The Book of Bradon

THE BOOK OF BRADON 1
The Book of Bradon
Bradon Edge
2 Bradon Edge

First Edition, October 2012
2012 by Bradon Edge

All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Edge, Bradon
The Book Of Bo: Collectors Editon
p.200
ISBN-13: 978-1523263554
ISBN-10: 1523263555
Printed in New York City


The Book of Bradon

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Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in

hard, solid thinking. There is almost universal quest
for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing
pains some people more than having to think.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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The Book of Bradon

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DISCUSSION POINTS
11 Introduction: Stand Up and Live

20 One: Let Go of Your EgoYou Are Not Special
36 Two: Avoid Emotional Vampires
44 Three: Do Not Have Expectations Over People
50 Four: Seek The Christ Consciousness
56 Five: Find Your Own Spiritual PathYour Beliefs Are Not Your Own
76 Six: Accept Sadness
79 Seven: Doubt
90 Eight: Do Not Be Afraid of Death
95 Nine: Truths We Werent Taught in School
103 Ten: Understand That Politicians Do Not Care About You
113 Eleven: Remove Hindrances to Expand Being
122 Twelve: Stop The ComparisonsYou Are Responsible Only for Yourself
127 Thirteen: Immerse Yourself in Nature
130 Fourteen: The Full-On Plato
134 Fifteen: An Extra-Terrestrials Perspective of the Human Species
136 Sixteen: ShareDont Serve
145 Seventeen: Be Authentic
154 Eighteen: Forgive
158 Nineteen: Unplug
164 Twenty: Stop Pretending You Dont Have a Choice
174 Twenty-One: Love Unconditionally
178 Twenty-Two: The Six Questions
186 Twenty-Three: Be The Person Your Dog Thinks You Are
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Introduction: Stand Up and Live

My belief system has been stretched and extended fantastically over the past few years, and as a
result, I find myself constantly altering the way in which I understand and view the world. You
see, life on this Earth has proven to be a sweeping epic full of drama and distraction; and as a
consequence of all that turmoil, the human part of livingespecially regarding tolerance and
compassionhas become very difficult.
I didnt want it to be so difficult. I didnt think it needed to be so difficult. I didnt know what I
could do to change anythingeverything being so apparently insurmountablebut I knew I
had to try to attack my vague longing, my pensive sadness, my nagging doubt in an effort to
identify the unidentifiable.
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So I did.
I tried.
As a result of all of my purposeful seeking, I came to what I am comfortable calling a working

conclusion. So what is that working conclusion?

Simply, we need to go back to the basics. We are all a part of something tremendous,
something loving, that has knowledge of everything, and we need to live life in the simplest,
truest way, to clear the clutter and engage the better parts of us that will put us back in lifes
good graces.
Tyler Durden, one of

my favorite cinematic
characters, declared
in Fight Club, Youre
not your job. Youre
not how much money
you have in the bank.
Youre not the car you
drive. Youre not the
contents of your wallet.
Youre not your
fucking khakis. Youre
the all-singing, all-
dancing crap of the
world.
I had fancied myself an

author. I published.
Even won an award. I
was an award-winning
author. I was feeling
preeeeetty good about
myself. Shortly
thereafter my favorite
transcendentalist,
Henry David Thoreau,
put my growing ego in its place when my eyes crossed this gem: How vain it is to sit down
to write when you have not stood up to live.
He was right. Thoreau was right: I had not lived. Not really. Once I realized I was the crap of
the world, life became much simpler, and I truly attempted to live. Over the past few years,
I have stood up and lived. I have opened myself up to whatever may come. And many
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realizations, epiphanies, and personal truths pierced me with the power and precision of a
metaphorical bullet.
It was painful. Scary. Yet, refreshing. Holes inside of me filled. And after being pierced by the
metaphorical bullets that now represent the foundation of my truth, I felt I could honestly sit
down and write without being pointedly chastised from the 1800s by Thoreau.
How did I know my truth?
When I heard or realized what I considered a truth, something in me suddenly and immediately
perceived it. Others who could not perceive it, those who did not share the same truth, would
think I had been sharing too close of an association with some evil hypnotic monkey. They
thought one had to argue, reason, think about it, brood, and only then believe. But whenever a
truth is heard, the very quality of it is such that immediately it fills your emptiness, your gap,
your holes, because your own truth had been called forth.
Whenever you hear a truth, it is not coming from the outside of your body. The outside is just
an opportunity for the inside to open. When you hear a truth, immediately you recognize it as

such. It is not a truth to you because you can argue about it, because you can prove it, because
you are convinced by it, no. It is a truth because you are transformed by it. It is a conversion,
not a conviction.
I fully acknowledge that during my standing up and living, much of my energy was applied to
spiritual pursuits. I felt the outsidemy physicalhad received great attention during my
entire existence; the insidemy spiritualI felt, especially at this middle-aged point of my life,
finally deserved the same attention. I, therefore, spent a lot of time studying in other peoples
houses. As I had the benefit of living in Manhattan, I was able to speak to Buddhists, Catholics,
Wiccans, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics, et cetera, right in their places of worship
and non-worship.
Through this literal stepping-in-temples-and-churches-and-synagogues-and-mosques-and-

speaking-to-multiple-religious-and-non-religiou-leaders inquiry, I have concludedmy
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truththat the basic mistake that all the religions have committed is that they have simply
not been courageous enough to accept that there are limits to their knowing. They have not
been able to say on any point, We dont know. They have been so arrogant that they go on
saying they know, and they go on creating what I find to be new fictions of knowledge.
A true religion should have the humbleness to admit that only a few things are known, much
more is unknown, and some things will always remain unknowable. The greatest scientists
will be aware of the unknowablewhich will never be known; nothing can be done about it,
because the ultimate mystery cannot be reduced to knowledge.
Even after years of focused studying and analysisthrough conversations, interviews,

activism, protests, readings, analysis, experience, and on-going self-reflection and self-
correctionwhat do I really know? Allow me to echo the Greek philosopher Socrates, as
stated in his counterpart Platos Phaedrus: As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.

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It is in that spirit that I give my humble attempt to bring a touch of semblance to an
increasingly distasteful world. The Book of Bo offers twenty-three discussion points regarding
deeply impacting aspects of living that promote a return-to-self and a return-to-the-basics-of-
living-our-best-lives.

If any of what follows insults your honestly inquired truths, understand thatand I sincerely
mean this in the absolute most compassionate, understanding, and loving manner possible
just as yours will never be about me, the continued pursuit for my truth, for peace in my soul,
never has been, is not now, and never will be about you.
It was when I was in Venice, Italy, that I truly started to stand up and live, when I began to
closely analyze my beliefs, to investigate that which is truly important. It took backpacking
through Europe to inspire me to find my truth.
Yes, the match

inside of me had
already been
struck long
prior, but my
longing, sadness,
and doubt were
all amplified
throughout
Europe. I
realized then
that there was
something
more
something
unidentifiable
just out of reach,
and I was
determined to
find it.
I realize many peoplepeople incredibly dear to memay cling closely to certain beliefs with
which I whole-heartedly disagree. I hold no judgment toward anyone regarding those beliefsI
simply do not share them. More so, I do not need anyone to agree with or adopt my truths for
me to offer love and acceptance.
I love without judgment because I do, and I ask the same of each person whose eyes gently
cross the following pages.
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One: Let Go Of Your EgoYou Are Not Special
Nature does not produce special people. It produces unique people, but not special people.
Everybody is unique in his own way. Nobody is more important than anyone else. You are no
better than anyone else. You are not special. Get it through your head: You. Are. Not. Special. My

discoveries surrounding ego were arguably the most significant realizations I made about myself
and how I viewed myself. I was thankful Tyler Durden stimulated my awakening with the
following simple, yet profound, uppercut to my ego: You are not specialyoure the same
decaying organic matter as everything else.
Everybodyit seemsis after being special, extraordinary. They want to be the baddest cat on
the block. They want to be majestic, royalthey want to be fierce. They want to have
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endless attention come their way. They want to be told they are beautiful, wonderful, amazing.
They want to be complimented over and over again. They feed off of it, and they live their life in
pursuit of it.
That is the search of the ego: to be someone who is special, to be someone who is
incomparable. And this is the paradox: the more you try to be exceptional, the more ordinary
you look, because nearly everybody is after extraordinariness. It is such an ordinary desire. If
you become ordinary, the very search to be ordinary is extraordinary, because rarely does
somebody want that. And when you become ordinary you become extraordinary, and, of
course, suddenly you discover that without searching you have become unique.
To try to be unique is on everybody's mind; and all these people fail and fail utterly. How can
you be more unique than you are already? There, also, is a deep, deep beauty in each
individual's uniqueness.

Uniqueness is already there; you simply have to discover it. It doesn't matter if you are a
crumpled fork or one of the many straight forks. It simply doesn't matter: your uniqueness is
there regardless. You do not have to invent it, it is hidden within you; you have to expose it to
existence, thats all. This uniqueness is not to be cultivated. It is your treasure; you have been
carrying it forever and ever. It is your very being, your very core of being. You have just to
close your eyes and look at yourself; you have just to stop for a while and rest and look.
The people who are humble and just accept that they are ordinary people like everybody else
you will see a light in their eyes. You will see a grace in their actions. You will not see them
competing, you will not see them cheating. You will not see them betraying. They will not have
double minds. They will not be hypocrites. They show their heart openly to anybody, because they are not
pretending anything. They are open and simple, and there is beauty in openness, in simplicity.
Become ordinary and you will become extraordinary; try to become extraordinary and you will
remain ordinary.
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I could effectively argue that a lot of what I did previously in my life was about ego. Everything
from the clothes I wore to the friends I chose to always working my story back into a
conversation to the constant updating of my self-absorbed social networking accounts.
Everything was all about me. I was ashamed at this realization.


It isas am Istill a work in progress, but I immediately and consciously worked to remove
ego from my life, to not judge or criticize others, to not try to work my story into every
conversation, and to paraphrase Paramahansa Yogananda, a world teacher of ancient wisdom,
to not cut off the head of another simply to make myself feel taller. Who was I to judge anyway?
I was no better than anyone else. I was no more special than anyone else. My job, my income,
my lifestyle, my statusnone of it mattered. I no longer take myself seriouslyat all.
I am not the clothes I wear. I am not the

number of followers I have on any social
network. I am not the apartment in which I live.
My name doesnt even matter. I am not my
name. None of that defines my true self, nor
does it define anyone elses true self.
Throughout my studies, I read and re-read
Yoganandas Autobiography of a Yogi and came
across and adopted this self-reflective, life-
altering truth: I have long exercised an honest
introspection, the exquisitely painful approach
to wisdom. Self-scrutiny, relentless observance
of ones thoughts, is a stark and shattering
experience. It pulverizes the stoutest ego. An
aghast humility followed. My ego became, as he
claimed, pulverized.
Thankfully.
Let go of your ego, your false self, and you

coincidently let go of separation, blame, hostility,
resentment, pride, complaining, jealousy, anger,
desire for power, materialism, madness, war, coldness, intolerance, self-importance, self-denial,
social intolerance, the need to live up to this and that, and doing, doing, doing.
Instead, you can embrace your true self, your soul, and bring forth unity, understanding,
friendliness, forgiveness, love, gratefulness, happiness, humility, spiritualism, wisdom, peace,
sympathy, tolerance, altruism, self-acceptance, social acceptance, simplicity and the desire to
just be.
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If a person were to open himself up to allow the best of him to surface, to expand his
consciousness, to blossom, so to say, he may find himself alone. This alone-ness frightens
people, gives them pause. People will struggle to identify with this opening himself up idea,
not being much interested in anything outside their personally stylized safety net. People
generallyare not interested in a different school of thought, an alternate approach, an
additional path. Back between the B.C. and the A.D. days, people said Jesus was crazy and that
He didnt know what He was talking about when He said that He came to fulfill the prophecies.
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Every time someone comes
up with something thats a
little bit different or a little
unusual, its going to frighten
people and theyre going to
say bad things about it, and
the crowd may not tolerate
him because they feel he is
insulting them, their choices,
essentially, making it about
themselves, their ego.
The existence of a person

with a fresh approach and
truth-filled ideas becomes a
kind of a humiliation; his very
presence feels insulting
because he opens others eyes,
makes them aware of
potential and future. And it
hurts their ego that they have
done nothing to grow, to be
more conscious, to be more
loving, more ecstatic, more
creative, more silentto
create a beautiful world
around them. Worse, they
may find that they were
attempting to do all of that,
but were seriously misguided and
on the wrong path.
They may realize that they

have not contributed to the
world; their existence has not
been a blessing here but
rather a curse. They have
introduced into the world

their anger, their violence, their jealousy, their competitiveness, their lust for power. They make
the world a battlefield; they are blood thirsty, and they make others bloodthirsty. They deprive
humanity of its humanness. Instead of focusing on similarities, they focus on differences.
Differences come from prejudices, and prejudice is the child of ignorance. Che Guevara, an
Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and
military theorist said, We must become one; Africans, Asians, Europeans, Americans, we must
become one people fighting for one cause. Agreed. We should not proudly identify ourselves
as American or South Korean or African or English or Dominican or Native American or
Filipino or Colombian or any other nationality, for that is but a result of birthjust like most
people and their religion.
If you were born in Israel, youd probably be Jewish. If you were born in Saudi Arabia, youd
probably be Muslim. If you were born in India, youd probably be Hindu. If you were born in
North America, youd probably be Christian. If you were born in Tibet, youd probably be
Buddhist. If you were born on another planet in another of the millions of galaxies, well, I have
no idea what you would probably be, but you would most likely be that something. Faith is not
inspired by some divine, constant truthit is simply geography.
And, of course, there is the likelihood that other intelligent life exists elsewhere. Wouldnt it be
rather egotistical to think that the humanityof which we are awarecurrently inhabiting this
Earth is the only form of so-called intelligence in our ENTIRE existence?
But what if the Earth was not a globe? What if there was no universe or solar system? What if
the Earth was flat? Lets analyze that.
By turning the Earth into a spinning ball thrown around the Sun and shot through infinite
space by a Godless Big Bang, they instantly and systematically turn humanity into a random,
purposeless, meaningless accident of a blind, dumb universe. It is essentially trauma-based
mind control beating the divinity out of us with psychological manipulation. People will claim
that the spherical-Earth-endless-universe theory cannot be used to devalue our spiritual selves
yet this is exactly what has happened.
The modern atheist, big bang, heliocentric, Globe-Earth, chance evolution paradigm spiritually
controls humanity by removing the true Godnot the God promoted by religion, but the true
Godand, in essence, erasing the fact that we are here as a result of intelligent design. They
have erased all of that and replaced that purposeful divine creation with haphazard, random,
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cosmic coincidence and
illogical and uninspiring
stories and parables. By
removing Earth from
the motionless center
of the universe, these
controllers have moved
us physically and
metaphysically from a
place of supreme
importance to one of
complete, self-absorbed,
nihilistic indifference.
That is a spiritually-
deflating premise.
If the Earth is the

center of the universe,
then the ideas of an
intelligent designer,
creation, and a purpose
for human existence are
resplendent. However,
if the Earth is just one
of billions of planets
revolving around billions of stars in billions of galaxies, then the idea of any God or a specific
purpose for Earth and human existence become highly implausible. And as a result of this
indoctrinated implausibility, the most supreme parts of usthe royal, holy, magic and divine
parts of usslowly die.
By laboriously destroying the wondrous spirit of the child inside each of us, by surreptitiously
indoctrinating usthrough years of oppressive, mundane, rote, anti-analytical educationinto
their falsely scientific, materialistic paradigm, not only do we lose faith in anything beyond the
material, we gain absolute faith in possessions, superficiality, status, selfishness, hedonism and
consumerism. If there is no intelligent designer, and if everyone is just an accident, then all that
really matters is me, me, me.
To quote Morris Kline, a writer on the history and philosophy of mathematics: The
heliocentric theory, by putting the Sun at the center of the universe ... made man appear to be

just one of a possible host of wanderers drifting through a cold sky. It seemed less likely that he
was born to live gloriously and to attain paradise upon his death. Less likely, too, was it that he
was the object of Gods ministrations. But if the Earth was not a globe, we would be. We
would be the ultimate objects of Gods attention.
We are taught that there is a vast, physical universethat it is infinite. They tell us there
is so much more than we can see. Although it may be difficult to physically explorethere is no
end to itwe are fully aware of that universe. But there is an even bigger universe within you,
and so closejust within you. You can explore that. Remove your ego and you will come to
know who you are, but that is not the end; the experience goes on deepening infinitely.
I would love to see a religiousnessnot religionthat needs no labels, because labels are a
motive of the egono Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism. As John Lennon sang, No
religion, too.
Without egos and without labels, one is simply enjoying oneself, enjoying this immense
universe, dancing with the trees, playing on the beach with the waves, collecting seashells for
no other purpose than the sheer joy of it. The salty air, the cool sand, the sun rising, a morning
jogwhat more could one want?
To me, that is
religiousness
enjoying the air,
enjoying the sea,
enjoying the
sand, enjoying
the sun,
enjoying each
others company
simply
enjoying.
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To the Technocrats: Have mercy on us. Relax a bit: take time out for simple pleasures. For
example, the luxuries of electricity, indoor plumbing, central heating, instant electronic
communication and such, have taught me to relearn and enjoy the basic human satisfactions of
dipping water from a cold clear mountain stream; of building a wood fire in a cast-iron stove;

of using long winter nights for making music, making things, making love; of writing long
letters, in longhand with a fountain pen, to the few people on this Earth I truly care about.
Edward Abbey, Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast
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Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other
eighty-five percent would rather die than think. Nikolas Tesla
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Two: Avoid Emotional Vampires
One of our greatest desires is to belong and connect, to be included in something, anything.
And when inclusion happens purely, there are few more meaningfully cherished moments in
life. Too often, however, we choose to associate with others for impure, selfish or needy,
egotistical reasons. That actionperhaps dangerouslyphysically or emotionallywelcomes
into our space people who do not carry with them a positive spirit.
Negative people are the greatest destroyers of self-confidence and self-esteem. You must have
known people in your life who have dark and unhappy thoughts and actions who bring drama
and turmoil to your existence. These people are to be avoided because to be with them feels as
if they are sucking and pulling your energy and leaving you empty. And after they have left, you
feel weak, you feel robbed. I now refer to these people as Emotional Vampires.

Not just annoying people but also darkly seductive people, Emotional Vampires draw you in
with charm, beauty, talent and pulse pounding excitement. Then they drain younot of blood
but of every last drop of emotional energy.
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You know them.
They are sexy but unreliable lovers, drama queens who use emotions like Afghan Rebels use
Kalashnikovs, jealous spouses and partners, demanding parents, manipulative co-workers, and
bosses with gigantic egos who are so small everywhere else.
Ugh. Get rid of them. It is not easy. They are magnetic, intoxicating. But get rid of them.
People inspire you or they drain you. Choose wisely.
Choose to surround yourself with people of positivity, or as Cormac McCarthy wrote in The
Road, people who carry the fire.
From The Road:


You have to carry the
fire.
I dont know how

to.
Yes, you do.
Is the fire real?
Yes it is.
Where is it? I dont

know where it is.
Yes you do. Its inside

you. It always was
there. I can see it.
Look for the fire inside

people. If you see it
and you find it to be
good, embrace it.
Their burning fire will

help increase your own
burning fire.
Those are the only

kind of people one
should allow in their
lifethose who carry
the fire, those who
glow with the fire of
everlasting hope,
compassion, tolerance
and love.
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Sometimes you want to say, I love you, but
Yet the but takes away the I love you. In love there are no buts or ifs or when. Its just there, and
always. No beginning, no end. Its the condition-less state of the heart. Not a feeling that
comes and goes at the whim of the emotions. It is there in our heart, a part of our
hearteventually grafting itself into each limb and cell of our bodies. Love changes our brain,
the way we move and talk. Love lives in our spirit and graces us with its presence each day,
until death.
To say I love you, but is to say, I did not love you at all.
I say this to you now: I love you, with no beginning, no end. I love you as you have become an
extra necessary organ in my body. Without fear. Without expectations. Wanting nothing in

return, except that you allow me to keep you here in my heart, that I may always know your
strength, your eyes, and your spirit that gave me freedom and let me fly.
Coco J. Ginger
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Three: Have No Expectations Over People
If you do not have an expectation over someone, you cannot be disappointed. Learn this now.
Learn right away that you cannot control people. You cannot make them change. You cant.
Simply love them instead. Guide and encourage them along their chosen path. They will
certainly feel that little bit of light in them because of the love and understanding you provide.
Thats the best for which you can and should hopeand you will be loved in return.
Everyones path in this world is different; you need to allow for that, you need to encourage
loved ones to be different, to walk their chosen pathno matter the extreme.
Regarding yourself, if you are clean inside, having no wounds of inferiority, then who cares
what people expect of you? Live your life according to your own insight, intuition, and
intelligence. Thats the only way it should be.

As spiritual searchers we need to become freer and freer of the attachment to our own smallness
in which we get occupied with me-me-me. Pondering on large ideas or standing in front of things
which remind us of a vast scale can free us from acquisitiveness and competitiveness and from
our likes and dislikes. If we sit with an increasing stillness of the body, and attune our mind to the
sky or to the ocean or to the myriad stars at night, or any other indicators of vastness, the mind
gradually stills and the heart is filled with quiet joy. Also recalling our own experiences in which
we acted generously or with compassion for the simple delight of it without expectation of any
gain can give us more confidence in the existence of a deeper goodness from which we may
deviate.
Ravi Ravindra, The Wisdom of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: A New Translation and Guide by Ravi Ravindra
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Ideas that require people to re-organize their picture of the world provoke hostility.
James Gleick, Chaos: The Making of a New Science
"You have to decide whether you want to make money or to make sense because the two are
mutually exclusive." Buckminster Fuller

Humanity is taking its final examination. We have come to an extraordinary moment when it
doesn't have to be you or me. There is enough for all. We need not operate competitively any
longer. If we succeed, it will be because of youth, truth and love. Buckminister Fuller
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Four: Seek The Christ Consciousness
If you know me personally or have simply gathered as much from the first three topics, you
know that I do not follow nor believe in nor advocate for organized religion. Although I am
against religion, I am not against religiousness. I have stated this previously and wish to be
certain on this point: I am not against religiousnessnor am I against the existence of Source
(God).
I feel the most important part of any sort of religiousness is the Christ Consciousness. When I
mention this Consciousness I am referring to a level of awareness where you no longer see
error in any action that you do and see only the beauty and perfection in all things. The Christ
Consciousness does not judge, criticize, coerce, tempt, or react negatively.
You will know you are nearing the Christ Consciousness when you are in a space where you
can smile at every human being that you confront in your life without passing any thought or
word of judgment, but rather look into their eyeswhich is truly the mirror to their souland
surpass all other influences of the human nature to truly see only the beauty that exists in their
hearts, which is their own Christed Being, their love energy.

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Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are
inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of
complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let
compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving toward the summit of
fulfillment.
John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Find Your Own Spiritual Path

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Five: Understand Your Beliefs Are Not Your Own
This, from
Buddha around
500 B.C.:
"Do not believe

in anything
simply because
you have heard
it. Do not
believe in
anything simply
because it is
spoken and
rumored by
many. Do not
believe in
anything simply
because it is
found written
in your religious
books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not
believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after
observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to
the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
Most people are familiar with The Matrix (the science fiction movie from 1999) and the concept
of being plugged into the Matrix. Most people are also at least vaguely familiar with the concept
of Wonderland from Lewis Carrolls novel Alices Adventures in Wonderland. The search for my
truth has shown me that both concepts are far truer than I had ever imagined.
Allow me to start this section with this: I can say Buddha is beautiful, Lao Tzu is beautiful,
Jesus is beautifulbut they are no longer applicable. They lived their lives; they flowered
beautifully. Their sunset was gorgeous. Learn through Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Jesus, but dont
be a follower of any one of them. Be a disciple of all of them, but dont be a student.

A religious follower
or leader cannot
think of things,
cannot see things the
way I can, for the
simple reason that he
has an immense
investment in religion.
Iunlike any
religious follower or
priestdo not have
any investment in
religion.
Following that line

of thinking, it
doesnt seem
possible that
prieststhe greatest
students of
religionstill
believe in their
version of God after
a few years of
service. They
pretend to believe
more than anyone
else. They have to:
believing is their
profession. The
stronger their faith
appears, the more
crowds they can
attract, so they
pretend.
But how can a priest believe? Every day he sees that it is only rarely, by coincidence, that
sometimes a ritual or a prayer succeeds; mostly it fails.
58 Bradon Edge

The priest always has a very simple explanation for why the ritual or prayer failed (the priests
version of God never fails, of course). According to the priest, He always is ready to protect
youGod is the provider, the creator, the maintainer; He will never let you down. But you fail
Him. The reason the ritual or prayer didnt work, the priest will covertly suggest, was because
YOU failed God. I respectfully do not accept that explanation nor share that belief.
As a matter of concernand understand that I do NOT disagree with the general concept or
spiritual benefits of prayer (I affirm that prayer is powerful: I pray; I simply do not follow nor
subscribe to Biblical guidelines)what would happen if we got down on our knees and prayed
to the Christian God in the following manner?
Dear God, almighty, all-powerful, all-loving creator of the universe, we pray to you to cure every case of cancer on
this planet tonight. We pray in faith, knowing you will bless us as you describe in the New Testaments
Matthew 7:7, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21, Mark 11:24, John 14:12-14, Matthew 18:19, Luke 1:37,
Mark 9:23 and James 5:15-16. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

We pray sincerely, knowing that when God answers this completely heartfelt, unselfish, non-
materialistic prayer, it will glorify God and help millions of people in remarkable ways.
Will anything happen? No.
Of course not.
Yet the Biblical Jesus, as He is written, makes specific promises in the scripture about how
prayer is supposed to work. Jesus says in many different places that he and God will
unconditionally answer your prayers. Nothing could be simpler or clearer or more definite and
unmistakable than Jesus' promises about prayer in the Bible. Yet, when we pray to eliminate
cancer, nothing happens.
This should be rather troubling to a follower because the words in the scripture are not the
words of uninspired human beings. Those are not even the words of inspired human beings.
Those are claimed to be the words of God himself, incarnated in a human body.
Regardless, the prayer fails, and the follower perhaps feels guilty because he failed God. It is, at
60 Bradon Edge

this point, necessary to understand that no two religions agree completely on anything more
than the concept of "guilt" (and The Golden Rule). Guilt is the mechanism to enslave the mind,
to put humanity into psychological and spiritual slavery. When one feels guilty he is turned
against himself, he is weakened. He will never be the same strong person he was.
And guiltily, the follower may ask someonea priest, most likelywhy God didn't answer the
heartfelt, unselfish, non-materialistic prayer. The priest will confidently tell the follower that
God works in mysterious ways or something to that effect. The follower of religion will believe
that because he is told to believe thatand because it is comforting to believe that.
What I would like for people to recognize isand this is one of the most important things I
learned and internalized on my search for truththat their whole understanding consists of
beliefs given to them by others. These are the same beliefs that had been given to the them before,
which had been given to the them before them, which had been given to the them before them,
et cetera. Their beliefs are not their own and your beliefs are not your own. As it is very
important to understand this in order to find your own truth, I will state it again: your beliefs are
not your own.

To truly comprehend my claim that your beliefsreligious, political, or otherwisewere given
to you, it is important to understand that your mind is not created by nature; your brain,
however, was. Internalize that distinction. Your brain is the mechanism that belongs to the
body, but your
mind is created
by the society in
which you live
by the religion,
by the church, by
the ideology that
your parents
followed, by the
educational
system that you
were taught in,
by the
mainstream
media in all its
forms, by all
kinds of things.
Your brain was

created by nature;
your mind was
created by society.
This is why there

is a Christian
mind and a
Hindu mind, a Mohammedan mind and a Buddhist mind. Brains are natural, but minds are a
created phenomenon. It depends on which flock of sheep you belong to. Was the flock of
sheep Hindu? Then naturally you will behave like a Hindu.
62 Bradon Edge

Gandhi stated,
The only way
to change our
lives is by
changing our
minds. I am
not asking you
to change any
aspect of your
lifethat is
something for
you to consider.
I am, however,
suggesting you
honestly and
sincerely
consider the
originand
thereby the
validityof
your beliefs.
The priests, the

politicians, the
mediathe
people who are
in power, the
people who
have vested
interests
dont want you
to know that
you are above
the mind,
beyond the
mind. Their
whole effort
has been to

keep you identified with the mind because the mind is managed by them, not by you. You are being
deceived in such a subtle way. The managers of your mind are eerily outside you.
Why do these managers of your mind not teach open-mindedness? Instead of open-
mindedness, they teach rigidity and tunnel vision and push for and expect complete
indoctrination that results in your acceptance of government cover-ups and historical deception.
Why is it not acceptable to these managers of the mind for someone to have a belief other than
theirs? Why is it unacceptable to allow individuality? The answer is simple: because individuality
is not manageable, individuality is impossible to control; individuality is impossible to enslave.
Simply put, religion was corrupted into a political power play, such that what was spiritual
became a tool for the sublimation of the masses in order to control their behavior. For example,
even though
America
theoretically
enjoys a
separation
of church
and state,
religion is
always
thrust into
Presidential
campaigns
by
designto
control the
behavior of
the masses.
Fear is also
forced into the minds of the churchs followers, by design: fear of God, fear of being ostracized,
fear of being different. As the Father with whom I met at St. Patricks Cathedral on 50th Street
and 5th Avenue in Manhattan said, We could always use a little bit of fear.
Really?
Why?
64 Bradon Edge

No, really?
Why?
The only reason to

state that the use
of fear is
productive is to
control others.
There is no other
reason to welcome
fear into teachings.
Fear God? No
thanks.
I do not deny that

the original
intention behind
the Bible, the
Koran, the Torah,
and the Bhagavad
Gita was flawless,
but for centuries,
Gods Word has
been modified and
adjusted
highlighted by the
admitted creation
of Hell by the
Catholic Church
and the control-
inspired addition
of the Seven
Deadly Sinsand
only selectively
followed.

The Bible was the foundation for the control the various churches had over the people, the
masses. By saying, if you dont do what we say is there, our interpretation of it, then you will
burn inas Christians call itHell. That induced fear is your mind being controlled and your
beliefs being given to you.
It wasnt long ago that I whispered into what I would call the darkness, I dont know if youre
there, but if you are, this is the best I can do. And I tried to review everything, to see if
regarding religionI had left anything undone. I said, I dont really think youre there, but if
you are, I really need some help. I went right to the wall. Im sorry I cant find faith, but in all
honesty this moment, right here, right now, is the best, in the final analysis, that I can do. And
at that moment, when I finally and fully let go of any religious pursuit, my authentic self was
birthed.
66 Bradon Edge

Osho, a modern mystic from central India from whom I have learned and paraphrased much,
said, Once we discover our authentic self, we can embrace all aspects of the human
experiencefrom the Earthy, pleasure-loving qualities to the silent qualities. We can become
whole and live with integrity, able to respond with creativity and compassion to the religious, political, and
cultural divides that currently plague our society. [Emphasis mine.]
George Carlin was an American social critic, satirist, stand-up comedian, and writer/author
who won five Grammy Awards for his comedic performances. He was noted for his thoughts
on politics, psychology and religion, among other taboo subjects. It was George Carlin who
initiated my long and emotionally traumatic progression from a highly skeptical youth at St.
Pauls United Methodist Church to crap-of-the-world seeker of truth.
As a kid, I wanted to know whom Cain and Able married to have children. Did the Christian
God send Gandhi to burn in hell because Gandhi did not accept Jesus into his heart? Why did
God test Abrahams faith by demanding the sacrifice of his son Isaacwho would do that? I
had many, many more questions. None of them were ever answered beyond the typical God
works in mysterious ways or You simply must believe and have faith.
but I want you to know something, and this is sincere, Carlin stated, me with my teenage
ears listening through headphones while lying on my bedroom floor, captivated, finally hearing
someone say what I felt but didnt quite know how to put into words on my own. I want you
to know, when it comes to believing in God, I really tried. I really, really tried. I tried to believe
that there is a God, who created each of us in His own image and likeness, loves us very much,
and keeps a close eye on things. I really tried to believe that, but I gotta tell you, the longer you
live, the more you look around, the more you realize, something is fucked up.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture,
crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work.
If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the
resume of a Supreme Being. This is the kind of shit youd expect from an office temp with a
bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently-run universe, this guy wouldve
been out on his all-powerful ass a long time ago.
I reference George Carlin here because it was the above words that started my doubt many
years ago. [More on the concept and importance of Doubt follows on page 79.] As an
adolescent sorting through all the bullshit society was forcing into my head, I did not think to
pursue my individual spirituality beyond my cherished walks through the woods.

Instead, and as a loner for the most part, I focused on dribbling and shooting a basketball in
my back yard, listening to Americas Top 40 Countdown, keeping up just enough with what my
immediate community implied was cool, reading The Amazing Spider-Man comics, listening to
Detroit Pistons games on a transistor radio, et cetera.
It wasnt until years later when I was investigating energy healing and hypnosis that I read a
speech that Krishnamurti, a man concerned with philosophical and spiritual matters, gave back
in 1929 that some more of my ultimate truth smacked me in the face.
68 Bradon Edge

Krishnamurti said, I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any
path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that
absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any
path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce
people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible
it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not
organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be
imposed on others.
If an organization be created for this purpose, it becomes a weakness, a bondage, and must
cripple the individual, and prevent him from growing, from establishing his uniqueness, which
lies in the discovery for himself of that absolute, unconditioned Truth. The moment you follow
someone else you cease to follow Truth.

Because I am free, unconditioned, whole, not the part, not the relative, but the whole Truth
that is eternal, I desire for others to be free from all fearsfrom the fear of religion, from the
fear of salvation, from the fear of spirituality, from the fear of love, from the fear of death,
from the fear of life itself.
[Those who follow religions] are all depending for your spirituality on someone else, for your
happiness on someone else, for your enlightenment on someone elsewhen I say look within
yourselves for the enlightenment, for the glory, for the purification, and for the incorruptibility
of the selfvery, very few [of you is willing to do it]. Most people will not look within
themselves for enlightenment, they will, however, allow their beliefs to be given to them by
someone they barely know.
Soon after reading the Krishnamurti speech,

I returned to my own philosophical roots and
dug up that which Epicarus offered in
47 A.D.:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he

is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then
he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then
whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?
Once a person deeply understands that omnipotent means having unlimited or universal power,
authority, or force; all-powerful, and once a person truly understands that malevolent means
having or exhibiting ill will; wishing harm to others; malicious, it is clear that there should be
rational and thoughtful questions about the existence of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent
being such as the version of God offered by religion. Go back and carefullywithout
outside influenceanalyze Epicarus line of thinking. If the thoughtful questions that Epicarus
posed collectively leads one to conclude that version of a God is not possible, one also logically
realizes that religion is based entirely on a false premise.
A true religion can only be one, just like science. There is only one science. You dont have an
Islam physics, a Buddhist physics, a Hindu physics, a Wiccan physics, a Christian physics, a
Jewish physics; that would be nonsense. But thats what the religions have donethey have
made the whole Earth a madhouse.
70 Bradon Edge

Atheists, generally speaking, are not excused from inclusion in the madhouse. They believe that
God does not exist; however, they, again, in general, I have gently concluded, never bothered
to deeply inquire whether God really does not exist. They have accepted it in the same way that
Muslims, Christians, and Jews have accepted that there is a God. Disbelief is as ignorant as
belief. Both have accepted something on faith, without deep inquiry. I dont make any
distinction between most atheists and most theists; they are traveling in the same boat.
Once you realize and, more importantly, accept that your beliefs are not your own, I encourage
you to drop all that you have been taught by others. Get rid of it all. As Walt Whitman said,
Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.
Start fresh. Start clean, unencumbered.
Internalize the concept that your beliefs are not your own and then put in your mind only that
which is your truth. Socrates once said, To find yourself, think for yourself.

72 Bradon Edge

Autonomy and freedom of choice are critical to our well-being, and choice is critical to
freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any
group of people ever has before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don't
seem to be benefiting from it psychologically.
Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice

74 Bradon Edge

Aristocrats don't notice philosophical conundra. They just ignore them. Philosophy includes
contemplating the possibility that you might be wrong, sir, and a real aristocrat knows that he is
always right. It's not vanity, you understand, it's built-in absolute certainty. They may sometimes
be as mad as a hatful of spoons, but they are always definitely and certainly mad.
Terry Pratchett, Snuff


So
You want to be tough?
You want to be rebellious?
You want to be badass?
Then show your true heart and mind to everyone.
EVERYONE.
There is always room for more bad-assness in the world.
So
Go forth and be badass.
76 Bradon Edge

Six: Accept Sadness
Everyone wants to be happy. Nobody wants to be sad. Everyone strives to find happiness. And
everyone does everything they can to avoid sadness.
Dont. Dont avoid sadness.


Happiness and sadness are both extremes. Dont avoid them. And dont choose either of them.
Simply remain available to both. That is the art: remaining available is the secret of balancing.
Yes, sometimes be utterly happy, and sometimes be utterly sadboth have their own beauties.
The mind is a chooser; thats why the problem arises. Remain choice-less. Whatever happens,
and wherever you are, enjoy the moment in its totality. While happy, sing, dance, play music
be happy! And when sadness comeswhich it is bound to come, which has to come, which is
inevitable, you cannot avoid itbe sad.
Pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin. If you exclude one, you have to exclude the
other. This has been one of the most fundamental misunderstandings down the ages, that you
can get rid of
pain and save
pleasure or
that you can
avoid
negative and
have only
positive. This
is a great
fallacy. It is
not possible
in the very
nature of
things.
If you were
ever to try to
avoid sadness,
you would
need to
destroy the very possibility of happiness. The day cannot exist without the night. Life cannot be
without death. Let this polarity sink deep in your beingthere is no way to avoid it. The only
way is to become more and more dead; only a dead person can exist in a static middle. The
alive person will be constantly movingfrom anger to compassion, from compassion to
angerand accepting both, not identified with either but remaining aloof and yet involved,
distant yet committed. Include all; be all.
78 Bradon Edge

Nothing makes me sadder than a caged animal. Nothing. One daysoon, if there is decency in
this worldthis lion will be un-caged. And it will be then that this majestic being will know the
true beauty of happiness as a result of his experiencing sadness at such an extreme depth.

I will also feel an ecstatic
happiness upon his releasea
happiness I would not know if
it were not for the deep sadness
I feel empathizing with his
unnatural confinement.
There is profound beauty in

sadness. Can you see it? Next
time, when you are sad, dont
fight with it. Dont waste time
in fightingaccept it, welcome
it, let it be a welcome guest.
Look deep into it and love,
carebe a real host.
You will be surprised to

discover that sadness has a few beauties that happiness can never have. Sadness has depth, and
happiness is shallow. Sadness has tears, and tears go deeper than any laughter can ever go.
Sadness has silence of its own, a melody so to say, which happiness can never have.
I am not saying to choose sadness. I am just saying, enjoy it too. When you are sad, enjoy
sadness. When you are happy, enjoy happiness.
Seven: Doubt
The child is not born into this world with any belief but rather with a very curious, doubting,
skeptical consciousness. Doubt is natural; belief is unnatural. The societal construct, however,
puts forth the purposeful effort to control our minds to think of doubt as the villain, not the
hero.
Belief, as a result, is imposed by parents, society, the educational systems, politicians, religions.
All these people areknowingly or unknowinglyin the service of ignorance, and they have
served ignorance for thousands of years. They have kept humanity in darkness, and there was a
reason for it: if humanity is in darkness, knows nothing of reality, then it can be exploited
80 Bradon Edge

easily, enslaved easily, deceived easily, kept poor,
dependent. I dont want to be a slave by any
connotation; hence, I choose doubtnot belief.
Belief is simply the covering up of your

ignorance. Belief never reveals to you the truth; it
only gives you certain dogmas, creeds, and you
can create an illusion of knowledge through them.
But that knowledge is nothing but delusion.
Anything based on belief is bogus. Reject the
basic assumptions of civilization. Reject it all.
Reject everything you have been told to believe.
Doubt everything. And then go and inquire.
Read. Study independent of the brainwashed mainstream and the establishment educational
institutions. Remove the restraints on your mind.
Read, study, and learn. But do not just read, study, and learn from one book. Being close-
minded, you lose much of the experience of life. If you desire to most closely connect with
your being, your truth, go beyond the Torah. Go beyond the Bible. Go beyond the Koran. Go
beyond any one book in any one area of study. Can a person know everything there is to know
about Astronomy after reading and studying only one book?
No.
Neither can a person understand his or her own religiousness by reading and studying only one
book. One book is like a mental ball and chain. How can one truly feel certain with their own
truthspiritual or otherwiseif he had not at least put forth the effort to study in other
peoples houses, to inquire with the dissidents, to learn from great thinkers who claim to know
differently? How else can one honestly find truth?
To think things out, to research, to investigate for oneself is to make the decision all the greater
because it was made rather than just handed. If one does not question, chances are, one does
not have faith because you cannot be thinking about some things if you do not question them,
doubt them, and look at them from all angles. And then, when one has done this, if you know, if you
find it good, then it is worth knowing.

82 Bradon Edge

Recall, if you will, Krishnamurti and his premise that you should never rely on one path as
being the way, the ultimate. In all paths there lies some truth and in all paths there lies some
falsehood. You must spend your life sifting through them to find what is your truthto
discover what you know to be truth for yourself. It does not have to necessarily be truth for others and
you must accept this.
Know, howeverseeking your truth will bring you to places unexpected, emotionally,
spiritually, and physically.
It is not an easy path to be differentto actively seek truth as opposed to lazily accepting
others truths as your own. And it is even more difficult to have the courage to shed previous

beliefs. Most people will not understand this shedding of previous beliefs. Most people are
extremely uncomfortable without something to believe in. Even if the belief is that there is
nothing, he has a great need to believe in that. Even though society usually discourages
questionsespecially questions that are excruciatingly difficult to answer with honestyit is in
that very questioning we find truth. And if you have the courage to re-evaluate your entire lifes
foundationscould anything be more important? Others will think you were now associating
with that wretched evil hypnotic monkey.
Understanding the premise of the importance of doubt, why would anyone be against doubt,
against finding personal truth? Religions are against doubt. They are really afraid of doubt.
Religious leaders claim that doubt is the temptation to sin. They try to guilt you into not asking
questions, inquiring. They simply want you to adopt their truth as your own. Only an impotent
intellect can be afraid of doubt; doubt should be a welcome challenge, an opportunity to
inquire, to dig more deeply into truth. Religion has killed doubt and they have all forced on
everybodys mind the idea that if you doubt you will fall into Hell and you will suffer for
eternity.
Its silliness.
Although I doubt any would openly admit it, I would argue that there is not a single religious
leader who does not have in him doubt that is still alive. As I stated previously, religious leaders
have seen too much failure to disregard doubt.
Regardless, belief, according to the church, is the thing. Faith, total faithnot even partial faith
will do, but total faith. What are they asking from human beings? Something absolutely
inhuman. How can someone believe anything totally? And even if he tries to believe totally, it
means doubt is there; otherwise, against what is he fighting? Against what doubt is he trying to
believe totally?
There is innately doubt, and doubt is not destroyed by believingor trusting. A person cannot
remove doubt simply by believing. People who claim to believe still doubt. They have to. Doubt
is only destroyed by experiencing. If you have not experienced it, you must doubt it.
Doubt is not a sin; it is a sign of your intelligence.
Doubt and go on inquiring until you find. When knowing is available, who is going to believe?
84 Bradon Edge

A true religion will not require faithor belieffrom you; a true religion will require
experience. It will not ask you to drop your doubt and rely only on faith; it will help you to
sharpen your doubt so that you can inquire to the very end. The true religion will help you
find YOUR truthnot adopt and adhere without fail to dogmatic beliefs. Religions pretend to
inquire into the subjective world, the world of consciousness; but it is a pretension because the
entirety of religion starts with belief. Once you believe in a thing, your inquiry is finishedyou have
already destroyed the question, you have killed the quest.
Yogananda said, One must follow what one knows to be right, in spite of criticism. Everyone
should honestly, without egotistical beliefs, analyze himself; and if he is right, he should hold to his
joy-producing righteous actions uninfluenced by either praise or blame. But if one is wrong, he

should be glad of the opportunity to correct himself and thus remove one more obstacle to lasting happiness.
[Emphasis mine.]
Religions say believe. Belief is clearly the easiest and simplest path; hence, with appreciation for
the recognizably timeless words of Robert Frost, it is the path most traveled.
I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Religions say believe, stay on the path most traveled. I say, do not believe. Instead, take the
path less traveled by, invite the struggle to find your own truth and read, study, learn,
experience, explore. They say, dont doubt; I say, doubt to the very end, till you arrive at the
end. Only then can one know and feel and experience.
Heres Carlin again: When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to
stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims: religion. No
contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think
about it. Religion actually has convinced people that theres an invisible man living in the sky
who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special
list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a
special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send
you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever til the end of
time!
But He loves you. He loves you, and He

needs money! He always needs money! Hes
all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-
wise, somehow just cant handle money!
Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no
taxes, and they always need a little more. Now,
you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy shit!
Remember, a light being turned on in the

darkness, is regardless of anything else, still a
light being turned on in the darkness.
86 Bradon Edge

Why am I such a fan of doubt? Because it leads you to inquiry, it raises questions, and it takes
you into new adventures. It never allows you to remain ignorant. It goes on and on moving
until you have found the light. Whether the search is regarding religion, health, life beyond
Earth, politics, conspiracy theories, et cetera, doubt and inquiry will lead you to your
personally-achieved truth. Can you see how finding your own personal truth cannot be any
other way?
People have been taught to blindly and lazily accept whatever bullshit story is fed to them.
And they do. They bury their head in the sand and accept whatever is told to them without any
doubt. And if an individual does at one point have even the smallest feeling of doubt, he is
often hesitant to inquire. He does not want to stray too far from what is accepted in his
community because he may be socially outcast. He is afraid that if he shares a different
viewpoint, people will laugh, point, and snicker.
What he needs to realize is that the people who laugh, point, and snicker at an individual who
delves into honest inquiry are those who have been brainwashed by the media and their
community into a deep, obsessive desire to "fit in." And the establishmentvia the media
preys on this weakness.

88 Bradon Edge

The media has labeled anyone who disagrees with what they claim is the official story as a
conspiracy theorist, a kook, a nut job. And whether locally or globally, whether within a high
school hallway or a corporate boardroom, the weak individual will join in the fraywhatever
the topicand quickly disregard someone who seeks truth through thoughtful inquiry so he
will not also get trampled by the other weak-minded.
It is a blatantly obvious fact to point out that a conspiracy theoristthe term conspiracy theorist is
nothing more than a derogatory title used to dismiss a critical thinkerhas a keener awareness
of what is going on around him just by the simple fact that he questions his reality. It is clear
that he may not always be right, but his mentality is constantly evolving, discarding false
information, and absorbing observable truths.
If you are someone who applies ridicule to those who ponder conspiracies, you are a fool. Yet,
if you are one who believes everything you hear, you are a fool.
Are there conspiracies happening right now? Absolutely there are. Isn't it sensible to inquire
about them? Absolutely it is. Doesnt it, then, make sense to also embrace doubt in the same
spirit?

90 Bradon Edge

Eight: Do Not Be Afraid of Death
To many people, the word death seems so forbidding, so final, so hopeless. Death exists as a
black void of mystery and confusion because it represents a cutting-off from the physical world,
which is the only place they definitely know with certaintywithout doubtexists.
I hope that people can learn to see birth and dying as evolutional cycles that each person goes
through many times and are thus a natural part of their souls growth, and are hence, something
to smile about.

Like many things in this life, death is unknown, shrouded in mystery, folklore and superstition,
and thus to be feared. Yet it is something we know that everyone must eventually experience.
No matter how much we wish to push it to the back of our minds and not think about it, we
92 Bradon Edge

know that the body is only mortal and will one day expire. What happens then? Will that which
we consider to be ourselvesour beingalso perish with the physical shell? Is this life all there
is? Or is there something more, something rare and beautiful beyond what we know as life?
Wouldnt it make
life so much easier if
we could live out
our time in
happiness and love,
not fearing what lies
at the end? Well, I
am pleased to share
my truth that we
can live in happiness,
without fear. There
really is no reason to
fear death.
Something happens
with the shedding of
the physical body
and a whole new
dimension of knowledge opens up. The moment when death occurs, there is a feeling of
coldness and then suddenly the spirit is standing by the side of the bed (or wherever) looking at
their body. They usually cant understand why the other people in the room are so upset
because they feel so wonderful. The overall sensation is one of exhilaration rather than dread.
While alive, people carry so many problems around. Financial concerns. Relationships. Secrets.
Guilt. When you die, its like tossing them out the window. It feels good. It feels exhilarating. If
people are worried about it, tell them to go to a place in the river or lake or pool that has depth.
Tell them to dive to the bottom. And then, when at the bottom, push up vigorously with their
feet and come plunging up to the surface, relieved to breathe. Tell them death is like that.
Immediately after death, a handful of souls will come that you have had close karmic
connections with in former lifetimes. They will be there to greet you. Usually someone who
was special to you during your life, someone that you can identify with, and the power of
attraction is there to help you through the period of transition. If the recently passed soul has a
deep abiding belief in a particular entityIm thinking Jesus or Mohammedthat spirit energy
will be there for them to help ease the crossing, if this is what they desire.

Heres the best news: when a body expiresthe soul never does. The main problem that people
will have accepting this as their truth is not fear but philosophical or religious dogma. People
who follow different creeds of beliefthose who discredit reincarnation, those who believe
that the soul has only one incarnationwill find it difficult to accept some of the things that I
include here.
To those people, I ask this: why is it easier to believe that you can be born once into a body
than it is to believe you can be born twice or more?
The concept of only one life is certainly a reason that so many people struggle with depression
and such: they feel they are screwing up their only chance. If they realize they have a multitude
of chances, they could do their best each time and not feel as bad for the mistakes they make.
They can work it out the next time.

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Many of the churches do not want people to believe in prior or successive existences because
of the fact that it loosens their grip of fear and they no longer have control of your mind. The
leaders of all of the great schools of thought knewand contemporary thinkers currently
knowof previous existence and successive existence, but it was closed off to the general
knowledge because of political and theist control.
Death, though, is easy. It is like getting up out of this chair and sitting down in that chair. Unlike
the teachings of many religions, there is absolutely no judgment or censure after death. There is
no place of punishment, no Hell, no purgatory. Albert Einstein said in a 1930 edition of New
York Times Magazine: Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of
punishment [Hell] and hope of reward [Heaven] after death.
I no longer live in silly fear of spending my eternity screaming and crying and burning in a
flaming misery of evil created by a God who loves me, but, regardless, intends to punish me
forever. Not living in silly, unnecessary fear is happiness. Its freedom. I prefer that.

Nine: Truths We Were Not Taught in School

(and which are also completely ignored by the media)
1. We are spiritual beings on a human journey. Before we came down into this physical body,
we planned out the point in time that we would begin to awaken to who and what we are. The
womb of our mother was the tunnel of forgetting, and we knew the challenge of remembering
would be tough. The biggest risk we took was never remembering. We were never
disconnected from our source of light; however, the connection was stretched very long and
thin to reach this part of the universe in density. Our challenge is to strengthen this connection
and to grow our pillar of light in remembrance and recognition of who we truly are.
2. Our souls never die; we just change our focus. As a spark of light from Source (God), we are
infinitely connected to the flow of experience. When it is time to disconnect the cord of life
from our physical body, our spark rises up and out of the human physical body. We take the
experience of our lifetime with us, but our focus is changed to a slightly different level of
96 Bradon Edge

vibration. We still exist as the person we were in human form as well as the many people we
have been before. Every lifetime builds experience and wisdom.
3. Everything is energy vibrating at a certain frequency. All living things on Earth have
consciousness, even rocks and trees. Every-thing and every-one is connected to a tree of life
or an infinite energy source. We can connect to the consciousness of trees and rocks and can
carry on conversations with them by tuning in to their particular vibrational frequency. Our
bodies are 90% water and can be programmed and molded to a certain vibrational frequency
via thoughts, sound, color, and love. When we understand vibration, we can understand how
alternative and holistic treatments can cure any disease or ailment in the body by changing the
water vibration.
4. Our thoughts
create our reality.
All thoughts are
energy which
manifest into
what we see as
reality. Always
being aware of
your thoughts is
one of the first
steps in
responsible
co-creation of
your reality. It is
a simple concept
but takes
awareness and
work. If every
person on Earth
changed their
thoughts towards
peace and
freedom there
would be no war
or tyranny.

Focusing on negative thoughts will create a lower vibrational frequency and focusing on
positive thoughts can raise the vibrational frequency. Our reality is manifestation of what we
create through thought patterns.
5. We are never alone. We could not exist here without help from our spirit guides and angels,
or high vibrational beings of light who have made agreements with us to help steer us on the
path toward the goal of ascension. They exist in another vibrational level or dimension higher
than oursthus most of us cannot see them. They are always with us and are waiting patiently
for us to ask for help, as we live on a free-will planet. They abide by laws of interference
because of our free will, but if we ask with our highest and best interest they do have creative
ways of manifesting what you ask for. Most guidance comes from withinthrough a process
of telepathy where you get an idea in your head. Messages can also come from other people
for those who can tap into that vibrational level in order to hear what they have to say.
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6. We are the ones we have been waiting for. There are many races and dimensions of beings
on the planet at this time. Along with them, we volunteered to be here at this time, answering
the call from the consciousness of Planet Earth as she cried out for help. We came here from
other galaxies, universes, and cosmoses. Many came here each time there was a chance to
achieve a golden age after the fall. Although those times were not completely successful,
they were all preparation for this time.
7. Most of us incarnated here before, many times, in order to prepare for this current lifetime.
There are souls who are here to be leadersto show the wayand there are souls here who
just wanted to be here to witness the raising of vibration of the human race in concert with the
planet, which will affect the solar system, the universe, the cosmos and beyond. For those who
lead by example, schooling never stops. There are many classes to take in order to prepare to
master oneself for this incarnation. The scope of the effect this event will have on all of
creation is one of the biggest secrets of all. Some say that the incarnation cycle has ended and
this lifetime is the opportunity to release ones self from the wheel of karma, or in other words,
the need to balance our actions.

8. Time is an illusion. We have a past and we have already been to the future. The majority of
our energy particles (our souls) exist in a place of no time. Time is created by man and is part
of the controlled experiment. Meditation or going within is the key to returning to the place
of no time where all the answers lie.
9. Ascension does not involve going anywhere. It is a state of being, a focus of awareness and
consciousness into a higher vibrational frequency. It is what we were created forto go forth
and experience and return the experiences back to Source in an infinite loop of co-creation
and mastery. The main reward of incarnating in the depths of Hell at this time is rising like
the Phoenix from the ashes into the bliss and light of love. This is achieved by being love itself.
10. Love is all there is. Finding and reconnecting to love again is the most important thing we
can do as humans. Source (again, God) is unconditional love, and we are sparks of Source
this means we are also love. Therefore, we are that we seek. Loving ourselves unconditionally is
the key to returning to Sourceand love will bring forth the necessary form of revolution.
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The revolutionthe awakeningbegins when each individual person sincerely analyzes such
truths. I am not responsible for trying to convince others of any specific truthnor they, me;
instead, all one should do is accept and live truth and allow for the possibility that others will
also find and internalize their own pure truthnot the beliefs given to them.
How is this done? Easy: avoid the artificial and be genuine and brave enough to speak personal
truth while being open-minded toward the rebuttal. Engage in truth regarding politics, religion, et
cetera, and watch the world open. By becoming responsible for ones self, ones own thoughts
and ones own actions, each individual can make one fantastic leap toward the future of
humanity: living as spiritual beings on a human journey.

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Ten: Understand That Politicians Do Not Care About You
Politicians are NOT leaders. I have observed that most politicians in America are of the lowest
kind as far as consciousnesslove and compassionis concerned. Politicians are clever; they
are cunning. They make every effort for a single goal, which is to be more powerful. Their only
desire is for more powernot for more peace, not for more being, not for more truth, not for
more love. What do they need more power for?simply to dominate others, to destroy others.
Although politicians have mostly disregarded the premise, they could learn much from Spider-
Mans mantra: With great power comes great responsibility. Politicians, for the most part,
have failed humanity. They have not been responsible to their oaths and sworn duties in any
fathomable manner. They have used their power with complete irresponsibility to anyone other
than themselves. They do not deserve our respect nor our allegiance. They deserve our
doubtand everything that comes with the practice of doubt.
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We, instead of holding politicians in high regard, have to discover those people who live on this
Earth and make it in every way beautiful; people who share their joy, their dance, their music,
share their ecstasiesbut live anonymously. I want to know these people, have the names of
these people carved into my brainnot names like Clinton, Bush, Obama. Just reading those
names makes my stomach turn.
This insane humanitymiserable, suffering, full of anger, rage, hateneeds a deep scrubbing.
If this misery and suffering and judgment and lack of tolerance is the result of all the religions,
of all the politics, after decades and centuries of arguing, spewing, and preaching ugh. I want
people to be FREE. Politically free. Religiously free. Each individual free in every dimension to
function out of his own still small voice, out of his own consciousnessto live the life each
wants. THAT will be a beautiful world.
Be FREE. 100% FREE.
The government and its politicians have no business telling us what to drink, what to eat, what
kind of medicine we should take, what to smoke, what to farm, or how to run our private lives.
These are all elements of individual liberty or personal freedom. I encourage you to research
VOLUNTARYISM see if it fits.

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If a person wants to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, thats his own business. If people want
to avoid having their children vaccinated, thats their own business. If a guy wants to smoke
marijuana with a friend on the porch of his own home, thats his own business. If a woman
chooses to use a Midwife to deliver her child, that is her own business. If people want to drink
water from a tap that was not poisoned with fluoride or other chemicals, thats their own
business. If a dairy farmer wants to milk a goat and sell the milk to his neighbor, thats his own
business. If people want to grow an organic garden in their front lawn, thats their own
business. If someone wants to drive down the highway without wearing a seatbelt, thats his or
her own business. If a guy wants to buy a rifle and shoot empty soda cans on his farm, thats
his own business. If a same sex couple wants to have sex in their own bedroom, get married, or
adopt a child, thats their own business.
Politicians, generally speaking, work and pass legislation to make those things difficultillegal
even, ridiculouslybecause they are busy protecting and greedily taking money from
lobbyistsmilitary industrial complex, prison privatization, pharmaceutical corporations, oil
and gas, Monsanto, et ceterawho have an agenda (always financial) that leads directly to the
politicians re-election.

Make no mistake, politicians are in the business of getting elected and staying elected. They are
in the business of making certain you stay afraid, needy, and with false sense of pride in your
nation and its imaginary borders. Politicians do not care about you.
Our politicians and government do much of their work in secret. Legitimate authority does not
need to act in the dark, does not need to move in the shadows. A legitimate authority is proud
of its actions and wants the world to see them. Unfortunately, much of the work of our
politicians is done in the very shadowy darkness.
Good deeds are done in the sun. So why do our elected representatives most often do their
work in the hallways of secrecy?
Why?
theres a reason, says
George Carlin. Theres a
reason. Theres a reason for
this, theres a reason
education SUCKS, and its
the same reason it will never,
ever, EVER be fixed. Its
never going to get any better,
dont look for it, be happy
with what youve got.
Because the owners, the
owners of this country don't
want that. I'm talking about
the real owners now, the
BIG owners! The
wealthythe REAL
owners!the big wealthy
business interests that
control things and make all
the important decisions.
Forget the politicians. They
are irrelevant. The
politicians are put there to
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give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice! You have
OWNERS! They OWN YOU. They own everything. They own all the important land. They
own and control the corporations. Theyve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the
Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they
own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information
you get to hear. They got you by the balls.
They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying, to get what they want. Well, we
know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell
you what they dont want: they dont want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking.
They dont want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. Theyre not
interested in that. That doesnt help them. Thats against their interests.
Thats right. They dont want
people who are smart enough to
sit around a kitchen table and
think about how badly theyre
getting fucked by a system that
threw them overboard thirty
fucking years ago. They dont
want that!
You know what they want? They
want obedient workers. Obedient
workers, people who are just
smart enough to run the machines
and do the paperwork. And just
dumb enough to passively accept
all these increasingly shitty jobs
with the lower pay, the longer
hours, the reduced benefits, the
end of overtime and vanishing
pension that disappears the
minute you go to collect it, and
now theyre coming for your
Social Security money. They want
your retirement money. They
want it back so they can give it to
their criminal friends on Wall
Street, and you know something? Theyll get it. Theyll get it all from you sooner or later cause

they own this fucking place! Its a big club,
and you aint in it! You, and I, are not in the big
club.
By the way, its the same big club they use
to beat you over the head with all day long
when they tell you what to believe. All day
long beating you over the head with their
media telling you what to believe, what to
think and what to buy.
The table has tilted folks. The game is
rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody
seems to care! Good honest hard-working
people; white collar, blue collar it doesnt
matter what color shirt you have on. Good,
honest, hard-working people continue
these are people of modest meanscontinue
to elect these rich cock suckers who dont
give a fuck about themthey dont give a
fuck about you they dont give a fuck
about you.
They dont care about you at all at
allAT ALL. And nobody seems to notice.
Nobody seems to care. Thats what the
owners count on. The fact that Americans
will probably remain willfully ignorant of the
big red, white and blue dick thats being
jammed up their assholes every day, because
the owners of this country know the truth.
Its called the American Dream, because you
have to be asleep to believe it.
Is it clear? Do you understand? Politicians do not care about you. Why else would they pass
legislationbased on the mostly false premise of terror and fearthat allows spy drones to fly
over your backyard, airport goons to brush up against your genitalia, the ability to spy on you
through your smart phone and various household appliances, the arrest of peaceful protestors
protected under the Constitution? Do you think politicians have peaceful protesters and
government whistleblowers arrested and imprisoned because they care about you?
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Voltaire, a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for
his advocacy of civil liberties, once said, To learn who rules over you, simply find out whom
you are not allowed to criticize.
What type of person even wants to become a politician? Not those people making the world a
beautiful place, sharing their joy, dance, music, and ecstasy. No. Not them. I could argue that
mostly people who are basically suffering from an inferiority complex are attracted to politics.
The very attraction towards politics is proof of what their problem is. This, of course, is not an
absolute. There are plenty of good people in the world. Unfortunately, there are very few of
them in our government.
Lord Acton, a historian and moralist, said this is 1887: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute
power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton spoke from his whole lifes experience, so what he
says is not unfounded. However, I dare to disagree in one vital aspect: power certainly corrupts,
but it corrupts only a person who is potentially corruptible. He may not have been
112 Bradon Edge

known as corruptible before, because he had no opportunity, he had no power. See, power
itself cannot corrupt a person who has no potential for corruption. It is not the power that is
corrupting the person; in fact, the power is simply revealing the person to you.
If this planet is to one day succumb, it will not succumb by some natural disaster. No.
It will succumb because of the stupidity, power lust, and greed of most our worlds
politiciansregardless of country or fake party affiliation. They will do everything they can to
keep you on a leash of fear. Theyll keep creating fake villains to frighten you so you will
continue to give up your civil rights until you have none. Ugh.
You know what I want?
I want a lesbian for president. I want a person with AIDS for president and I want a Filipino-
American from Brooklyn for vice president and I want someone with no health insurance and I
want someone who grew up in a place where the Earth is so saturated with toxic waste that
they didnt have a choice about getting leukemia. I want a president that had an abortion at
sixteen and I want a candidate who isnt the lesser of two evils and I want a president who has
never had air conditioning, a president who has stood in line at the clinic, at the DMV, at the
welfare office, and has been unemployed and laid off and sexually harassed and gay-bashed and
deported. I want someone who has spent the night on the streets and had a cross burned on
their lawn and survived rape. I want someone who has been in love and been hurt, who
respects sex, who has made mistakes and learned from them. I want a Black woman for
president. I want someone with bad teeth, someone who has eaten hospital food, someone
who cross-dresses and has done drugs and been in therapy. I want someone who has
committed civil disobedience for all the right reasons. And I want to know why all that isnt
possible.
I want the kind of person described above to be president. I want this because I want someone
who is not bought and paid for by the corporations. I want someone who knows what it is to
fall down because that person would be more eager and quicker to help up others. I want
someone who is rooted in struggle and reality with a much greater conviction toward doing
that which is good. I want sincerity and true compassion in my president.
And I want that person in Congress. And in the House of Representatives. And for governor.
Let's simply start paying the members of Congress the national minimum wage in exchange for
their so-called service. We'd then realize whether politicians truly loved their country and

wanted to humbly serve the public or if it is the power and celebrity of office combined with
the financial reward that they crave.
Once you understand most politicians are simply trying to get and stay elected for their own
greedy purposesnothing elseand once you understand most politicians sincerely do not
care about you or the planet, it will be easy to see through their lies, through their selfish
agendas. It will be easy to see through their bullshit and free yourself of their mental slavery
and their intentionally-created political theatre. Regarding this, Krishnamurti stated: "It is no
measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for
himself. Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government under which he
lives is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.
When it comes to politics, Im not right wing or left wing. Im the middle finger.
Eleven: Remove Hindrances to Expand Being

People ask me, Do you
believe in this? Do you
believe in that? My answer
is that I find that a nonsense
question: either I know
something or I dont. Belief
has no place in my being,
anywhere. Not anymore. If I
dont know, then I will try to
knowthats what doubt is,
thats what inquiry is. And if
I know, there is no need to
believe; I know it on my own
authority.
The truth itself that is already

inside of you does not grow;
only recognition grows, remembrance grows. Hindrances prevent your recognition, your
remembrance. False knowledge is the greatest hindrance. It is the greatest barrier.
114 Bradon Edge

Its your move. You need to decide. Do you want to know or do you want to believe. Do you
want to continue letting others tell you what to think? Or do you want to decide for yourself?
If you believe, you will never know. If you believe, what is the point of searching? You can
continue sleeping. The moment you recognize that you dont know, that recognition of
ignorance goes like an arrow into the heart, it pierces you like a spear. In that very piercingin the
midst of that very shockone becomes aware.
False knowledge is a kind of shock absorber. It does not allow you to be shaken and shocked.
It goes on protecting you; it is an armor around you. I suggest you drop the armor, so that life
can shock you into awareness and allow your being to emerge. Being never develops. Being
simply is. There is no spiritual evolution, there is no time involved in it. It is eternity, it is not

becoming. Spiritually, you never develop; you cannot. As far as the ultimate goal of being is
concerned, you are already there. You have never been anywhere else.
There is no need to talk about evolving your being. Being is already as it should be; it is perfect.
Nothing needs to be added to it, nothing can be added to it. Its a creation of existence. It
comes out of perfection; hence, it is perfect. Just withdraw all the hindrances you have created,
and you will once again swim in that perfection. The truth is that we have been brainwashed,
manipulated. Our minds have been seized by forces outside of our own self and we cannot
easily find our way back to our true being.
On the next page are obstacles to your truth; they are obstacles to a humane state. Get rid of
them. We have been efficiently convinced that the following distractions and hindrances are
truly importantthey are not. Noam Chomsky said, You must learn to redirect your
aggression from petty sporting events towards the political struggle for a humane international
state. Nothing in the following list is truly important. Consider everything on this list a petty
sporting event:
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Elitist Attitudes Fancy Cars Celebrity Gossip
Media Spectacles Labeling Other People Attachment
Who Wins a Grammy or Oscar Control Your Social Circle
Possessive Feelings Jewelry Movies
Capitalist Dreams Diamond Rings Credit Cards
Brand Name Clothes/Products Religion Professional Sports
Convincing Others You Are Right The Past Consumption
Gallery Art Hyped-Up Products Materialism
War to Usher in Peace Television Identity
Your Bank Account Your Alma Mater Soda Drinks
Mainstream Media/Corporate News Gourmet Food Corporate Talk Radio
Lavish Weddings Cigarettes Fame
Nationality and Ethnicity Religious Holidays Fast Food
Celebrity Worship Status, Superiority, Influence Debt
Your Career Reality Shows Corporate Music
Your Intricately Self-Manufactured Reputation
Your Social Network Accounts and the Number of Followers You Have
Your Formal Education That Confines Your Thoughts in a Box

These things do not define you. Blow them up. They are all unimportant.
Do not misunderstand, it is fine to enjoy a sporting event or a movie or a party, of courselife

is all about FUN!but you should not allow any of those things to define you, to
118 Bradon Edge

consume you, to be important. It is, of course, also perfectly acceptable to work hard at your
job and have great friends.
There is no reason to not live

in a great house and drive a
badass carunless you are a
believer in and follower of
Christianity or another of the
established religions that
clearly frowns upon and
teaches against such decadent
behavior. [More on that in the
section titled ShareDont
Serve, page 136.]
Just remember, none of these

thingsa great house or a
badass carshould define
you. Only the insecure, those controlled by the ego, needs those things. They should not
consume you. So, then, what is important?
No distractions, Tyler Durden says. The ability to let that which does not truly matter
slide. Even though Tyler Durden is a fictional character whose words were written by a
Hollywood screenwriter, he speaks truth. The place from where truth is found makes no
difference if you believe that it does that is simply your ego controlling you. Whether from
Osho, Tyler Durden, Spider-Man, Yogananda Paramahansa, Jesus the Christ, Dr. Suess, or
some un-credit-able source from the Internet, truth is truth.
And it is vital to your being to identify those things that are distractions in your life, to identify
what does not truly matter, and let it go. You will be amazed how light and free you feel once
you remove hindrances. Your life is most likely so congested with everything that the real you can
barely make a sound.
I may be the first person to claim that Tyler Durden and Henry David Thoreau, intentionally or
not, share the same message, but review Tylers quote from above and then reflect on these
words of Thoreau: Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three,
and not a hundred or a thousand.

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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.
Augustine of Hippo
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it
sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be
acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime.
Mark Twain, Mark Twain: The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It


There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.
C.S. Lewis
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Twelve: Stop With The Comparisons
You Are Responsible Only For Yourself
Our whole society goes on working, humming along, endeavoring to create hindrances. A child
is born and immediately we start creating hindrances in him. We create comparison in
him: Somebody is more beautiful than you, and somebody else is healthier than you, and somebody elses
childlook, look at their grades, at their intelligence, what are you doing!? We start creating comparison.
Comparison brings with it the idea of inferiority and superiorityand both are illnesses, the
ways of the egohindrances. After comparison is introduced, the child will never think just
about himself; he will always think in comparison to somebody else. The poison of comparison
has entered, and the bliss of being will become more and more impossible.
And then, of course, from out of comparison comes a great desire to compete, a great desire to
defeat others. The child will settle into a fear of whether he is going to make it or not,

because it is a violent struggle and everybody is trying to do the same, to be first. Millions of
people are trying to become the first. Great violence, aggression, hatred, enmity arise. Life
becomes a hell. If he is defeated, he is miserableand there are many more chances of being
defeated than of winning. And even if he succeeds, he is not happy because the moment he
succeeds he becomes afraid: Now somebody else might take his success from him.
Competitors are all around, violently coming after him.
Childhoodyouth, for that matteris nightmare enough.

Why make it worse by trying to live up to false standards
that nobody really, truly, honestly cares about anyway?
Judgment is also born of comparison and competition. A

person judges another only to make himself feel better about
himself. He likes to point out to whomever will listen that he
did not make that decision, did not do that action, does not
wear those clothes. The implication, of course, is that he is a
better person because of it. Judgment is simply a passive
aggressive way of comparing and competing.
Everyone is born unique. No comparison is possible, no judgment truly accurate. Understand

this: the reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with
everyone elses highlight reel. Comparison and judgment is nothing but silliness. Yet, people
compare. And they judge.
You were born with all the unique abilities, knowledge, and talents you need for your mission
in life. You dont need to compare yourself to anyone else. You need not judge another. Just be
yourself and start shining. Your only responsibility is to know yourself, to find your own truth.
You may have been taught many, many responsibilitiesbut probably not that one. Go. Find
it; find your truth. Don't accept others' truth as yours. Go find yours. Find it. Whatever it takes:
find it.
You may have been told to be responsiblecommonly defined as a moral, legal, or mental
accountabilityto your parents, to your spouse, to the nation, to your church, to humanity, to
a God. This list is almost endless. I would like to burn that entire list. Other than our children,
we are not definitively responsible to anybody or anything other than ourselves.
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126 Bradon Edge

We are brainwashed into believing that we have an obligation to someone who shares the same
color passportsomeone who happened to be born within the set of invisible lines that
comprise our arbitrary political boundaries. Were told that we have a civic responsibility to
finance spiraling government deficits, buy more bombs to drop on our human brothers and
sisters, and bail out corrupt bankstersregardless of whether or not we share a common
ideology, philosophy or moral code. This is completely absurd. Human beings are born free. No
one comes into this world with an obligation to serve some arbitrary political or social

construct. You are not responsible to any nation and its invisible, man-made borders. You are
not responsible to any other person in existence. You are not responsible to any church, any
God. You are responsible for only one thing: knowing yourself, your own truth.
Drop false knowledge. Drop comparison. Drop judgment. Drop responsibility. Go on

dropping until nothing is left to drop. And then it is there: your pure consciousnessyour
beingis there.
Thirteen: Immerse Yourself in Nature
In Waldens Chapter 2, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, Henry David Thoreau wrote:
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of
life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that
I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to
practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the
128 Bradon Edge

marrow of life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to
its lowest terms.

Being in nature will bring forth certain unaffectedness with lifes nonsense, will return and
enhance your purity. And this purity certainly has the freshness of life, the joy of existenceall
the treasures with which you have been endowed. When you become attached to the small
things surrounding you (refer to the list of hindrances on page 116), you forget the one that
you are; you forget your being. Immersing yourself in nature time and again makes that
freshness and joy all the more palpable.
Being in nature is sometimes the greatest discovery in life and the most ecstatic pilgrimage to
truth. But the reality is, the beauty is, and the great news is that you need not be an ascetic, you
need not be antilife; you need not renounce the world and go to the mountains. Life is one big
symphony, and everyone and everything is in the band. Therefore, you can be where you are
living in a penthouse apartment in New York City or a bungalow in Fijiyou can continue to
do what you are doing. Just a new thing has to be evolved: Whatever you do, you do with
awareness, even the smallest arc of the body of the mindand with each act of awareness you
will become aware of the beauty and the treasure and the glory and the eternity of your being.
Make time for Mother Nature. Visit the mountains, the beach or the desert. Surf some waves.
Walk through the woods. Climb some rocks.
Sit quietly. Listen.

130 Bradon Edge

Fourteen: The Full-On Plato
(If we fight for absolute truth, we will win absolute freedom)
George Orwells 1984 and Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged are two of the most eerily accurate books
reflecting modern society; but perhaps the best crystal ball to our current and mostly
unfortunate and unwelcome state of affairs is Platos Republic.
You see both Rand and Orwell were describing a world outside of themselves. A world they
couldnt understand or accept. And while those works are brilliant and incredibly prophetic, I
expect that to understand a world borne of narcissistic sociopathic tendencies, one must
examine the construct of such a world through the eyes of a narcissistic sociopath. Fortunately
Plato, arguably the worlds most (in)famous and brilliant narcissistic sociopath, provided us
a vivid illustration and explanation of this ideal state in his Republic. Plato provides us the why
to Orwells and Rands less-than-ideal states.
Plato provides the arguments for the philosopher kings. He also describes various levels of
reality, arguing that each societal demographic must live within the reality level delegated to
them. He argues each demographic has a limited intellectual capacity and thus can only
handle the reality level provided to them. The philosopher kings, of course, are the only societal
demographic with the right to and capacity for absolute truth. Likewise, the philosopher kings
of todays society control each and every aspect of lifeincluding our subsequent perception
of the world. There is no such thing as happenstance. The financial market moves a certain
direction not because of unexplained market forces but because the philosopher kings have
made it so. Economic policies are creating incredible wealth for the already wealthy while
destroying the middle classnot because of honest misjudgment or the need for more time but
because the philosopher kings make it so.
As in Platos ideal state, todays philosopher kings are the only ones with the right to and
capacity for (as decided by them) absolute truth. The rest of us live within the realities
provided for and to us. We are handed the explanationsand when the explanations dont
suffice, the subject matter disappears altogether. We, the people, take what we are fed in stride
and in line with our respective places in the hierarchy of truth. If any one person dares
to challenge the hierarchy of truth, as many noble whistleblowers throughout history
have attempted, he is exiled with a bounty on his head. The philosopher kings make it so.
The facts are that we will never know the facts. We will know but a shadow of truth as ascribed
to us by the philosopher kings. A handful of men and women control billions of people in
the same manner that 20 cowboys control 30,000 head of cattle. We are allowed food, shelter

and safety and in return we are provided a certain reality within which we must live. (This
reality we are provided, of course, is filled with fear so that we are continuously and more easily
controlled.) So long as we remain within our respective realities we will be granted
comfort. However, if we attempt
to break through a level of truth
or worse bring others with usthe
heavy hands of the philosopher
kings will find us by way of the
guardian class. In our worldin
todays societywe become a threat
to national security if we pursue
truth and once we adorn that
scarlet letter, all rights that were
once guaranteed by the Constitution
disappear. The Constitution states
no person or law super-cedes it;
however, by way of executive
order, the chief philosopher king
has granted the other philosopher
kings a level of authority that super-
cedes that of the Constitutionto
control us and for their personal
gain and benefit. And
as comfortable cattle do, we accept
that reality and forward with the
herd.
So for those inclined to not

only reflect on the prophetic worlds
of Orwell and Rand but to
understand the arguments for such a
world by the philosopher kings
themselves, refresh yourself with a
read of Platos Republic for wars are won not by force of might but by force of
knowledge. Plato was correct in understanding that freedom is found in knowledge. If we
accept a shadow of truth we will enjoy a shadow of freedom. But if we fight for absolute truth
we will win absolute freedom.
Step beyond Orwell and Rand. Weve gone to full-on Plato.

132 Bradon Edge


134 Bradon Edge

Fifteen: An Extra-Terrestrials Perspective of the Human Species

[Maybe aliens exist; maybe they dont. For the sake of this section, lets assume they do.]
If aliens do indeed exist, are they laughing at us? Are they perplexed with us? Saddened? They
must be laughing at us as well as perplexed. Depending on their disposition, sad, too. If
humanity was not so often depressing and sad, Id be laughing at us.
I wonder, though if an intelligent Extra-Terrestrial life-form peacefully infiltrated Earth (I

completely acknowledge the distinct possibility that this has already occurred) with the sole
intent on studying humanitythe self-proclaimed ruling species of the planetwhat would
his impressions be?
Would he first wonder why individual humans do not think for themselves? Or more
interestingly, would he wonder why individual humans do not think for themselves but believe
that they do?

Would he wonder why humans are so deeply influenced by environmental factors in their
youthfactors such as education by formal schooling and the church and, in particular, family
members and close friends?
Would he wonder why younger humans tend to accept the truths of their parents with almost
zero resistanceand then, upon adulthood, mostly refuse to consider possible alternatives?
Further, would he wonder why adult humans encourage youthful humans to maintain their spirit
of submission? And would he wonder why humansas a speciesare so eagerly subservient?
Would he wonder why they are such painfully frightened creatures, wholly unable to face their
honest fears?
Would he wonder why humans so enthusiastically embrace disguises from realitywhether via
the clouds of politics or the cloaks of religion? Would he wonder why humans allow
government and religion to control them en masse with simple and tremendous efficiency?
Would he wonder why humans are so easy to manipulate? Would he wonder if it is simply a part
of human natureand if so, is that acceptable reasoning?
136 Bradon Edge

Sixteen: ShareDont Serve
Service is a dirty word. Never use it. Yes, you can share, but never humiliate people by
serving them. It is a form of humiliation. When you serve somebody and your ego feels great,
you have reduced the other to a worm, subhuman. You are so superior that you have sacrificed
your own interests and you are serving the poorin truth, you are simply humiliating them.
If you have something, something that gives you joy, peace, ecstasy, share it. And remember
that when you share there is no motive. I am not saying that by sharing it you will reach heaven,
I am not giving you any goal. I am saying that just by sharing you will be tremendously
fulfilled.

In the very sharing is the fulfillment, there is no goal beyond it. It is not end-oriented; it is an
end unto itself. You will feel not obliged to the person who was ready to share with you. You
will not feel that the person is obliged to youyou have not served.
Speaking of sharing
The Catholic Church, once all her assets have been put together, is the most formidable
stockbroker in the world. The Vatican has large investments with the Rothschilds of Britain,
France, and America; with the Hambros Bank; with the Credit Suisse in London and Zurich. In
the United States it has large investments with the Morgan Bank, the Chase-Manhattan Bank,
the First National Bank or New York, the BankersTrust Company, and others. The Vatican has
billions of shares in the most powerful international corporations such as Gulf Oil, Shell,
138 Bradon Edge

General Motors, Bethlehem Steel, General Electric, International Business Machines, T.W.A.,
et cetera. At a conservative estimate, these amount to billions in the USA alone.
The Vaticans treasure of solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazine
to amount to several billion dollars. A large bulk of this is stored in gold ingots with U.S.
Federal Reserve Bank, while banks in England and Switzerland hold the rest. But this is just a
small portion of the wealth of the Vatican, which in the U.S. alone, is greater than that of the
five wealthiest giant
corporations of the
country. When to that
is added all the real
estate, art collections
and other property,
stocks and shares
abroad, then the
staggering
accumulation of
wealth of the church
trillions of dollars
becomes so formidable
as to defy any rational
assessment.
The Catholic Church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator, and property owner in
existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution,
corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. Yet the majority of
those who are dedicated followers are poor. Lets review what the Bible clearly says about
helping the poor and the needy:
Luke 12:33-34 of The King James Bible says, Sell your possessions, and give to the needy.
Matthew 19:21 of the King James Bible states, "Jesus answered, 'If you want to be perfect, go,
sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come,
follow me.'"
Matthew 19:24 of The King James Bible states, And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Sell your possessions. Give to the needy. Those clinging to possessions will have a difficult time
getting into heaven. Got it. That seems clear enough.
Why, then, does the Catholic Church and its devoted followers ignore Jesus? Why do they not
sell everything and give to the poor as Jesus repeatedly directs in the Bible?
Evidence suggests that the

Church and its followers are
selective regarding their Word
of God. The Church vigorously
and divisively promotes
homosexuality as a serious
transgression based on one line
from the Old Testament, yet,
the Church does not act upon
The Word of God when he
says Sell your possessions and give to
the poor in ten, very specific New
Testament verses. Shouldn't the
Church vehemently demand
that any person with
possessions sell them and give
them to the needy? Where is the
moral and righteous
outrage that this is not
practiced?
If Jesus, the carpenter, in his

wool clothes and humble, unshaven appearance is the churchs blueprint, their go-to-guy for
guidance on how to live, why does the Popethe advertised modern day champion of
discipline and humilitymake his appearances as depicted above?
Ugh.
I feel like screaming, "No! No! No! You're doing it all wrong!" Regarding this concern, I
consulted the previously mentioned Father at St. Patrick's Cathedral. His response to my
inquiry was that it is necessary these days to glorify God with the triumph of appearance.
140 Bradon Edge

Um. Why?
I'm pretty sure God doesn't give a

shit about the "triumph of
appearance." Even so, check out
his Pope-ness, carrying his gold
staff, wearing his gold hat and gold
ring, in his fine Italian Prada
leather shoes and gowns of silk
with gold threading and meticulous
lace ... accompanied by his posse.
And what was the Popes message

on this day while wearing that
ensemble? It was this: Today
Christmas has become a
commercial celebration, whose
bright lights hide the mystery of
Gods humility, which in turn calls
us to humility and simplicity. He
said that in his homily to about
10,000 people in the basilica and
millions more watching on
television throughout the world.
He warned against bling while decked out head-to-toe in gold. Even the hypocrisy is rich.
The church wants its followers to bow and kiss the Popes gold ring. Was Jesusagain, the
churchs go-to-guy for guidance on how to live, a spiritually enlightened man who preached
love and compassionwalking around expecting people to kiss his anything? No. Because the
Jesus who I acknowledge emphasized one cannot have a true spiritual life while swimming in
materialism. He was certainly walking around humbly kissing others out of pure love, healing
their pain, and sharing whatever he had with the unfortunate.
If the church honestly followed the teachings of a compassionate Jesus, it would stop its
humiliation of serving and share all of its hoarded trillions of dollars in wealth with the poor,
the sick, the hungry and the downtrodden of this world. It would mean a true spiritual renewal

for the Church, a realization of its long-lost destiny. The Pope should rule the Church as if he
were the true Jesus, not one of the Real Housewives of Wherever. He should do what Jesus
would do: live with as little as possible alongside the poorest and weakest. That would be
Christ-like and an example for all of what Jesus truly preached and lived.
Is there any Christian justification for not doing this?
As the Bible says, the source of all sin is selfishness. But the church, in all its wisdom, would
rather not share, cling to its trillions of dollars, and serve just enoughin relative termsto be
able to publicly claim they help
the poor.
I knowwithout a doubt
what the Jesus I acknowledge
would do: hed read the Bible
whollynot selectively or
hypocritically. Hed have the
courage to admit to and voice his
disappointment with its vile
content. Hed pacifywith love
and understandingthose who
react angrily when he points out
that many are reading the Bible
selectively and hypocritically
and living their lives in the same
manner.
He would then share with them that his message and name were co-opted for selfish purposes,
that he never had the desire for his message to become a religion of control and fear masked in
a message of love. And then he would share and do good unto others as he would like good to
be done unto him.
My dad once said, When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. Thats my religion.
Good enough for me, Dad.
Good enough for me.

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A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind
of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us
to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to
free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein

I don't want to live in the kind of world where we don't look out for each other. Not just the
people who are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I cant change the way
anybody else thinks or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit.
Charles de Lint
144 Bradon Edge

Who would you impress if the world was blind?

Shannon L. Alder

Seventeen: Be Authentic
Find the strength to be exactly, fully, totally, unfailingly YOU. Allow your nature full freedom.
Respect yourself, be proud of being yourself, whoever you are. Just be you. However raw and
however wild it appears to be in the beginning, soon it starts having its own grace, its own
beauty. Being an ordinary human being is the ultimate ecstasy.
146 Bradon Edge

An individual is bound to be a rebel. An individual is a nonconformist; he cannot conform. He
can say yes only to things he feels are worth saying yes to, but it depends on his own feeling, his
own intuitive understanding, his own intelligence. He cannot be forced to yield. He can
surrender out of love, but he cannot be made to surrender; he would rather die than surrender.
He cannot be an obedient slavenot that he does not know how to obey. When he feels for
something, when he is committed to something, involved with something, he obeys totally, but
he is really obeying his own inner light; he is not following any commandments from the
outside.
Remember: participate in life! Have fun! Life is simply a game. But always know that you are not
part of a herd, not part of a mob. Be respectful of yourself, and be respectful of others. Be
proud of your freedom to be you.
When you are proud of that freedom you want everybody else to be free, because your
freedom has given you so much love and so much grace. You would like everyone else in the
world to be free, loving and graceful.
No society up to now has been able to give freedom to their youth to be themselves. Why are
so few youth ever told to search for their own voice? Have you got any voice of your own or not? It
seems risky. They may prove rebellious. They may not follow the religion of their forefathers;
they may not think the great politicians are really great; they may not trust in your moral values.
They will find their own morality, and they will find their own lifestyle.
They will not be replicas, they will not repeat the past; they will be beings of the future. This
has created fear that they may go astray. Before they go astray, every society tries to give them a
certain direction how to live, a certain ideology of what is good and what is evil, a certain
religion, a certain holy scripture. While receiving all this, the youth has completely forgotten
himself, and he has forgotten the way to reach himself. He has become an actor, a hypocrite.
He is doing things he never wanted to do, and he is not doing things he wants to do.
Heres the truth: There is no way of getting all you want. There is no particular reason you lost
out on some things. The world is not necessarily just. Being good does not pay off and there is
no compensation for misfortune. You cant make anyone love you either.
So stop wasting time. Let goof it all.
Just be authentically you.


148 Bradon Edge

If you are a singer, sing. If you are a writer, write. If you are a dreamer, dream. If you are a
composer, compose. If you are a dancer, dance. If you are a traveler, travel. If you are a painter,
paint. If you are a drawer, draw. If you are a guitarist, play. If you are a sculptor, sculpt. If you
are afraid, get over it.
Be you.
Being true to oneself is not for the faint of heart, I acknowledge. But simply being is so
significant that it is irreplaceable.
Do something that comes out of younot to assert, but to express! Sing your song, dance your
dance, rejoice in being whatever nature has chosen you to be. It does not matter what you do.
What matters is how you do itof your own accord, with your own vision, with your own love.
You are just yourself. Be that.
So, do as Dr. Seuss suggests, Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind
dont matter and those who matter dont mind. Just be YOU. Fully. Truly. Have the courage
to be you. Just be you.

150 Bradon Edge

A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it
is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one
hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for ones neighbor such is
my idea of happiness.
Leo Tolstoy, Family Happiness


What do you see?

152 Bradon Edge


Viewed sensitively and with love; the world blossoms in beauty.
Kristian Goldmund Aumann, Love Poems
It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I
think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but
to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.
Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

154 Bradon Edge

Eighteen: Forgive
Take a moment and look deeply at a person. Really look. Their humanity will come rushing
forth. Once you recognize the humanity of another, you realize there are far fewer differences
between the two of you than may have been originally perceived.
You are both scared. You both hurt. You both have insecurities. You both have dreams. You
both desire love above anything else. You both struggle. You both deserve compassion. We all
make mistakes. We all have weakness. I do. You do. You are no better than me. I am not better
than you. We all deserve forgiveness. You have to stop. Just stop. No more anger.
Try this approach for forgiving anotherwhile understanding that forgiveness is not only
something we do for others, we forgive ourselves as well:

(Think of a specific person.) We tried. We really tried. I forgive you. I release you. Im letting you go. You
go your way with love, and Ill go mine. We no longer need to be connected. Further, I ask forgiveness of all those
I have hurt in this life or in any other life. And finally, I forgive myself for mistakes I have made and release the
negative karma that weighs me down.
When we
understand that
this is a very
participatory
universe, and
that everything
we do in it
changes it, and
that we are all
connected,
forgiveness and
karma come
much more
simply.
And when
forgiveness
comes, an
emotional weight
is removed.
When the weight is removed, the soul is unburdened. When the soul is unburdened, one may
find oneself singing a bit more often, laughing a bit louder, dancing a bit more freely.
So forgive.
Let go of your ego and forgive.
And then breathe. And smile. And play. And sing. And dream. And dance. And jump. And
laugh. And love.
And live.
156 Bradon Edge

Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and
lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the Earth.
William Faulkner
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

Henry David Thoreau
One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

Martin Luther King Jr.
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an
elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not
appreciate your neutrality.
Desmond Tutu

I am sure it is everyones experience, as it has been mine, that any discovery we make about
ourselves or the meaning of life is never, like a scientific discovery, a coming upon something
entirely new and unsuspected; it is rather, the coming to conscious recognition of something,
which we really knew all the time but, because we were unwilling to formulate it correctly, we
did not hitherto know we knew.
W.H. Auden, Markings

158 Bradon Edge

Nineteen: Unplug
Be un-programmed. Be unconditioned awareness. Just be yourself. Thats how you have come
into the world, and thats how the enlightened person leaves the world. The aware individual
lives in the world at peace, participatory; yet, he remains totally separate, fully aware, avoiding
hindrances and obstacles.
Kabir, a poet and Saint revered by Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs, wrote in one of his poems, I
will give back the soul that was given to me at the time of my birth as pure, as clean, as it was
given to me. I will give it back that way when I die.
The whole world was there to pollute his soul, but he has remained watchful, and as a result, he
is unpolluted, his awareness is unpolluted. That is epic.

I was once a huge
television
watcher. LOST was
my shit. (A polar
bear on a tropical
island!? Tell me
more!) I had, had,
had to know which
of the humans
on Battlestar
Gallactica were
actually Cylons. I
used to love tuning
into Deadwood and
hear Swearengen
say cocksucker
ten times an
episode. However,
I no longer
subscribe to cable
television. And I do
not miss it. I simply
no longer find
television satisfying.
I have removed
that distraction and
replaced it with rich
books, thoughtful
conversations,
renewing walks,
and refreshingly
authentic
experiences.
I removed that
hindrance to my
being because I
learned to easily
160 Bradon Edge

recognize propagandascripted or unscripted mind pollutionfor what it is. Americans
plugged into the Matrix are programmed to believe that they have correct informationthe
truthprovided by a varied and fair and balanced media.
Regarding truth, Aurelius Augustinus, a Latin philosopher and theologian, said during the
height of the Roman Empire: The truth is like a lion. You dont have to defend it. Let it loose.
It will defend itself.
In the spirit of Augustinus, here is the truth: nearly the ENTIRE media1500 newspapers,
1100 magazines, 9000 radio stations, 1500 TV stations, 2400 publishersis owned by three
mega-media companies owned and run exclusively by Washington D.C. and corporate
advertising executives. The talking heads on MSNBC, FOX, CNN, et cetera, all receive their
marching ordersstructured to divide the populousfrom the same people. They are all told
what they will tell you, what they will not tell you, the narrative and slant behind each story, and,
yes, like it or not, whether you want to believe it or not, they tell you your opinion.
Havent you noticed that the news in no longer actually news? It is opinion pretending to be
factual news. You most likely wont feel that war defiles humanity with illogical notions of
peace through violence because you are taught by some bullshit guy on the television that this

is what America or whatever country and its pretend bordersneeds. You most likely wont
realize that war destroys logic in the killing of innocent civiliansknown as collateral
damagefor peace. You may not realize that fear is used via the media to sell war and control
rational sentiments against injustice.
Perhaps you wont know that war mutilates the soldiers mentally and physically or that war
destroys the psychology of humanity by converting them to savage mindless beasts accepting
blood. The more you watch, the more you think the way the corporate-run government wants
you to think. And the corporate-run government, utilizing the corporate-run media, wants you
to think war is necessary because they profit off of it. The rich profit off of war; the poor die
because of it. (Please understand: war is only one examplethere are endless others.)
They are winning the battle for your minds by

utilizing every aspect of media and social
mediaFacebook, Twitter, et ceteraas their
propaganda tools, and most of you are not
offering any resistance. The doublespeak that
George Orwell wrote about in his novel 1984 is
playing out on the world stage today: War is
Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.
Television forms the attitudes of the zombie

watchers instead of allowing them to form their
own opinions. Television watchers are nearly
devoid of thought. The talking heads on
television are making up their mind for them,
and most people do not recognize that. Worse,
people are so deeply conditioned to accept,
crave, and need their television that they wont
dare question it.
I used to be a political junkie, but I now easily

see through the deep mountains of bullshit. I
am far better in my life without the bullshit the
media vomits in its 24-hour news cycle.
162 Bradon Edge

Malcolm X said, "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are
being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."
I unequivocally accept that statement as a part of my truth.
Study something instead. Learn everything the mainstream media doesn't want you to know.
Read a bookpreferably something purposeful and thought provoking.

Free your mind. Log out and turn off the television. Better yet well, see below.
164 Bradon Edge

Twenty: Stop Pretending You Dont Have A Choice
One day quite some time ago, Nigel Marsh spoke words that changed my life. These are those
words: There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet,
screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to
buy things they dont need to impress people they dont like. I reflexively internalized the
message found within the words and immediately started to reflect on every aspect of how I
was living my life.
We are not machines. Our natural genetic design does not well tolerate one-to-two hours of
travel per day, eight-to-twelve hours of slave labor five-to-six days per week for whatever

monetary compensation on five-to-six hours of sleep in a system built on the principle of
penalty and a life under judgmental surveillance. Like it or not, for now, we are human.
Stress, harassment, constant financial worries, fear and sense of inadequacy destroys the health
of any human. So why is it we accept and tolerate a system that demands that we erase our
needs, and in effect, commit a slow, joyless suicide for someone else's profit?
We have a choice regarding everything everything. We need to stop pretending we don't.
We can choose how we want to live our lives, how we want to spend each day choice is a
simple, yet powerful realization! Every time we eat or drink, were either feeding disease or
preventing it. We have a choice. We can choose to eat fresh, organic fruits, vegetables, nuts and
grains, or we can choose otherwise.
166 Bradon Edge


We can choose to listen to uplifting, joyful, harmonic music. (Why would we choose to
celebrate and support music that degrades women, encourages materialism, promotes and
glamorizes violence, and inspires negative behavior from our youth instead of something
beautiful?) We can choose to absorb positive music: we will feel the difference in our soul.
We can choose to supplement our nutrition with vitamins and minerals. We can choose to take
Vitamin D3, colloidal silver and the Turmeric super spice. We can choose to ingest pure
Himalayan salt as well as seaweed. Remember, we have choices: and proper nutrition is a
choice.
We can choose to
get eight hours of
sleep each night;
and we can
choose to drink
fresh, fluoride-
free, clean water.
We can choose to
talk to our bodies:
they have
intelligence.
We can choose to
exercise. Walk.
Lift weights.
Practice yoga.
Swim. Backpack
across the country.
We can choose to
meditate.
Through
meditation, we
choose to forget
hypocrisy, mind
control, and
divisiveness. The man of meditation becomes the man of understanding because his energy
accumulates. He is not wasting it. He is not interested in trivia; he does not put any energy at all
into petty things.
168 Bradon Edge


I dont know if hemp is going to save the world,
but Ill tell you this: its the only thing that can. Jack Herer
LEGALIZE HEMP
Hemp makes more than 50,000

products including food, shelter,
clothing and medicine.
The U.S. Government refuses to legalize hemp claiming that, it will confuse
law enforcement officials and send a wrong message to children. Hemp is
not marijuana (which should also be recreationally and medicinally legal)
and contains not THC. A person could smoke a hemp joint the size of a
telephone pole and not get high. Hemp is, however, our planets most
valuable natural resource that is environmentally safe and biodegradable. I
can serve as our sole source for fiber, fuel, paper, plastic, fiberboard and
more. Hemp fuel can provide all the worlds energy needs, eliminating the
global dependency on fossil fuels. We would never need to cut down another
tree. If hemp were legalized we could say goodbye to recycling, pollution, acid
rain, global warming and deforestation.
Before the Civil War, hemp was the nations second largest cash crop. Today,
planning one hemp plant can get you imprisoned for twenty years.
170 Bradon Edge


Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.
How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are
having at the moment.
Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

172 Bradon Edge

Love each other dearly always. There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love
one another.
Victor Hugo

...and when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover
of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship
and intimacy and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment...
Plato, The Symposium

174 Bradon Edge

Twenty-one: Love Unconditionally

Love is such a basic need; it is exactly the food for the soul. The body needs food and the soul
also needs food. The body lives on material food, the soul lives on spiritual food. Love is
spiritual food, spiritual nourishment.
A profound and unselfish love is not common on this Earth, so try, try, try, try, try to find love
for everyone.
Dont give love.


Be love.
Just love. Love is the only way to fix whatever ails this world.
Think and talk about everything you love. As man has created all negative things, think before
you speak. Use positive words such as fabulous, joy, brilliant, passion. Understand that you have a
great effect on those around you, a huge influence; your aura and energy undeniably affects
others. It doesn't matter if you are a wild horse living on an isolated, people-free island or a
human living in a concrete jungle: love.
176 Bradon Edge

In Darwins Descent of Man, survival of the fittest was mentioned five times. Love was
mentioned ninety-five times. Sympathy and compassion are the strongest instincts of human
nature. We are hard-wired at the primordial level for compassionate response to the troubles of
others. The people who popularized Darwin ignored that part.
Offer love. Offer compassion.


The best people all have some kind of scar.
Kiera Cass, The One

178 Bradon Edge

Twenty-two: The Six Questions
I love reading lists of things to do before one dies, but after reading several of these lists, Ive
realized that each list can only be an intimately personal thing. It can only apply to the writer of
the list and not to all human beings in general. No such list can do that. And think about this: if
youre trying to follow a list of things to do before you die trying to check things off the list,
just to say youve done it whats the point, really? To be able to tell people youve done it?
To follow the life prescription of some writer?
I wont try to tell you what to do before you die but I will suggest some questions to figure
out how to live right now. Each and every day.
Because you never know how much time you have left, and trying to cram a list of things into
that unknown time can be futile, instead, live every day to the fullest. Get the most out of life.

1.Who do I love, and what am I doing about it?
When someone dies you realize that you never know how much time you have with the people
you love. They can go at any timeas can you. And so you must make the most of this time.
If you arent spending time with the people you love, change that. If you are holding a grudge
against a family member, let it go and reconcile. If youve done something to hurt a loved one,
ask for forgiveness. Drop the pride and make up. If you havent seen someone in awhile, call
them now to set up a date.
2. Am I pursuing my dream or is fear stopping me?
What have you always wanted to do? Maybe something you dreamed of as a child but have
given up as unrealistic? Maybe something you still want to do but are afraid of failing? What
fears are stopping you? And what would be the worst that could happen if you overcame those
fears and pursued your dream?
180 Bradon Edge

3. Am I doing something that matters?
Theres a difference between doing work and doing work that really matters. Much of the time,
we use up the few days we have on this Earth with busy-work, stuff that doesnt make much
difference and thats sadly a waste of our lives.
Ask yourself this: Will this matter in five years? I think this is a great question. It helps you
distinguish between trivial busy-work that will take up all of your time but not matter in a few
years and tasks and projects and goals with high impact that will make a difference in your life
and in the lives of others.
4. What am I doing to help others?
Kind of ironically, you get the most out of life not just by taking what you can for yourself, but
by giving to others. What have you done lately to help people out? Have you been kind to
people? Have you been compassionate? Have you been there for anyone? Listened?
Volunteered for those in need? If youre not doing anything to help others, this is a good time

to figure out one thing you can do for someone and put it into action. Ask this question on a
regular basis and youll make kindness a habit.
5. Am I as good a person as I want to be?
I ask this of myself all the time. Sometimes, when Im impatient or selfish or less-than-helpful,
I think back on what Ive said and done and realize that I could have done better. Instead of
beating myself up about it, I endeavor to try harder, to remember to allow my better angels to
guide me, to rise above the trivialities of life to a higher plane.
Its not easy to be a good person, at least not all of the time. Its easier to be selfish, without
thinking about itor about others. But is that how you want to be remembered? Is that how
you want to live your life? Give it some thought and act accordingly.
182 Bradon Edge

6. What am I doing to live life with passion, health and energy?
You can do all the right things and yet live a life thats dull and sluggish. If you let your health
go, you will have little energy and you will waste the minutes you have left on illness. Instead,
learn to live a healthy life with good foods and exercise. This will lead to more energy in your
life. And then direct that energy into something youre passionate about.

Dont wait. Dont wait. Dont wait. Dont wait. Dont wait. Dont wait. Dont wait. Dont wait.
184 Bradon Edge

Hold fast to dreams,

For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly. Langston Hughes

In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of

loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint or obligation.
Simone de Beauvoir
186 Bradon Edge

Twenty-three: Be The Person Your Dog Thinks You Are
Consider The Book Of Bo a collection of thoughts and musings presented not as absolute fact
but as a working conclusiona working conclusion that will continue to be expanded and
refined as more personal truth is accumulated.
If you take nothing else from the reading of this book, I ask you to at least take a moment to
take a step back from your current life. Just take a moment. Take a deep breath. Take one
honest moment and connect with yourself and think about what you truly want ... right here ...
right now.
Is the life you are currently living a life that snuggles up warmly with your soul? If it does not,
what are you doing? Does the life that you are living bring you joy? If it does not, what are you
doing?

We exist as
conscious beings
inhabiting physical
human bodies for
a finite period of
time, our human
lifetime ... and if
we are not happy,
what are we
doing?
One of the most

insidious tactics of
evil on planet
Earth is to numb
the mind and thus
prevent people
from reaching a
state of spiritual
awakening, and as
a logical extension,
true happiness.
This mind-
numbing assault is
accomplished via
the promotion of
alcohol and drugs,
adding fluoride
chemicals to the
water supply,
pushing
psychiatric
medications and
forced
vaccinations on
children and adults,
assaulting the
clarity of the mind
188 Bradon Edge

through corporate music and television programming, flooding our food supply with GMOs,
brainwashing youth via the educational systems of the establishment, et cetera.
Recognize these happenings, muster the strength to separate yourself from it, rise above it, and
surround yourself with love. Happiness will certainly follow.
At the end of our life, our questions are simple:
Did I live fully? Did I love well?
That's it.
So what are you going to do?


You can surround yourself with Emotional Vampires. You can invest in religion and its rigidity
and divisiveness. You can choose to remain negative. You can sit on the couch and turn on the
television. You can follow your politician of choice and buy into everything he or she says. You
can watch people suffer and do nothing. You can go to McDonalds and eat their crap. You can
use fear and intimidation to control others. You can play violent video games. You can read
your celebrity magazines. You can turn a blind eye to war. You can continue to compare and
judge. You can continue to let your ego make your decisions for you. You can act with
selfishness and greed. You can continue being a shit-buying consumer. You can hold
expectations over others. You can allow your being to absorb negativity and negatively
influence others. You can serve and humiliate others to make yourself feel special. You can live
with arrogance and pride. You can try, try, try to fit in and bury the real you. You can be
hypocritical. You can continue to fear death and whatever else you have been told to fear. You
can swallow whatever the mainstream media feeds you. You can take yourself seriously. You
can hold grudges. You can hate.
Or you can carry the fire.
You can be the person your dog thinks you are.
You can choose LOVE.
J.D. Salinger ended The Catcher In The Rye with this line: Dont ever tell anybody anything. If
you do, you start missing everybody.
And when you start missing everybody, you realize how much love you have given and how
much love you have already received in this lifetime.
Decide to be a part of the human dialogue of love. It asks a lot. But its the only thing
worthwhile.
The planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more
peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form. It needs
people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to
make the world habitable and humane. And these needs have little to do with success as our
culture has defined it.
Tyler Durden: What do you want? Wanna go back to the shit job, fuckin condo world,
watching sitcoms? Fuck you. I wont do it.
190 Bradon Edge

We live in the ambiguity of doubt and partial truths. We are surrounded by the hindrance of
belief and false knowledge. Therefore, all important decisions are made on the basis
of insufficient data, and as a result, it may be difficult to know what to do.
If I may make a humble suggestion: find it in your heart to care deeply for somebody else.
You will have then succeeded. Caring about others, running the risk of feeeeeeeeeeeeeeling, and
leaving a positive impact on people brings happiness. And happinessnothing, nothing,
nothing else brings success.
One of the best ways to achieve great love is to recognize the societal construct for what it is
and expand the mind through spiritual practice: meditation, prayer, dedication to a worthy
cause, et cetera. Expanding awareness, knowledge, wisdom and humility are all achievements of
love in the universe.

Rumi, a 13th-century mystic once said, "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the
world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."
You are born and then you die, but in between you can do anything you want. It's society that
creates limiting rules for us, but we can break free of those. And that is exactly where we are
192 Bradon Edge

right now, as a wholeno one is left out: we are trying to break free, seeking that something
more that is juuuuust out of reach.
Every day we experience a false reality based on a thin veneer of lies and illusions. Every day
we walk in a world where greed is our God and wisdom is sin, where division is key and unity is
fantasy, where the financial- and ego-driven cleverness of the mind is praised, rather than the
intelligence of the heart. Seeking our truth, we overcome all of that. Returning to and
embracing the basics of living our best lives, we overcome all of that. Choosing love, we
overcome all of that.

I was told that when I grew up I could be anything I wanted: a businessman, a policeman, an
astronaut, a doctor, even President of the United States.
Wow.
But, no. Thanks.
I always wanted to be Spider-Man or the avenging cowboy herothat lone voice in the literal
or figurative wilderness, fighting corruption and evil wherever I found it while standing for
freedom, truth, justice and love.
In my heart of hearts, while I navigate the world that was given to me with varying degrees of
success, I still track the remnants of that dream wherever I go on my unassuming ride into the
setting sun.
194 Bradon Edge


ALSO BY BRADON EDGE
Boy, Abandoned
Beautiful
Moondance Beach
The Earth Is Flat?
Homosexuality and the Catholic Church
Maddy Loves Brad: The Musical

196 Bradon Edge


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bradon craves thunderstorms, crashing waves, bluesy passion, laughable moments when people
fall but aren't injured, warm and sunny days, all-night diners, illuminating discoveries, wood
burning stoves and covered porches, wisdom, Oscar-worthy and ridiculously dumb movies,
long highways, dolphins with which to swim, late nights out, horse-back riding along the shore,
love, people who both curse and accept differences, the boogie, engrossing novels, sleeping
under the stars, roller coasters, Southeast Asia, teaching basketball, compassion, hand holding,
the sand between his toes and the wind in his hair, howling wolves, people who get choked up
when a dog dies in a movie, snorkeling, gothic castles and haunted houses, the seas,
opportunities to blast AC/DC, moments to act like a kid, sunsets, deep conversations, beach
bonfires, the perfect hooded sweatshirt, mornings to sleep in, the idea of superheroes, mud
baths, peace in his heart, dry wood crackling in an open fireplace, the moonlight, the hauntingly
dreamy feeling that songs like Willie Nelsons Stardust and Princes How Come You Dont Call Me
Anymore? provide, caves to explore by candlelight, natural hot springs, opportunities to give
back, worn blue jeans, a dog shelter at which he may find his new best friend, and among other
things, old friendships to nurture and new friendships to earn.
198 Bradon Edge


CONTACT
BradonEdge@yandex.com

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