Voluntary Architectural Simplicity - Julio Bermúdez

VAS Mindfulness. In light of recent international & national events, the economic struggle, war, the planet’s health, our health; our lives have received a wake up call. It is time that we recognize life beyond our circle of comfort. It is impossible to remain neutral when events of this magnitude affect our world, our home because now the effects of our neutrality are being felt world wide and transformed into irresponsibility and ignorance. It’s time to wake up. A resolve is necessary.

Manifesto - An act of conscious awareness. The pedagogy for learning through consciousness. Reality consists of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human consciousness and not anything independent of human consciousness. The process of human consciousness through perceiving, understanding and retaining creates an experience. The experience of reality through human consciousness is the source of all knowledge. The tools for learning in reality are in our possession.

VAS Mindfulness. Concept. The metaversity is creating a space for community and personal interaction and growth. It is a place for secular and spiritual learning – learning about the world, the community, yourself and how to strengthen the two into something meaningful – one with the other. Using the principles of VAS for living and architecture, the metaversity is about living a mindful life of self, community and gestures (how to act upon the realizations of the two together).

VAS and the Tao Metaversity Manifesto. As a society, we have become so obsessed with an understanding of the objects around us that we have become socially incompatible and strangers to ourselves. And while we continue to progress with scientific breakthroughs and technological advances, our social structures are failing and our self identity has become distorted. We have become so encapsulated with our own obsessions and greed that we have isolated ourselves from the world around us. And in the process we are beginning to express an incapacity to interact and communicate with our fellow human beings affectively. And what’s worse, we have no understanding of who we are as individuals. We impulsively collect and consume the materiality around us attempting in a very real sense to buy our own happiness. We identify ourselves by what we do (such as architect, stay-at-home mom, and salesman) or what we possess (money, cars, McMansions) and by so doing, fall short of sincere self enlightenment. If we continue down this slippery slope, we will inevitably experience social isolation and the complete destruction of the soul of man. This cannot happen.

Concept. Each of us has our own distinct path throughout our life. We all experience and live our lives in different ways and through different circumstances. Every interaction, every mishap, every occurrence and choice shapes us into what we are.