana Buddhist text written c. 700 AD in Sanskrit verse. 

“The aim to work for the benefit of beings,

A benefit that others wish not even for themselves.

This noble, jewel like state of mind

Arises truly wondrous, never seen before.”

“I therefore have no thought that this might be of benefit of others,

I wrote it only to habituate my mind.”

Albert Einstein said: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” The Plebs of Attika have been ruled by the Imperial Ruling Thought for a thousand incarnations and nothing has been solved. They are living the same old, same old . . . you could say. The Plebs are the victims of mind control and face the very  real fear of breaking out of thought patterns imposed by the Imperial dynasty. The question is: Are they really thinking or are they tricked into thinking they are thinking their own thoughts? I often wonder whose thoughts I’m thinking in this crazy loop of my mind. They can’t be all mine, can they?

Or more accurately, on not writing. Is it polite to start the new book when this one is barely out of the birth canal? Resistance or the natural way of things – endings and beginnings? I wonder if I won’t be writing the same story again – if I didn’t get this one out just right – or if I need a breather before the next big push. Finding the momentum is the thing. Once you get started, momentum is like a ride you can’t get off even if you want to. Right now I’m at the gate deciding whether or not I really want another ride like the last one. Oh, if I could just work on the book. I loved working on my book. But it’s out of my hands now. Can’t touch it. Can’t fix it. Can’t change a single word. Can you say . . . let goooo? Fix. Straighten. Make Straight. Make Right. What’s wrong? Doing a lot of reading and movie watching. Being idle. Not knowing what to do. All proven, solid, worthy stalling tactics. I’ve got titles in my head – circling – taunting – which one will win? I love starting with a title. Plot? That will take some thinking. Or, I could let my subconscious mind fight it out in dark, murky waters while I entertain myself up here with the lighter side.

    This is the Fatima Oracle, an interactive AI, from my novel. Here she is in a difficult conversation with the Emperor Incarnate of the Imperial Realm. She is forced to obey his will again and must send Plebs to their death.

Aileen thinks she is and it gives her shivery chills thinking about a super power acting to benefit others. She imagines a lot of action-hero type blow’em up fights in the story. I like the shivery chills reaction. No blow’em up fights to be found though. Psychological and emotional manipulations are more my game, and more frightening to me actually.

Today is the day I go public and will announce my website to friends and family. Please comment on my blog and my first chapter and share it with your friends and family, especially those who lean towards the fantasy/sci-fi spectrum of life.