Category: writing

Liberation from Fear, Hatred, and Greed

The Buddha and Jesus lived a message of love, compassion and forgiveness. Their message was a way out of unnecessary suffering caused by the egos destructive nature. The ego is run by fear, hatred, and greed. I imagine the ego has a group of hurt, lonely, angry, sensitive, and greedy children inside our inner family. Those with strong addictions have hurt children running the show but most of society is being ran by parentified children frozen in trauma. Some become narcissistic, some cold emotionless, and some develop addictions but they are all responses to trauma. Jesus and the Buddha taught a way out of the ego and into the inner Self that heals all these wounded children. It forgives them, loves them, and holds them tenderly like a mother to a crying infant. We first must surrender to the battle in our mind. This is the first major step in our transformation. We admit we are powerless and need help from others. The ego wants to do life on its own, never wanting help from others out of fear and arrogance. We think we are Gods until we surrender fully to our suffering. We need a higher power to help guide us now because we realize the ego always takes us to complete destruction and suffering. Our will never leads to happiness, we need something bigger than ourselves to believe in. You don’t have to call it God, you can call it mother nature, the Universe, etc. It doesn’t matter what we call the mysterious force that created me and keeps the universe together but we have to be grateful for it. This is key to our transformation and resurrection into a more kind peaceful joyful person. Keep surrendering each day and the God of your understanding will fill you up with pure joy, you won’t need drugs, casual sex or consumption to fill the hole inside you anymore. This world needs more of us to wake up to our unnecessary suffering and delusional thinking that we are an all knowing God. Pleasure seeking isn’t the way towards true happiness. Practicing self love, compassion and forgiveness is the way. Shine that light into the darkness of your soul. The darkness of hatred, greed and fear.

With aloha,

Johnny

Camel Through the Eye of a Needle

Jesus once said a rich person’s chances of getting into the Kingdom of God is like a camel going through the eye of a needle.

This quote makes many in the Western world cringe because our whole society is based on greed.

Greed takes us away from Jesus’s message of compassion, love, humility, and grace.

From a young age we are taught from society that the accumulation of wealth is the source of all joy.

That we should strive to be a millionaire and buy luxurious goods, expensive vacations, and fancy candle lit meals at five star restaurants.

Nothing could be further from Jesus’s message of the narrow road and what the Buddha taught as the middle path.

Both wise men were speaking of the destructive nature of greed and fear.

Greed takes us away from the smooth sailing towards the pure joy of living a simple, humble, and grateful life centered on giving to others.

Jesus and the Buddha were both born into nobility but chose the narrow/middle path between extreme wealth and extreme deprivation that also was around in their times.

So look around you? Do you see much happiness in those who seek only pleasure? Pleasure seeking in my life only leads to self destruction and unnecessary suffering.

Jesus and the Buddha both taught a way out of suffering. A way towards resurrection and rebirth on this planet. By surrendering to our suffering like Jesus on the cross we can be reborn right now. By living like them through the narrow/middle path we can relieve our suffering and be very joyful and peaceful people.

Letting go of the need to strive is a huge challenge for most of us in the west. It took me many years to find serenity just being myself, not striving to be someone else. The only striving worthwhile is striving to live like Jesus or the Buddha. Strive to be the best version of yourself and you will naturally be very joyful and want to help others who still suffer deeply.

With aloha,

Johnny

Legacy

My life is impermanent

Knowing this, I vow to live deeply each day

Love unconditionally

Have deep compassion for all, even those who harm others

Forgive anyone who has harmed me

Including myself

Let this be my legacy

My legacy will not have dollar signs or job titles

My legacy is not purely words

But my actions

With Aloha,

Johnny

Greed Blinds Us

Every religion or philosophy warns humanity of the destructive qualities of greed. While I’m not religious myself, I honour the ancient wisdom found in each of them. Why does greed blind us? When we focus only on more money, we often sacrifice our own happiness, health, and relationships to achieve it. It blinds us from seeing the bigger picture of life. There is always a trade off.

We crave more money thinking it will satisfy us but it often leaves us craving more. A good friend once told me that “it is like drinking poison because you’re thirsty.” There is nothing wrong or immoral about money. We need it to survive and even thrive. But how much is really necessary for happiness? Well that depends on your time, place and circumstances. According to me, it’s a lot less than we are told by movies, commercials, and western society.

I fall into this trap many times & have to relearn this ancient wisdom of “less is more”. Greed has blinded me many times. My spiritual journey has always been more about unlearning self destructive habits & thoughts that I picked up along my way in my childhood & early adulthood.

With aloha,

Johnny

Lost in Self Doubt

Life comes with challenges for us to learn from. I have had many challenges come my way from my many experiences in college, breakups, moving to Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia. I always had a great attitude about it because you learn so much about yourself by experiences; good & bad. You can always make a new decision today that can better your life.

I never doubted my decisions until this year. Early in this year I kept making decisions out of fear that put me in living situations that compromised my health & happiness. In February, I started feeling hopeless & lost. I lost faith in my own intuition. I felt like I lost my own ability to make decisions for me thrive physically, mentally, and spiritually. It’s a feeling that’s hard to describe. It’s like you’re lost in a maze and you keep questioning every decision. This can lead to feelings of hopelessness, fear, and despair. Eventually you question yourself so much that you just stop trying & depression sets in. You start living your life paralyzed by fear & self doubt.

I know this situation will end eventually, all is impermanent. A huge part of me wants to move back to Australia & start making decisions out of love instead of fear of failure or not having enough money. A part of me wants to move back to the central coast of California and a part of me wants to stay in Colorado Springs with family. I keep bouncing back n forth in my decision. Thank you to my family & friends for your patience & love while I try to figure out the next step in my life. 🙏🏻

With aloha,

Johnny

Attitude Adjustment

Entitled, bitter, and upset

I cause my own suffering

What’s the antidote for this mental condition?

Gratitude

How could I lose sight of all the things I could be grateful for?

Grateful for my job

Grateful for friends and family

Grateful for life & it’s infinite possibilities

The conditions of happiness are always available at any moment

Even through the darkest times we can cultivate joy through gratitude

We can bring our breath back to this exact moment

Peace & joy can only be found in the here and now

With aloha,

Johnny

Attachment: The Root of Our Suffering

Attachment is at the root of all suffering

Attachment to youth

Attachment to wealth

Attachment to our spouse, family & friends

Attachment to life itself

If attachment is the root of all suffering..

What is the root of joy?

Freedom is the root of joy

Freedom not to hurt ourself or others but freedom from fear, anger, and hatred running and ruining our lives

Liberation from old ways of thinking & doing that make us miserable

Today is the day to start changing, even small changes can lead to huge results in time

When we look at nature, we see that everything is impermanent.

Even our own sun has a shelf life

So why do live as if relationships, wealth, family members, and our own life will last forever?

If we live a full life, one life is enough.

With aloha,

Johnny

Outdated Identity

We spend our life building our identity.

From a very early age; the music, tv, & friend group shape our identity. What we consume, becomes part of us.

But we often struggle with letting go of this identity, even when this identity is responsible for the destruction of our own joy.

We fear that if we let go of this outdated idea of who we are that we lose ourself in the process.

But the truth is that old identity was never truly us.
It was shaped by our family, culture, religion and media

So who do we truly want to become?
Do we want to self destruct our own lives clinging to the past?
Or do we want to liberate ourself & embrace a new life that is inline with our values & vision?
The first step is to release that you are worth taking care of.
Your life & happiness does matter.

The chose is ours, even minute of each day.
We can always change at any moment
Even the smallest shifts can snowball into a radically different life.

If not now, then when?

With aloha,

Johnny

Flow

What comes

Let it come

What goes

Let it go

Embrace the impermanence of each moment

Stop clinging

Stop controlling

Start allowing

Start releasing

The world does not revolve around us

Flow with it & you will know peace

Fight it & you will know suffering

With aloha,

Johnny

Open Heart

I almost got married in my mid 20s

But I was not ready for such commitment

It ended in disaster

I caused much suffering to myself & her

I vowed to be better

But I did not realise until recently that I had closed my heart

Maybe this was needed for me to become who I am today

7 years later

7 years single

The life of a nomadic backpacker doesn’t lend to serious relationships

But I know this is a chapter in my life, not the entire book

At 32 years old I have realised I truly would appreciate having a girlfriend again; someone to share my life with

Some things in life we can not learn outside of a deep relationship with another

When the time is right, I will choose to be in a relationship out of love, not fear of being alone 🙏🏻

With aloha,

Johnny