working for Amazon I ends justify means?

with my current difficult situation*, i could lie/justify to myself that i’m helping the environment by working at Amazon (a company who really does try to do what they can; what they know is right, including things that really are right/needed, like financing/supporting nature-based solutions (see pages 18 & 19), which of course has to include some protecting of the actual Amazon rainforest!), but mostly what i’m doing in my delivery of packages is supporting the continuation of excessive consumption of an ill, ecologically imbalanced, misguided society/culture 😔, god knows 🙏

*like the example of “stilldigenous” that starts with "Indigenous people (if still alive, sadly) usually have a great track record..."

In-/stilldigenous, identity politics, interests, in protection of nature? I Derrick Jensen

Derrick Jensen (and his primary contribution really, can be seen to) reinforce the need for people to help conserve/protect nature (YouTube video) (especially given the imbalance in protection of various human (identity) interests over non-human life, or biodiversity interests (as Lierre Keith has also expressed well... George Wuerthner too (@ 42:15))

Who is looking out for nature? And it's not as if nature has to be looked out for, but when we humans are knowingly or not contributing to its destruction at an excessive/imbalanced, large/industrial scale, then.. shouldn't we also be preventing such destructive human activity?.

~ Columbus..indigenous people's day (and sometimes indigenous may still not be having a way of life that is in good balance, harmony with nature as we expect of them or us.. for examples the news article category, "May be “Indigenous,” “Traditional,” “native,” “tribal,” etc. oppressed we’re to support, but beyond label or identity, actually unsustainable, destructive, disappointing expectations," or Derrick's words from the video above, or George Wuerthener's on-point discussions)

Growing Your Own Food (0-10 scoring)

notes:

• the main consideration may be as expressed in 7, that if there was greater cooperation from the rest of (the dominant) society, like setting up space for it, really incentivizing it, etc., then this would be much easier for people to score higher
• be flexible when thinking of the ideas corresponding to a score, as sometimes there may be good ideas that can be implied they are also being done in other/higher scores, or ideas can be thought of as more insights in themselves than exact correspondence to a score.
• for more in-depth context, see meaning of "self-sufficient way of life" (or contrarily, the virus-/pest-like, "city")
• of course not everybody in the society has to be involved in food growing, as exchange of all our various contributions (in direct trade or more abstract "money") is a nearly inherent aspect of how society functions

 

and another simple way to think about it

0 not at all, i buy food with money i earn 😎

1 uh, yeah, i have a container pot or two (like chillie, aloe vera, herbs, or other pop gardening plants)

2 a little bit like a side hobby, but i could spend more time/effort on it

3 i make it a hobby, have a decent garden given my busy schedule

4 i’m really into gardening, and grow quite a lot (at least ~25%) of my own food

5 i’m really into these needed local/slow food movements, have a plot at the neighborhood garden, etc.

6 5, and additionally i grow over half of my own food! and am actually active in those movements!

7 i grow a lot of my own food (nearly 75%), but given a more forward-thinking society, would be a 9 at least

8 i grow most of my own food (~75%!), and otherwise buy some things from the most responsible, ecological, and ethical markets

9 i am quite principled, grow almost all my own food, and otherwise trade with my (yogic) local neighbors totally independent of the industrial civilization / food system monster

10 i grow 100% of my own food, ecologically, improving the envt., save seed, aim to be a demonstration for others to learn, and even share some surplus! 🏆

3 ways to increase your awareness of (y)our impact on the shared environment/planet

and how (y)our way of life / everyday actions relates to its condition

because you (like many) are not really living with balance, within the confines of this planet:

disclaimer/warning: may be harder to accept with increased age, weakness, or other unfavorable conditions to make the needed changes

1) Browse through my YouTube channel and its relevant playlists (i.e. from (1) - (3)). If you want a quicker primer-like briefing, jump to the “Top 16”

The Ecology Center is great, but what are they thinking with all the renewable energy hype?

2) Learn about our dependency on artificial energy by watching (or reading) well-presented documentaries like “Planet of the Humans” or “Bright Green Lies.”  “Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It” is also a great book, and you may prefer to first preview it with my reflection/sampler from it.

3) Think you’re living green, doing your part for the environment? Great! to be positive, although it may not be as convenient (like “ignorance is bliss”) if it were a false confidence, right? There’s those Carbon or ecological footprint tests you can do, but also it seems like this book (though I’ve not read it yet), ”Stop Saving the Planet! An Environmentalist Manifesto” would serve as a good check/guide.

How to purify/elevate your consciousness/soul

note: simple appearance does not mean easy adherence

1. Be more conscious, have good thoughts and actions

2. ..Including paying attention to, surrounding yourself with those that are good, higher..

3. Do sincere prayers, mantras, and other uplifting austerities and services

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

No need of drugs or quick fixes

to be content, happy, peaceful

April 2026 update

There are various ways, but some that I’m familiar with or that work for me, include:

• Be good, from thoughts to actions, karma type, it will come back to you

• Be honest/truthful like “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

• Various sadhanas such as: dharma, yoga, meditation, pranayama (example), SVYASA/Dr. Nagendra’s techniques, chanting/devotion (like this, this), isha’s/Sadhguru’s Inner Engineering

Realization I'm currently in hell

After so many years of a blanking haze, engaged in reading elaborately arranged inks printed on highly-processed trees ("books"), and so many other human-centric socio-psychological processes that are deficient in its balance to and connection with the environment or Nature (like Sadhguru's "Dirty Logic" poem suggests), my eyes have only recently and gradually opened to the truth of our reality (even before this covid pandemic, and this nightmarish 2020 year for many), and as I realize such an imbalanced, environmentally destructive and unsustainable human-built environment,

(what DGR group refers to as "industrial civilization") I straightforwardly perceive I'm in hell - a hell that I can and am getting out of though.*  With Light, I now (more) clearly see so many wrong, imbalanced, adharmic, ignorant behaviors that support and are supported by that misguided force (of this human-built environment) (that I also refer to in the blog below, Mumford's and South Park's references).

Yet sometimes, upon reflection, at a deeper level, why am I / are we existing in this undesirable situation?  What is the good side of this, that perhaps we are needing to learn something, or feel the pain for our soul or conscience to avoid getting into in the future?.. It may vary from person to person, may be dynamiComplicated/reflexive like "Heisenberg's uncertainty principle," so can't say too much here, but in a basic sense, it can be known from outside or within, and it seems like chanting the gayatri mantra is one way to know it from within.

*(not to make "light" of it, but) yes, that was 1 sentence... but what's the (meaning of) sentence!

July '22 update:

examples of (unsustainably) burning plants, crops, or cutting trees for biofuel in such a manner contributing to hellish conditions?

(from Mongabay article)

How BLM and ALM has become the same thing now

"Black Lives Matters" (BLM) has now become the same as "All Lives Matters" (ALM) in our evolution of human consciousness to the extent the unique historical African-American slavery experience corresponds to "all's" current experience of slavery (albeit in a different form) to a*... less healthy/sane/desirable way of life we have been just taking for granted

*Lewis Mumford (and even the popular cartoon "South Park", Wal-Mart episode) explained it well in "Authoritarian and Democratic Technics" essay:

"The center of authority in this new system is no longer a visible personality, an all-powerful king: even in totalitarian dictatorships the center now lies in the system itself, invisible but omnipresent: all its human components, even the technical and managerial elite, even the sacred priesthood of science, who alone have access to the secret knowledge by means of which total control is now swiftly being effected, are themselves trapped by the very perfection of the organization they have invented…"

Note: Deep environmentalist, author Derrick Jensen made me aware of this brilliant essay, and there happens to be a interesting/surprising connection of his !earlier-than-george-floyd's-death 8:46 long youtube video "lack of pandemics"