1
It is the second day of 2017 and a clock is ticking in the living room. You woke up at 6AM without an alarm to get your day started with a cup of hot water, a few sun salutations, meditation and gratitude. Then you went downstairs, opened laptop, googled “online writing app” and based on the word FREE in the description, decided within about 15 seconds that Calmly Writer is the way to go. And here you are, writing your book. The world is now ready for your message and you have no excuses left.
You love this. All of this. Starting early and having a morning routine. Doing all that spiritual shit that you used to doubt. You’ve discovered the secret and that is to love what you do, whatever that is. The flow doesn’t just come visit on it’s own anymore than inspiration, success or happiness. They have better things to do. You have to go to them. And let them enter when they do come. The world doesn’t wait for us or owe us anything.
2
You have a rough idea for a layout for this book to provide some kind of structure. Then again, you don’t want too much structure because you always want to let art breathe. Give it wings and one day it might fly away into the night. Or it might not. But if you keep it in a cage and clip its wings, the poor thing will suffocate and die premature death into the clutches of obscurity.
This concept of “Truthority” came to you many years ago but it is not clear exactly when. You were discussing things online with one of your mentors (Prad) and reading Krishnamurti around the those times. He famously taught to not take authority as the truth but truth as the authority. So you combined the two and since Prad encouraged the brilliance of this new word you have concocted, he deserves equal credit for its inception.
3
You feel some small pride somewhere in your body for having the ability to express yourself quite well with writing. You have no idea if that makes you a good writer or if it will impress anyone but you know that the act of writing itself has always made YOU feel good. You certainly have a few tricks up your sleeve that you have learned along the way. There is surely room for improvement and evolution, as there always is. The most important thing however is that you are expressing your most deepest self or at least attempting to do so. You don’t always know if you will get there on any given day but you just go for it. Feel that connection with the words and what you are saying. You have learned this language and you know that it can be a very powerful tool and weapon.
Words can change the world. Maybe yours won’t but you know that they CAN. But it takes courage to put it all on the line. You get another tiny jolt of pride when you think about this courage thing and how you are some kind of modern warrior. As a man brought up in western society (or who knows, maybe it’s a human thing), you have been programmed to love war and these ideals of a courageous soldier running to battle to fight for freedom. Braveheart!
4
So besides being a book about your own personal story which you will weave in and out of throughout the book, you want to share your thoughts about the topics which, you feel, are the most crucial to be aware of, understand, apply and master. They are as follows:
• Health (diet, exercise, happiness)
• Wealth (money, work, service)
• Relationships (friends, family, community)
• Education (science, philosophy, psychology)
• Art (creativity, play, inspiration)
• Spirituality (love, accept, surrender)
These are all big topics and subjects no doubt, which cause great controversy and confusion among experts, armchair philosophers and the general public (especially the latter). You admit that you are not an expert in the sense that you have some certifications or credentials to prove your expertise. But you also think that you know something the experts don’t. Because of your lack of expertise, you can zoom out and see the big picture. And because of your direct experiences in the real world (not just in a lab or online debate), you kind of know what works and what doesn’t.
Now you know, this is all just anecdotal which you know doesn’t qualify for real science. But you can point people in that direction if they want to go there. That is your role in this. You are a messenger. You are appealing to reason which is the foundation everything we take for granted in life (including science). But you are also appealing to something deeper, something that is beyond reason. Call it the heart or consciousness or god or whatever. And it’s possible that all that higher, divine stuff (which some people call religion) is all still reason, otherwise we wouldn’t even comprehend it.
There will by times when you might seem unreasonable and not be 100% correct in everything you say. That is the disclaimer you provide to your readers. You want people to discuss this stuff more but also to stay within the limits of reason. And most importantly, to practice what you preach. Knowledge without action is just gossip. You are sick of gossip. It has no space left to rent in this town.
So that’s it. You hope you have engaged your reader enough that they will continue and if not, you wish them well and muster out some compassion for those who feel that this is not the place for them.