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“Speed is the form of ecstasy the technical revolution has bestowed on man; that wild state of simultaneous freedom and imprisonment that is the culmination of millennia of evolution in human societies, technologies and habits of mind.

Czech novelist Milan Kundera

Speed in life has changed the very texture of our existence. Don’t know what I mean? Have you never texted someone and sat there 10 minutes later absolutely miffed they hadn’t yet responded? Or sent an email that 3 days later hadn’t been replied to and thought to yourself “what is with them, what is taking so darn long, should I have sent it snail mail or what?”

Yes technology has given us speed as the ecstasy of our time. And we are as guilty of propagating it as we are sick of being subject to it. But are we subject to it? Are we simply helpless victims unable to do anything about the ever faster merry-go-round we are on? Or are we doomed to merely getting sick to our stomach, dizzy in orientation, and once off realizing we have in actuality gone nowhere?

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‘There is a contraction of the present. The past “no longer holds” or is no longer relevant to us.
The future “does not hold yet.” The present then is “the time span for which the horizon of experience and expectation coincide”’ Harmut Rosa- High Speed Society

Eccl. 5:18 “After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. 19 Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! 20 God deals out joy in the present, the now. It’s useless to brood over how long we might live”
Solomon’s latest publication that would be possibly titled “Enjoy Now!” But was formerly released under the title Ecclesiastes

It seems to me Rosa, current social acceleration guru, and Solomon, Mr. Ancient Wealth Man of the Millennium, are in the same camp.

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The acceleration of technological innovation has been outstripped by the increase in the quantity of activity necessary to navigate it. The example of facebook from last post is only one example we could give. The truth is the metabolic rate of life seems to have increased. Unfortunately though that increase in metabolism hasn’t thinned things out but actually contributed to what I call “life density.”

Everything is packed so tight and experiences so closely spliced together it is hard to genuinely experience anything. Life seems denser, fuller, more diffracted but fuller here does not mean richer. By defintion this density we are speaking of isn’t a fuller deeper richer experience of the same few thing that used to be on our calendar 5 years ago or 15 years ago. This is a density of quantity. It is this quantity overload that leads us into dizzying velocity and a sped up metabolism with which we have to do life…a life at the speed of blur.

It has been said by one social demographer that the quintessential metaphor of the late modern age is the motorcycle. Jump on and ride into the sunset with no boundaries and get away from it all. The motorcycle symbolized freedom. But if the modern world sees a motorcycle our postmodern world is riding something quite different if you can call it riding. We have gotten off the motorcycle and gotten on the treadmill. Moving rather quickly, sweating like a dog in the process and all the while going no where at all. It keeps our metabolism up, but in an artificial way because we are moving toward nothing very quickly.

Or is a better metaphor the wheel spin. You know the car gets stuck in some loose gravel and the wheel starts to spin. And so you hit the accelerator harder. But what happens? Gravel spins out from underneath the tire. Faster wheel spin, less and less traction. Pretty soon no contact with anything solid. And if the engine is revved continually the lack of traction and continual spinning with blow the engine. Feel like you are wheel spinning and about to blow?

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Did you ever do that quintessential kid thing one day at the lake; stand in chest deep water and while holding your arm out parallel to the water spin around and let your hand bounce and skim the surface? The faster and harder you did it the more your hand slowly numbed and the dizzier you got?

I wonder if this isn’t a bit of a picture of human life in the 21st century. Moving quickly, skimming the surface, slowly numbing all the while getting more dizzy.

Communication is quicker…10 to the second power quicker. Post office-email.

Travel is quicker …. 10 to the seventh power quicker. Horse, car, jet plane.

But just those two things alone should have freed up so much more time for us to do things we really want right? Wrong-O tiny one. Wrong-O!

A micro change in technology enables something to be done faster or more efficiently. And this has an obvious benefit BUT ONLY so long as the macro environment in which the change took place remains unaffected.

So for example let’s take facebook. Post pictures so your family can see them or your close friends, shoot an inbox message to a friend or sibling and life is easier and you have saved time. BUT BUT BUT while you are doing that 4 friend requests come in from people you haven’t seen in 14 years – 17 years respectively. You have to see their pictures. And of course when you do it is one of those Holy S@&* has she ever gained weight moments, or the “my gosh has he aged, sheesh where did his hair go, or man she really picked up some wrinkles” moments. The next thing you know you are browsing their family photos and holiday pictures and 30 minutes later or 2 hours later your time saving facebook connection is a really pain in the you know what. Time saved is exponentially time lost now.

In other words the cumulative effect of such micro changes is to re-configure that macro environment, ushering in new expectations and these change the velocities and metabolism of our lives.

We are taking in more data, we are more broadly connecting, the density of life increases, but are we REALLY connecting or just skimming till we are numb?

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What is time but a marker…used to mark progress, movement and even direction in our lives? What is interesting is that the nature of time seems to be changing, or is it simply what fills it that is changing the texture of our lives? In other words the way our lives feel these days is apparently quite different than they felt 15 years ago and certainly vastly different than the way they felt 150 years ago. While this might appear to be a more philosophical conversation than a practical one that isn’t really the case.

Experts tell us we are experiencing acceleration in many forms.

Just technological changes in transportation and communication acceleration is making the world smaller. What used to take weeks of travel by ship can now be done in a few hours on a plane. What used to take days to deliver by post office carriers can now be done in milliseconds half way around the world. And all these were time saving technologies that would be used to usher in a golden age of abundant leisure. Remember the prognosticators?

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So, let’s get straight to the big question…

Is your life heading down a track that you aren’t happy with?

It’s possible, if we are being honest, that most people aren’t even 60% satisfied with their lives, never mind 100%, and here’s why: They don’t understand how to create a better life.

It’s not intentional. It’s not because they aren’t trying. It’s just because nobody taught them how.

The good news is that building a better life is NOT guesswork. Ron Martoia, with his 25 years of experience in life transformation, has developed a program that will help you create the life you have been dreaming about. Click on the image or link below for more information:

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Sunday night I had the honor of speaking again at Mosaeik. We had an incredible time. They are in the middle of a series on Spiritual Practices that bring life. I opted to speak on Creation Contemplation.

The message will be posted soon for those of you that weren’t there. But I promised to post the exercise I mentioned at the end of my message so here it is.

And allow me to say that our online learning community The Transformational Trek Tribe has a whole section on the site of nothing but practices like these. If you are interested in trying the tribe this is a good time, the price to join goes up on October 1st. There is nothing to lose. If you try it a month and don’t like it we will refund you 100%. Click here for details

Creational Contemplation

1. With your senses (not so much your mind), focus on one single “something” in creation. A tree, a flower, or grass. Be present with it until you stop fighting it, resisting it or analyzing it.

Eventually this should lead to an initial CALMNESS in your body and mind.

2. You must choose not to judge the object in any way, attach to it, reject it as meaningless, like it or dislike it.
This is learning to appreciate and respect things in and for themselves, and not because they either profit you or threaten you.

This should lead to a kind of subtle, simple JOY in the object itself and also within you.

3. “Listen” to the object and allow God to to speak to you through it. Allow a simple dialogue to happen with the object and God speaking through it. Allow a respect and curiosity to evolve

This often will lead to the beginnings of LOVE for the object or event, and a sense of loving kindness within you.

The usual effect is a kind of contented spaciousness and silence.

This is a form of non-dual consciousness or “objectless consciousness” of all things (the contemplative mind as such).

There is no timer on this. Sometimes it might only take 10 minutes to really enter in. Other times and probably initially as you learn the practice it will take 30 minutes or so.

This is an adaptation from the exercise in Richard Rohr’s The Naked Now p. 170

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We have heard things like “you need to grow up!” from the time we were little people. And for most of us growth has been something that just happened. You didn’t really think about it, plan it, attempt to speed it up or slow it down, growth just did its thing.

That is great when your body is growing and you are in school and your changing body and body-of-learning is constantly expanding, stretching, and obvious to the naked eye. But sometime in our twenties and into our thirties we awaken to the fact that “growing,” the way it used to always happen, has stopped. The mind like the body has hit a plateau. That doesn’t seem so bad until the realization dawns that life never hits a plateau. As life goes on it gets more complex, more messy, pain is experienced, a little weight gain here and bad habit picked up there and you wake up one day and you feel stuck.

And so the little echo in your head from childhood reemerges. I need to grow here, get retooled, I need to experience some life change, I need transformation whatever that is. I need to get this addiction under control before I am out of control. I need to get this anxiety addressed or I am going to be carried off by little men in white lab coats! I need to figure out what it is inside of me that sabotages my relationships.

Most of us at some point come to these type of ‘ah-ha’ moments. We think the idea of being transformed is a good one, even a great one, but what the heck IS transformation and what elixir do you have to drink to experience it?

What I have just described above is playing out in hundreds of thousands of lives of people all over the world. This isn’t an American issue, a European issue, a Far East issue or and African issue, it is a human issue, the human condition! When we hit these “ah-ha” moments we are being given a gift that signals transformation is just around the corner if we know the way to respond and the steps to take!

Religion has been the traditional answer most often given for addressing some of these issues. And you know what? The word religion comes from the Latin re-ligare, to re-ligature, to reconnect that which has been disconnected. What a beautiful word huh? Somewhere though the brokers of religion/reconnection decided to become brokers of law and legalism and control. So most have said “sorry religion ain’t cutting it!”

Spirituality has been the next foray into fixing the issues. Great call there. Let’s get past the religious trappings of control and beating people up. The problem here has been spirituality has become synonymous with wishy-washy, squishy, non-descript mystical experience…but not durable and substantial enough for the hard work of life change.

Is there something solid and substantial that can really reconnect us, and give us an experience of the Divine, but also help us do the hard work of life change?

I think so. I really really thing so.

So click here to find out what

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