The first step for you is to sharpen your intellect and not buy anything that is presented without question. To wake yourself up, skeptical thinking and critical questioning are extremely important. Otherwise, you are completely helpless. You are just being fed through an intravenous system.

So, let us not be in the hospital! Let us be full, living persons who could think critically, work it out, and understand, and question anything we do not understand. Wear a mask. Don't wear a mask. Get a vaccine. Don't get a vaccine. Send my kids to school. Don't send my kids to school. Wake up, people! The media industrial complex will not help you answer these questions.

Like Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, my father encouraged me to question everything. I'm so grateful for that. However, it's not an easy way to live. You have to do research. Sometimes you have to read difficult scientific papers with jargon that sounds like aliens penned it. And, yes, sometimes you have actually to talk to people outside your cozy cocoon. People who may think differently than you do and who will disagree with you.

Sacre bleu! Being curious and a bit skeptical tends to annoy your family and friends. Generally, you will not be invited to many cocktail parties (on the left or the right of the political spectrum). The establishment might even execute you (literally or metaphorically). Like they did Socrates. It's easier to just "plug in" the television each night and get your daily infusion of whatever they feed you that evening. That is not wisdom. That's called being a "zombie".

Another part of being a zombie is losing your connection with yourself, including – and maybe even especially – your sense of gentleness and kindness for yourself and your well-being. I've put together this collection of essays in which I share some of my learning along with some of the wisdom and practices that have helped me avoid zombie-hood.