Minimalist Art by FUdo. I am FUdo the upright sage.

 

Plato

I choose to bask in the sunlight of reality and discover "self" rather then impose my "will" on others. In the "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato, he describes a system of education for the masses. For instance, imagine being chained to a seat, and the masters of the educational system begin to indoctrinate you with their views of reality. (The original matrix) Imagine a horse being describe to you with a shadow puppet. The shadow puppet does not do a real horse justice. Matter of fact, a modern picture of a horse or any type of animal does not capture the essence of the beast. For example, a picture of a squirrel does does capture their frantic energy scurrying about trying to find food or playing with friends. Basically the education system does not teach the individual the reality of our existence.
One day, your chains are broken and you are free to roam around the "cave." You see a simple device that is used to educate the people. A torch is lite and the instructor holds imagines of animals in front of the fire and projects the image on the cave wall for the people to learn, "shadow puppet." Moreover, behind the educational device, that imparts faulty knowledge, you see a very bright light down at the end of the cave. You follow the light and discover it leads to outside and real sunlight not torch light. First, you are amazed about the the sunlight which blinds you temporarily, then imagine you the shock of seeing a real horse running around versus the image of the "shadow puppet" you are told is a horse?
At this point in the "Allegory of the Cave" you are given a choice: 1) To descend back into the cave and educate you the people to the truth about our reality, for some it would be pointless to tell them the truth about a real horse when they have been conditioned to believe the image of the "shadow puppet." Or, 2) you can continue your path of self enlightenment and discover your personal relationship with our reality.
I have tried to do both, but now I am just going to bask under the sunlight and improve self, but stay accessible to those that leave the cave looking for information. For instance, I have an online school that supplements home schooling that teaches liberal arts and a variety of skills to help students achieve academic success, but I am not actively seeking students.
An example of a person that bask under the sun and goes into the "Cave" to teach would be a professor, not a teacher. A professor has earned the ability to conduct personal research "basking under the sun" and taking the information they have discovered and try to teach it to the individuals in the "cave." However, the information they teach to the people are "shadow puppets." The professor teaches semi-enlightened people "teachers" to operate the machinery to educate the people.
I refuse to operate the machinery or develop the machinery for mass indoctrinating the people for control. The people that operate the machinery are known as "Guardians" in the republic. The guardians in the republic have to have certain qualities. The major quality for Plato is the attribute of being Just.
Anyway, I am FUdo, the upright sage! I am going to travel the world one day and get out of California. I have seen the world as a storm trooper for the United States, I know want to see the world as a sage.

Water

Were Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) crops created because of the declining levels of potable water for the production of healthy food for the world population? The less water needed to grow a staple crop the more water saved to feed the people in cities in the long run. Kind of like a business venture cutting the cost to develop a product to maximize profits.
I threw away a lot of food today that had spoiled, like some tomatoes, avocados, plums, a half a head of lettuce and some watermelon. I thought to myself such a waste of food and started to remember the commercials of starving children in Africa from the eighties. How many people are wasting food in the United States? I probably threw some GMO food in the garbage.
According to a report by USA today, the natural water tables underground across the world are being depleted faster than they are resupplied. For instance, in Punjab India, farmers are unable to control their own destiny due to limited water supplies and committing suicide. Moreover, I\in Southwest Kansas communities are tearing themselves apart fighting over water rights to produce edible food for the cities in the United States.
In addition, the process of fracking in the United States to produce oil domestically in order to minimize U.S. dependency on foreign oil is causing havoc on our domestic water supply. The world is running out of fresh water to grow nutritious food for humanity.
Will a world government be needed in order to control water supplies around the globe in order to produce food for cities or will the need to produce crops to feed cities result in the further exploitation of third world resources.
For instance, take the product Almond milk produced in California and other sections of the agriculture infrastructure of the United States. Almond milk cuts the cost of the production of a milk product by downsizing the reliance on cows ( that use a massive amount of water to feed [the production of grain] and quench the thirst of cows) and using a plant to produce a healthy alternative to cow milk or is it?
Today, I look at the desire of the United States and China to compete over the natural resources of Africa. Special forces soldiers have already been killed in the region: https://abcnews.go.com/.../us-soldiers-killed.../story... To finish my rant. Something is going to have to give in order to feed humanity. I see a global totalitarian government being generated in order to control the actions of the people and determine the use of natural resources globally just to feed the people.

Buddhism

impermanence does not mean reality does not exist. In the moment of NOW, If I touch a wall, my hand can not pass through it. It is foolishness to believe that a hand can pass threw a wall. However, since the quality of the wall is made of a substance that is degrading we can say that wall does not exist because it will be gone over time. The wall is not permanent neither is my hand trying to push threw the wall. Time is the anti-thesis to materialism. There is the real world which we see everyday that takes on the quality of permanence, and people will tell you this an illusion. It is an illusion because all things come to an end in the material world. Thus we look to a substance that is not of the material but of the spiritual. God is considered the permanent substance of the spiritual world. We seek God like a moth in the darkness seeks light. The God consciousness crashes into us like a wave upon a cliff. Sooner or later the wave smashing against the cliff will erode the cliff into a pile of sand. The God consciousness will erode our ego and force us to grasp the eternal substance. Our ID desires the same as the God consciousness freedom to exist, to be the I with you. There is no need to fight God consciousness. One aspect of God consciousness is LOVE. Your love for another reflects your love for your self and together there is harmony within a community. Don't be a cliff with a hard heart renounces the God consciousness, be like a vase and capture the God consciousness and reflect it for the world to see like a light house upon a cliff saving the life of others so they don't crash into darkness.