So often our ego gets in the way of really being there for our fellow man when it counts; truly being our brother’s keeper. We’re often so concerned with being the one who’s right or being superior, that these concerns often lead to hiding information to get the upper hand or turning a blind eye, when we could use our skills to help someone in a meaningful way.

Now there’s nothing wrong with being your best, per se; but it’s when we intentionally do things to aggrandize our selves at the expense of others, that we should really take pause. If we really are so great, then we shouldn’t need to hide things and screw over others to let the world know this. Simply acting with great awareness and equanimity, drawing on our abilities and our intellect; this will be all that needs to be done.

Its easy to forget, in a competitive civilization such as ours, that ultimately we are in this together. If we all become better, then everyone enjoys the benefits!

Even though we compete with each other in so many ways, the goal of this competition is to encourage each of us to become better; well, at it’s best, that is what competition does. At its worst, competition encourages us to push our fellow man down to get the upper hand, to hide information, to plot and scheme for unfair advantages.

Sometimes, you’ve just got to take a break from your own idea of personal advancement, to express care and compassion. Ultimately, your true advancement is bolstered by being able to help others along the same lines, because it teaches you, makes you better and makes you more fulfilled.

Watched the clouds drifting away
Still the sun can’t warm my face
I know it was destined to go wrong
You were looking for the great escape
To chase your demons away

This song is one of the most beautiful that I have heard in quite a long time. The singer, Sharon den Adel, has sucha beautiful vocal range that blends quite masterfully with the instruments, it gives me chills whenever I hear it.
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And The Endless Crowds Of People
They Walk Upon This Stone
Where Will Their Memory Go
Where Did Their Minds Come From
And I Was Only A Child
When I First Looked In Your Eyes
And Saw Your Body Rise Over The Ocean

We Saw The Golden Boy Bleed Love
Onto The Sand Like Rain
While We Were Injecting Colours
Into Our Open Veins
And Deep Beneath The Water
The Dead Black Silence Crawled

Far Away Across The Ocean
The Golden Boy’s Beneath The Sea
The Golden Boy Swallowed By The Sea

And Love Is Sometimes Violent
And Violence Has No Constraint
And I Can See Inside You
Yes I Can Feel What You Think
And With This Knife Of Silver
I Will Release Your Soul
And Throw It Out Into The Ocean

Nine Million Miles In A Straight Line
In A Place Just Like This
In A Ship On The Water
Where No Dimensions Exist
My Hands Are Holding Your Picture
And The Image It Shifts
I Tear It Up And Scatter It Over The Ocean
The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed By The Sea

~swans

What is usually thought of as love
Is actually its opposite
The destruction of diversity
The antithesis of compassion

It is this idea that I must make you exactly like me
I must assimilate your mind, into my way of thinking
So that we may all be mere copies of one another
Without a single difference between us

Its all meaningless rote and ritual
Devoid of any fruitful existence
Stands between us, like a raging inferno
Burning anyone who gets too close to our boundaries

Are we really so different, at the core of our being?
Is not most of what we seek, one and the same?
But there is this mechanism in our conditioning
Often stifling our ability to extinguish the blaze

by Lacuna Coil

Answer me, it can’t be so hard
Cry to relieve what’s in your heart
Desolation, grief and agony

Trying to move
down in this grave
Trying to believe in every faith
As another bridge to clarity

Want to stay another way
(Want to stay another way)
Want to stay another way
(Want to stay another way)

Take another chance
to find a distant sanity
and turn your pain in truth
Take another chance
to fight a different enemy
and try to free it
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by The Cranberries

Another head hangs lowly,
Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence,
Who are we mistaken?

But you see, it’s not me, it’s not my family.
In your head, in your head they are fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are crying…

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What’s in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, dou, dou, dou, dou, dou…

Another mother’s breakin’,
Heart is taking over.
When the vi’lence causes silence,
We must be mistaken.

It’s the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.
In your head, in your head they’re still fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are dying…

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What’s in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, oh, oh,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, oh, ya, ya-a…

by Jarboe (mp3 sample)

I am talking to you
And you know that everything I have I give to you
But I still hide a secret and you’ll never touch me there
I’m going to the mountain with my knowledge
I’m going to the mountain
I’m going to the mountain with my knowledge
With my knowledge
And when the heavens crack and when my heart is yours
When walls are tumbling down, and gate will shatter
And light comes down and walks through the dead who rise
For the kingdom come and the holy one
We will ascend and take the hand of Gabriel
And then the sky opens up just for us

And I hear him speak
I hear your heart
I hear your heart
I am talking to you

And you know that everything I have, I give to you
But I still hide a secret and you’ll never touch me there
I’m going to the mountain with my knowledge
I’m going to the mountain
I’m going to the mountain with my knowledge
With my knowledge
And when the heavens crack and when my heart is yours
When walls are tumbling down, the gate will shatter
And light comes down and walks through the dead who rise
For the kingdom come and the holy one
We will ascend and take the hand of Gabriel
And then the sky opens up just for us

And I hear him speak
I hear your heart
I hear your heart

by Jarboe

I am she whom the winds fear
I am she who brings the fire
I am she the lightning and the thunder
I am this shower of life
I am she; the mouth of flames
Into the light, I fall grace
I am she whom the winds fear
I am she who brings the fire
I am she the lightning and thunder
This shower… Life
I am she: the mouth of flames
Into the light I travel
I travel…

Grace

I am she whom the winds fear
I am she who brings the fire
I am she the lightning and thunder
I am this shower of life
Into the light I fall into grace
Into the light I fall into the mouth of flames

Every day is exactly the same…. There is no love here and there is no pain…. Every day is exactly the same…

I remember when my life was like this. No love… No pain… But now that is all over.

When we live for today… experience today’s pain and/or pleasure… then every day will be its own miracle.

But oh so many of us remain trapped in this sort of reality.

I believe I can see the future
Cause I repeat the same routine
I think I used to have a purpose
But then again
That might have been a dream
I think I used to have a voice
Now I never make a sound
I just do what I’ve been told
I really don’t want them to come around

Oh, no

Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same

I can feel their eyes are watching
In case I lose myself again
Sometimes I think I’m happy here
Sometimes, yet I still pretend
I can’t remember how this got started
But I can tell you exactly how it will end

I’m writing on a little piece of paper
I’m hoping someday you might find
Well I’ll hide it behind something
They won’t look behind
I’m still inside here
A little bit comes bleeding through
I wish this could have been any other way
But I just don’t know, I don’t know what else I can do

I believe I can see the future
Cause I repeat the same routine
I think I used to have a purpose
But then again
That might have been a dream
I think I used to have a voice
Now I never make a sound
I just do what I’ve been told
I really don’t want them to come around

Oh, no

Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same

I can feel their eyes are watching
In case I lose myself again
Sometimes I think I’m happy here
Sometimes, yet I still pretend
I can’t remember how this got started
But I can tell you exactly how it will end

I’m writing on a little piece of paper
I’m hoping someday you might find
Well I’ll hide it behind something
They won’t look behind
I’m still inside here
A little bit comes bleeding through
I wish this could have been any other way
But I just don’t know, I don’t know what else I can do

And nothing is written in the book, reality is made by you
And every lie that you pursue, eventually turns true
And I was told that your eyes would shine, a light up into space
And infinity would then consume this ordinary place
You know nothing, you know nothing at all
How could you know, you’ll never know anything at all
You’ll never know, you’ll never know anything at all
You know nothing, you know nothing at all
I saw you standing in the fire, beneath a crimson moon
The ocean whispered on the sore, and echoed in the ruins
Inside your body is a clear blue light, and time was made from this
Your shadows swallow everything it feels. You punish us with bliss
You know nothing, you know nothing at all
How could you know, you’ll never know anything at all
You’ll never know, you’ll never know anything at all
You know nothing, you know nothing at all

— swans – White Light from the Mouth of ∞