Some 'Wonder'ful Wisdom from Thich Nhat Hanh

All the wonders of life are already here. They’re calling you. If you can listen to them, you will be able to stop running. What you need, what we all need, is silence. Stop the noise in your mind in order for the wondrous sounds of life to be heard. Then you can begin to live your life authentically and deeply. https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/42431497-silence-the-power-of-quiet-in-a-world-full-of-noise

Are you there for the wonders of this life or are you stuck in one of those seemingly endless traffic roundabouts in your mind?  I don't know about you but I seem to keep missing the exit and I am running out of gas.  :)

If you know how to be happy with the wonders of life that are already there for you to enjoy, you don't need to stress your mind and your body by striving harder and harder, and you don't need to stress this planet by purchasing more and more stuff. The Earth belongs to our children. We have already borrowed too much from it, from them; and the way things have been going, we're not sure we'll be able to give it back to them in decent shape. And who are our children, actually? They are us, because they are our own continuation. So we've been shortchanging our own selves.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/533152-if-you-know-how-to-be-happy-with-the-wonders

Parenting is a wonder that is all about loving presence.  I love this:

When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thich_nhat_hanh_531602It's

 

It's all good!

Reacting to stats

My stats are showing that I am getting spammer sites accessing  my blog that I definitely do not want!  This 'faz*****... site that has been showing up on stats... is a sex solicitation  site and I do not want to see it to my stats.  I do not understand how it is getting past my spammer protection.

Man...that sounded so judgmental, didn't it?  I am not judging those who take part in the act of prostitution.  I have no right to.  So many make a conscious choice to solicit for whatever reason and too many others don't have that choice.  Sex trafficking is a very sad  reality robbing the lives of men and women everywhere.  That breaks my heart.  I am not judging  and definitely not saying I don't want individuals who may find themselves in these situations, by choice or otherwise,  not to read.  I just don't want the type of spammer attachment...which has nothing to do with readership...that brings more of the same type of traffic .

Man...I 'reacted' instead of responded  when I seen the new site increasing the readership stats.  Responses are of the heart which is always kind; reactions are of the mind which is  rarely kind

Respons-ibility Vs Respons-(dis)-ability

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes...and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.
Eleanor Roosevelt (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/responsibility)

Eleanor's words have been vibrating in my ears since my "Aha!" moment at 530 this am.  (Why on earth do moments of profound realization have to hit us so bloody early in the morning lol...especially when we are already so sleep deprived?) It was so intense.


The Aha!

The realization, that pretty much floored me was, "I am responsible to some degree for what my children are continuing to experience and act out as suffering in their lives."  Whoa!!! That was a big one.  All the ' could of,' 'would of', 'should of' dones of my parenting  hit me like  a slap in the face, one at a time.   I seen so clearly how I was allowing my own 'crap' to get in the way of my parenting responsibility for too long. My own need to hide away from the world, like a sick cat licking its wounds, interfered with my response  to my children's needs in a healthy and effective way.  I let them down to save myself.

  It was a truth that knocked me to the ground.  It was a truth I knew all along but denied, rationalized, and intellectualized my way over like I was on some mental John Deere mowing away all the unpleasant grass that was interfering with my need for smooth.

I neglected my responsibility. That's not a nice thought to realize at 530 in the morning and ego can have a field day with it if we let it, overwhelming us with punishment for our sin in the form of guilt and shame. That's because we truly do not understand the nature of the word.

What does responsibility mean?

We often get tripped up on the word responsibility.  We see it as meaning obligation, duty, something we 'owe' and 'have to do.  It induces fear, anxiety, a tendency to want to avoid it or to over exaggerate it leading to constant  guilt and shame.  Yet that is because we got it all wrong. Responsibility...respons-ability- is simply the ability to respond...and to act in the way that serves all best.

We all have a certain amount of responsibility to others in this world.  We all have the ability to respond rather than react, whether we know it or not.  As parents we have an ability to respond to our children in ways that will best serve them.  When they are in need we have the ability to respond....but too often we react in self serving, 'self'  protecting ways without even realizing it.  Ego too often gets in between the situation and our knowledge of our ability to respond.  It tricks us into reacting.

Respon-(dis)-ability

Ego is not an altruist parent nor is it a friend to us.  It couldn't care less about our children or about us.  It just wants to serve itself. Reactivity serves ego, responding from a place of higher wisdom doesn't. It therefore creates reactivity in the form of non-action; too much action...chaotic unfocused action.It will then blame us and shame us for the choices it encouraged us to make; for what we do or do not do as parents; it will then try to soothe us and redeem us with a whole bunch of rationalizations, denials, and  intellectualizations  just so we do not 'respond' from the higher place that diminishes its power over us.  It gives us a long list of reasons why we couldn't, shouldn't and are unable to respond. It creates the respons-dis-ability net for us to fall into and hide under. Ego reacts...it does not respond but we can!

Responsibility is not about taking blame...it is about owning our ability and making better choices for ourselves and others. My hiding away from life has translated into my running and hiding away from the bigger issues my children face.  Though I have been dealing with it on a superficial level...able to truthfully say in words what I have done as a parent...I have not been dealing with it on the deeper more Life affirming and 'healing' level.  I was not operating from the state I want my children to operate from.

I need to be there for them, not in my ego derived sense of 'me' way. I need to reach out from a state of peace, the kind healing provides. So what if my body is tired.  so what if my mind is tired...I do not need to use that as an excuse for not taking part in inspired action for their benefit. ?  This is not about 'me'.  It is  about the greater I.  I still need more healing to get there.  If I want them to heal I have to be healed. 

My best response is owning that I am not healed....admitting that, and making honest steps to heal.  And ...not from my head or my physical being but from the only place where healing can take place.

Man...I am not making sense...and I am not sure I care....because it is not in words that my philosophies will be expressed but in my actions. I may need to do a little more...in an inspired way. I need to respond and to know that without ego, I am not disabled.

If we give way to a disturbance, let us learn how to dismiss it and return to peace. ACIM-W-273:1:3


When we respond we dismiss it...when we react ...we resist it.

All is well.

Accept Before You Act

Accept - then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you have chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.

-Eckhart Tolle (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/177877-accept---then-act-whatever-the-present-moment-contains-accept)

 

 

The Guest House

 

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond. 

Rumi

 

From: https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-guest-house-2/

Say "No" to Reactivity

Always say "Yes" to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane than to create inner resistance to what already is? What could be more insane than to oppose Life itself, which is now and always now.  Surrender  to what is. Say "yes" to Life- and see how Life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.
-Eckhart Tolle (https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4493.Eckhart_Tolle)


Say 'No' to  Reactivity

So how do we know that we are reacting to life events ?

Well if you find that you are spending most of your time 'thinking' about your life situations than you are probably reacting.  Most of our reactions are mental. Of those 60,000 thoughts, we are said to have a day, 80 percent of them are related to what has happened and what we anticipate will happen in our lives. We are 'reacting' to life event when we think the same tired thoughts over and over again and we are  making these life events so much 'worse' than they actually are in most cases.

Do you find yourself needing to move, fix, solve and do?  If you find that sitting quietly in a room alone is next to impossible...than you are likely reacting.

If you find yourself complaining about others or life events internally or externally...you are reacting rather than responding. Complaining is a sign that we are resisting life as it is and reaction is all about not being willing or able to settle into our moment, accepting it as it is. If there are any "No!  This should not be happening!" or "This is not fair , I won't accept it!" in your vocabulary than you are indeed reacting

If you find yourself unbalanced skipping from one emotion to the next, you are reacting. Do you find your happiness and peace  is dependent on just the right thing happening in the way you expect it should?   Are you angry one second because someone is not doing what you ask and think they should, and relieved the next when they do?  Are you happy about something positive that might happen and sad when it doesn't happen? If so, you are reacting.

Are you fighting against anything or anyone ?  Putting effort and struggle into making a stand against those people and conditions  of the world that are 'unfair,' 'wrong,' and 'unjust."?  I f so you are reacting.

If you are judging anything to be 'unfair", unacceptable," "shouldn't be'...or even   'right' than you are reacting.

Are you a victim of the clock? Are you constantly dwelling and talking about the past as a rationalizing and explanation?  Or are you filling your minds and speech with "Whens" and "ifs" that belong to a future time that will only be the 'now' when it arrives? If so you are reacting.

If you are also filling your speech and mind with "I" and "me" and identification with story...than you are reacting to the events of a story you are partially creating.

Can you sit quietly through any experience with the same calm expression on your face?  If you can't you are reacting.

Hmmm! Are you reacting?

So if we are finding that our response to life's offerings is one of mental, emotional and behavioral reactivity, what do we do?

The way to deal with reactivity I believe involves the following steps:

1. Be aware of your own reactivity.  Don't beat yourself up over it just be aware of it. Look for it when things are not going your way and even when they are. See it in yourself. Ask yourself: How am I feeling physically and emotionally right now? What is my mind telling me that is leading to this emotion? Where does this thought or belief come from: ego or my higher self? Just be alert.  As long as you are aware of it; as long as you are seeing it...than you are not getting lost in the crazy notion that you are it.
2. Get out of your head and into your physical body: Breathe!  Take those nice slow breaths or at least be aware of the breath going in and going out.  This will soothe the mind and reconnect you with the body you are in.  It will take your focus from your mind to the body. 
3. Use your five senses to connect you with the here and now: You have to get out of your head and back into the moment.  Most reactivity is a result of resisting the moment. ...of making an enemy out of the here and now. A lot of times we run from the present moment into our mental activity.  We hide in that head of ours so we do not experience the 'unpleasantness' of the moment.  We lose touch with our bodies and the world around us.  Get back in your body and work from there. Become aware of your surroundings.  what do you see/  What do you hear, smell or taste? What does it feel like?
4. Detach from the life event, person or circumstance:  All we need to do this is to dis-identify with it.  See it as something that is happening around you or even to you but it isn't you.  Make the distinction between life circumstance and Life; your reaction and you.  As long as you are aware of your reactivity you are detaching from it.
5. From here...accept the present moment which will mean accepting where you are, the person in front of you, the situation (whatever it may be), the way your  body and mind is feeling.  Just say yes! to it.  Stop resisting...surrender and let go. Tell yourself "It is what it is, and it's okay."  And it is okay...no matter what is happening...it is okay.  No matter what the other person may be saying or doing...it is okay. Once you remove reactivity , the circumstance becomes just that...circumstance. There is a simplicity to it and there is a temporary nature to it that the ego doesn't want you to see.  Like all things of this physical world, "It too shall pass!".  What you are feeling and experiencing will pass as well.  It's okay.
6. Allow everything to be as it is!
7. Become aware of your awareness.  Feel the is-ness of you that has been hiding  beneath your reactivity. this Is-ness is calm, serene existing in space and silence...it is not one tiny bit disturbed by what is happening to you or around you. Just feel it and know it is there.
8. Now ask It: What can I do here, if anything to improve the situation in a way that will not hurt me or others and that will involve a higher Will?
9. Listen and take part in the inspired action or inaction as you are guided.
10. Respond to Life instead of reacting to life situation.  

All is well.

Peace- filled Faces Reflect Peace -filled Responses

The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes, without speaking, confess the secrets of the heart.
St Jerome ( https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/st_jerome_190064?src=t_face)


I want to talk a little more about the learning that comes from Lao Tzu's story about the old farmer that I wrote about in my last entry.  I want to talk about learning to respond to life rather than react.

Are your reactive or responsive? 

When faced with unpleasant life situations do you contract and cry out to the universe with anger, frustration and shock, "No!  This shouldn't be!!!"? Is your happiness and peace dependent on what happens 'to you' or around you?  Do you shrink up with every unkind gesture or word you receive from another?  Are you at the mercy of life events that do not turn out the way you think they should?  If you answer yes to any of the above questions (I always wanted to say that lol) you are reacting to life rather than responding.

Not alone

Don't fret though because you are not alone.  Most of us, well those of us who still operate under ego's guidance ( and that would probably be about 99 % of us :)), react more than we respond.  It is the person who is able to put away his ego or her attachment to a socially prescribed idea of what he/she or life should be like that is able to respond like the old man did in the story.

Response differs from reactivity in that in involves so little emotional drama, no desire to miserate or commiserate, no resistance,  and no yo-yo like up and down movement of our feelings.  At the  same time it offers no assurance that everything is going to be great and that we are fortunate or not...it does offer stability and peace. It provides  a grounding into who we really are so we can deal with the event, the other person, the body etc...in a way that is healthy and much more Life affirming.

It is written on the face

One way to determine if we are responsive or reactive is through our facial expressions. It is said that our faces reveal what is in our minds. This is such a well known fact that a study was recently done to monitor the driving risk factors  associated with angry or overstressed drivers through facial expression alone. https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/200407/files/icip1024-cam-ready.pdf  Our faces can express  just how reactive we are both in the car and outside of it.

Do you smile at the person who walks by only when they smile at you?  If they shoot you what seems to be a dirty look  do your eyes and mouth drop as your heart sinks?  If you are waiting for a check in the mail...does your face light up when you open it or fall when the mail box is once again empty?  The face says so much about what we are feeling and if we are not feeling peaceful all the time we are reactive.  If our facial expressions change quickly from one moment to the next , mirroring the life events we are encountering (and judging) than we are indeed reactive.

 

The Never Changing  Faces of the Wise

When what others would call adversity came to the old farmer's hilltop  and he uttered that famous word, "Maybe," his face was calm and peaceful.  When what others called good fortune showed up, his face was calm and peaceful.  His peace was not dependent on life situation being a certain way. He did not allow emotional reactivity to feed his ego.  Instead he just responded with a tiny word of acceptance,  faith and hope in possibility. "Maybe"

Sages and saints, those who have truly lost their attachment to ego lies and who see the distinction between life events and Life, exude and exuded that same facial expression as the old man did...one that does not fluctuate with the change of outer world events.

Look at the Dali llama when he is speaking.  When he goes from easy friendly topics of discussion to ones that are rather intense, his face does not change much.  There always remains a hint of  that beautiful infectious smile. Sri Rama Maharishi was reported to keep the same calm expression on his face no matter what was going on around him or to him.  It is said that when he was having major surgery on his arm, and only under mild local anesthesia, his face did not flinch through the entire procedure. (Jnani, 2018)

Putting Peace on our Faces and Into Our Lives

When we learn to accept life as it  is and not see it as a series of random events that are happening to us or around us; when we give up our self destructive attachment to things and ideas that deny who we really are; when we put away our idea that we are supposed to feel and react a certain way because we are human; and  when we stop depending on external things to make us happy...than ...'maybe' we too can exude the face of calm wisdom that shows the world and ourselves that we are ready to respond rather than react.  Maybe we can feel and express peace at all times.

All is well in my world.

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/200407/files/icip1024-cam-ready.pdf

Sri Ramamna Maharshi (2018) Jnani. Cineflex productions

The Power of Maybe

Not a victory is gained, not a deed of faithfulness or courage is done, except upon a maybe....And often enough the faith beforehand in the uncertified result [the maybe] is the only thing that makes the results come true.
William James; from The Will to Believe (pg 43)


"Maybe",  A Story

I am going to begin by telling you an ancient Chinese story. It was originally told by Lao Tzu  many, many years  ago and later relayed by many spiritual teachers including Allan Watts(see the link below to his narrated animation) and the authors of the wonderful little book I am reading now, Experiencing Spirituality. It goes something like this:

There was once a hard working and devoted  farmer who lived way up on the hill above the village.  He was a faithful man and  loved his horses and he loved his children very much. One day, his favorite horse ran away.  His neighbors, hearing the awful news, flocked to his side to offer their condolences.  Clicking their tongues, they voiced their desire to commiserate, "Oh this is such terrible luck!  What an awful thing to happen.  The absolute worse, don't you think?" To which the farmer, with a look of calm acceptance on his face, replied, "Maybe."

The next day, as the farmer was milking his cow in an open stall overlooking the village, he saw in the near distance his own prized stallion leading a herd of beautiful mustangs toward his farm.  The horse was not only returning but bringing six more soon to be prized animals with him.  The villagers, huffing and puffing with excited effort, ran up the hill behind the herd to congratulate their neighbor.  "You must be so happy", they exclaimed.  "Isn't this the most wonderful thing to happen? What great fortune, don't you think?" To which the old farmer, not removing himself from the task of milking his cow and with a look of calm, acceptance on his face replied, "Maybe".

Later that week, his eldest son who the old farmer heavily  depended on to help with the farm, saddled  one of the wild stallions in an attempt to break him in. He was thrown high and far, landing in a way that broke his leg in several places.  Knowing that the old farmer would now be forced to watch his beloved son suffer while he was left to run the farm himself, the  villagers once again climbed the hill.  They gathered around  the old man so they could commiserate with him.  Clicking their tongues and shaking their heads they cried, "Oh my, I can't believe this happened to you.  What terrible, terrible luck, don't you think?"  To which the old man replied while he tended to the splint on his son's leg and with a look of calm acceptance on his face, "Maybe".

The day after the fall, conscription officers marched to the village to take away all the young men of fighting age for the emperor's army.  The old farmer stood on the top of the hill and watched  as many strong, strapping and beloved sons were taken away. Once again, the neighbors saddened and disheartened by their own losses, climbed the hill to tell the old man how fortunate he was for the turn of events.  Crying and weeping in their own grief they exclaimed.  "Oh how very lucky you are. This is the  best thing that could have happened to you, don't you think?"   To which the  old man replied with a look of calm acceptance on his face, "Maybe".

(I added my own little bits here and there lol). 


So what is the moral of the story? 

Well Lao Tzu said it best in Verse 58 of the Tao-Te-Ching, Happiness is rooted in misery, misery lurks beneath happiness.  Who knows what the future holds? 

In other words, do not get too hung up on circumstances or on emotions.  We never know what life is going to give us and emotionally reacting as socially expected is not a necessity for peace.  Staying calm and accepting of the  fact that life is unpredictable, is.


Let all things be exactly as they are. ACIM-W-268

So What Does this have to do with anything?


So what does it all have to with my topic today? I wanted to talk about the not so obvious meaning of the word 'Maybe. ' Maybe is a word of faithfulness that implies  there just may be  more than this, what we seem to be going through; there may be more to life than circumstance; there 'may be' a way to get through whatever life has to offer; 'there may be' light even when everything appears so dark  and 'maybe' there is more blessing than we realize in things that don't go our way. 

Maybe doesn't give us any certainties but it certainly offers us hope and possibility, doesn't it? If maybe  makes us put away the ego ingrained notion that we are powerless to change or  stuck in the emotional holes we are in, for even  the briefest of times, is it not a word we should be reciting often?  I think it is a pretty darned amazing word, don't you?

Now I am going to get intense!


Depression

I have been thinking heavily on the effects of depression.  I see so many people in this world of ours suffering with it.  I also see people I love gasping for breath  under the hold it has on their minds.  I see and hear loved ones  choking on negative thoughts as light and beauty gets zapped away from their perceptions and maliciously replaced with veils of  darkness and hopelessness.

The Canadian Association of Mental Health reports that one in four people in Canada will be affected by this darkness at some point in their lives. The world statistics are even graver. Depression, in today's society, is very real and most tragically, it can be lethal. 

To me...this 'disease' is ego at its miserable worst. Ego strips beautiful minds, with the potential to do so much good, of hope just so it can survive. Plaguing the world with fear based negativity and its selfish  attitude, "If I gotta go down, you are coming with me'', it robs so many of the precious will to live.

It saddens me deeply to  look upon this global and somewhat 'personal' issue and I feel somehow that  'I" in this little vehicle of skin and bone with just a few meager gifts and talents to offer, am supposed to do something about it.  I feel the inspiration to do something about it!  Not just to help my loved ones 'get through' it but to help others in the world as well. 

Say What?

At the same time the inspiration arises, I shake my head over the immensity of the problem and my own  grandiosity.  "Who am I, to do anything?  What have I got that can help?  Is my wish to help just my  ego stepping in with its desire to be recognized for some martyrdom award? Isn't help the sunny side of control?  What can I possibly do  when I can barely take care of myself, let alone my loved ones?

When I silence ego, I hear the faint 'maybe' vibrating inside me and I know that 'maybe'  isn't of me but of something so much greater. That 'maybe', may be the response to my prayers.  I had asked over and over recently to be shown where I should now serve in this world of ours.  As my ego slips away, I so know it isn't all about me anymore.  I asked that I be taken where I am needed most.

Is it  to this area of mental health, where the inspiration is pointing?  'Maybe'. 

Can I do good here?  Maybe.

Infuse the world with Maybe.

Maybe, all my part entails is helping to infuse the world with the power of 'maybe'?

I fell in love with the word 'Maybe' today because I suddenly realize its power.  This whole problem I see  is a result of a lack of maybe in our world.  Be it deemed a biochemical imbalance or a human response to trauma....depression is a symptom of a greater 'maybe-less' disease. 

So what do we do about it? Besides improving access to and service from our mental health systems; besides removing the damaging stigma from society, once and for all; besides increasing public and professional understanding of the  disease, we, as people, need to  infuse this anemic world with 'maybe'.  We need to offer  faith in something bigger than our own little 'me-sense'.

Is  that where I come in? May be.

Could it be in spirituality ,that the answer to depression lies?  Maybe

I recently came across a wonderful TED Talk Video on the possibility that depression is not just a biochemical disorder or a response to life circumstance...but it could also be a door that opens to something greater. It could be gateway for the Divine to come through.

Could depression take us closer to God?  "May be"

If anything, it can be the solution to this epidemic, may be.  The clinical psychologist and scientific researcher speaking in this video states that the frontal cortex of people with depression was shown to be thin and fragile...but in those who claimed a spiritual faith/practice( which they did not doubt)...the cortex is thick and strong. Hmm!

Could science prove that spirituality is the best antidepressant there is?  "May be"


Whether science proves it or not, it is time for me to do my small, possibly insignificant part, to bring hope back to the hopeless. It is time to encourage the use of the word that inspires faith and is inspired by faith.  It is time to fill the world with the possibility of 'May be."

And I don't mean maybe.  :)


Suppose, however thickly evil crowds upon you ,that your unconquerable subjectivity proves to be their match, and that you find a more wonderful   joy than any passive pleasure can bring in trusting ever the larger whole[spirituality].  Have you not now made a life worth living on those terms? What sort of a thing would life really be, with your qualities ready for a tussle with it, if it only brought fair weather and gave these higher faculties of yours no scope? Please remember that optimism and pessimism are definitions of the world, and our own reactions on the world, small as they are in bulk, are integral parts of the whole thing, and necessarily help to determine the definition. They may even be the decisive elements in determining the definition. (James; page 43-44)

Maybe the use of 'maybe' could be the decisive element that brings the world from pessimism to optimism; and from darkness in to the light.

All is well in my world!


References:


ACIM Workbook; Lesson 268

James, William ( 1896 ) Excerpts from The will to Believe as retrieved from: https://books.google.ca/books?id=3PxcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=Not+a+victory+is+gained,+not+a+deed+of+faithfulness+or+courage+is+done,+except+upon+a+maybe&source=bl&ots=56Y0niqHP2&sig=yRW8gwM-zjeAacyV9_DMB6Ibcxo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiOr8j1jtbdAhVpplkKHaE2AWsQ6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Not%20a%20victory%20is%20gained%2C%20not%20a%20deed%20of%20faithfulness%20or%20courage%20is%20done%2C%20except%20upon%20a%20maybe&f=false


Kurtz, E. &  Ketcham, K. (2014) Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling. New York; Penguin

Miller, Lisa (July, 2014) Depression and Spiritual Awakening-Two sides of one door. TEDx Teachers College. Retrieved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c5t6FkvUG0

Tao-Te-Ching (March, 2016) Allan Watts on the Tao of Gain and Loss http://tao-in-you.com/alan-watts-on-tao-of-gain-and-loss/

Chapter 58, Tao-Te Ching. Retrieved from Wassu http://www.wussu.com/laotzu/laotzu58.html

They Exist; They Are

Truth, wisdom, goodness, beauty, the fragrance of a rose: All resemble spirituality in that they are intangible, ineffable realities. 

 We may know them, but we can never grasp them with our hands or with our words.  These entities have neither color nor texture; they cannot be gauged in inches or ounces or degrees; they do not make a noise to be measured in decibels; they have no distinct feel as do silk, wood, or cement; they give no odor; they have no taste; they occupy no space.

 

And yet they exist; they are.  Love exists, evil exists, beauty exists, and spirituality exists...We do not define them; they define us.

 

Beautiful words from:

 

Kurtz, E. &  Ketcham, K. ( 2014 ) Experiencing Spirituality:  Finding Meaning Through Story Telling. New York: Penguin. (page 31)

Children's Toys?

Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children's toys?
-ACIM-W-4. What is Sin?:5:2

My head is spinning today with new ideas, new questions and new thoughts.  :) I want to expand a bit on what I wrote about last entry and indirectly use it to explain another word I have been tripping over. That word is 'Sin".

How does entropy relate to the word sin? 

Well, to begin, I see both the use of 'entropy' and 'sin'  as being open to a lot of conflicting interpretations. I could have put the science community in an uproar with my lay man's description of such an important and complicated natural law, as I have described in the last post.  From what I read, chemists differ in their interpretation than biologists do.  The mathematicians and physicists understanding of the term may differ from that of the organic scientists.  A philosopher's or mere writer's definition or interpretation should be ignored all together, lol. (From what I read).  So there is some conflicting interpretation in regards to this word, entropy. 

And there is a lot of conflicting interpretation of the word, 'sin'.  I know I am going to cause an uproar with the majority of opinion holders by my description of this new understanding of it that takes me away from what I was brought up to believe it meant.  I know how 'sensitive' this topic is...how ingrained the belief in sin ideology is.  It is not my intention to offend or step on tender toes. I am not denying the importance of religious or cultural belief. I do not mean to hurt anyone but at the same time I seriously believe we need to question this idea of 'sin' we cling to.  Maybe we have to ask: Is sin a useful, educational children's toy that promotes goodness and God's order or a sharp-edged one that damages and scars? 

Our conditioned idea of Sin, I believe, is a sharp-edged children's toy.


I was raised Catholic and sin was a very big and ominous word for many of us who grew up in that faith tradition. ...most Christian  faith traditions, actually.  Sin was something we were taught that we intentionally and unintentionally committed as we tramped along our paths.  It included  a myriad of judged infractions  from swearing to viciously murdering someone.

Sin was  a horrible thing that stained the soul and made us unworthy of God's proximity. It didn't just illicit feelings of guilt and remorse for what we did or did not do.  It induced and maintained a sense of shame and unworthiness for who we were.  It separated and kept us away from God until we repented and were forgiven. Like the cross, it was a heavy, heavy weight to carry but carry it we must because  the thing is...we were born with it.  We didn't have to 'do' anything to be sinners.  We were born that way.

Who judged a sin a sin in this version?  God did, of course, and all his management people, trickling down the hierarchy from the Pope to the old lady sitting in the pew behind you with Sunday's missile rolled up in her hand, ready to give you a bonk on the  head whenever you sinfully disrespected the Mass by giggling or forgetting to kneel at the appropriate time.

Because of the extensiveness of this hierarchy perception of  what God might have meant by 'sin', the understanding and meaning of it   would likely change and even become distorted as it made its way down the chain of judges.  Sin could  change from place to place and person to person.

A lot of individual 'judgment' is infused into the traditional version of sin. Moses laid down the laws as directed by God  but man expanded on those commandments  with his own interpretation and his own judgment and his own means of punishment.  Sins after all have to be punished. . . .

The punishment

In societal terms...this interpretation of sin gets muted and distorted from culture to culture leading to social sanctions and laws for the cultural community it is expressed in. Many of these laws are still based on religious influences of that area. And of course, if you break the law there is punishment by law.

Well the punishment in metaphysical terms for sin is different than that of the law. It involves  further staining on your soul.  The punishment is a  deep seated sense of shame and unworthiness that you will be expected to  carry forever and that will trickle into all avenues of your life.  The punishment is this sense of isolation and separation from God...this being pulled away from Source.  The punishment lies in  not being accepted or maybe  even rejected  by the One that is everything. 

The punishment is fear.  Sin brings the devil and the devil, sin. The devil  is the entity that symbolizes the 'evil' and 'demonic quality of sin.  It represents, I believe, man's internal conflict with fear. Sin means man, knowing it or not,  is choosing hell over heaven, fear over Love. That type of damnation  punishment is very destructive to peace and happiness, to say the least.

Repent


There is a so called hope though in this belief system...not for ridding one's self from sin altogether, that  stain on the Soul, according to certain religions,  can not be wiped clean with any amount of Shout... but penance could lessen  the effect sin had on your life  and more importantly  after death.  The message is: "Maybe, you will never get close to God now but after you die there may be a room for You in that big house of His...if you follow the repenting protocol."

Every tradition has their own idea of how to repent.  I spent hours in the confessional as a kid and consequently hours on my knees saying the Hail Mary because I said the  Lord's name in vain or spit on my brother after he drew freckles over my favorite doll's face.  Was this penance working?  Did it cleanse me?  Was I really that 'dirty' to begin with?

Penance can differ from one faith tradition to another. Whether it is through karma or confession...the idea is to clean the soul as much as possible...though the original stain may never be removed in this life time. Heaven will never be attained until after the body dies and only if  you repented in the 'right way'.

Do we truly understand the meaning of 'Sin'?

 Do you know what the  earliest biblical translations of this Hebrew word chait, where sin is said to come from, actually means?  It means to miss the mark...to miss in reference to aiming a sling shot.  How did we get what we know it as now, out of that? 

Did we blow the translation out of proportion or what? How did we bring the devil and eternal damnation into a reference of  being a bit off target with the sling shot?   Who is responsible for that connotation?  Certainly not God.

We make mistakes as human beings.  Not saying what we do is right, not saying that it is wrong.  I am not even saying that even minor infractions don't  deserve punishment. Yet is the way we view 'Sin' and its consequences totally realistic , when what was actually meant was a missed target?

Many of us  are off target in our lives...We are away from the target...that alignment with God.  We do things that may cause pain to others. We go a bit too far off the course or way too far and that is 'a mistake!'  A great big one many times! 

Why do we miss the mark? Probably because we are not seeing or thinking clearly.  That is what sin is. Sin is not thinking or seeing clearly enough to hit the mark!

 "Sin is insanity.  It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth." ACIM-W-4. What is sin?-1:1-2

Do we truly understand the meaning of Repent?

The word repent comes from a Greek translation meaning basically, 'a change of heart or to perceive differently'.  Wow!   If that is what it means, we simply need to change our minds...stop thinking in the illusionary way we are and to be willing to perceive differently in order to 'pay for our sins'..  We do not have to bargain over heaven and hell, to walk around carrying this heavy cross of shame.  Do we?

We are told that if we repent in certain self-punishing ways we will be worthy enough to get closer to God. What good does the self loathing, the shame, this sense of unworthiness do for us, others or God anyway?  Does it help us get closer to God and to each other?  Certainly not.  It creates separation and isolation.

Isn't this true?:

 Whoever does not love, does not know God, for God is Love. 1John 4:8 NIV

So if this is true and we reach out with a fear of damnation  in our hearts, are we repenting with a desire for God's forgiveness out of love  or are we repenting for fear of God's wrath and further separation? Is our idea of 'sin' and 'penance' promoting fear or love?

Wouldn't we do more good if we loved?  Wouldn't we be able to do more of God's work if we could put that sense of unworthiness away?  Wouldn't we do more for the world if we were happier and more peaceful?  Isn't that what God truly wants for us...for us to love ourselves and each other?

Do you think a better tool to repent with then...could be a change in perception? Should we be focusing more on  changing how we perceive the world instead of shuffling around with heads down chanting, "Unclean!  Unclean!"

Instead of seeing  the world through eyes of fear we could learn to see it  with hearts full of love.  Instead of seeing and judging sin and a case for damnation everywhere...we could see God's love in everyone including ourselves. Wouldn't that somehow be more in tune with what God wanted for us?

Knowing what both biblical  words actually pointed to before man got it all mixed up  in translation can certainly make us feel a lot better...and it can certainly make our loads a lot lighter.  Couldn't it?

How Sin relates to Entropy

The two terms  relate in a very round about way and probably only in my mind. lol

Well...in entropy we have chaos and we too often see chaos as sinful.  If  we have chaos and unpredictability  in our lives we may feel shame and guilt like I do because we can't control it! We are all familiar with another big error in interpretation from the bible that became a very common cliché that supports the notion of resisting entropy, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness."

Do I need a confessional or a string of prayers to recite as penance for my lack of 'Godliness' ? To 'repent'...all I really need to do is see differently and to fill my heart with love instead of fear. I need to change the way I see myself and the world.

I am not 'sinful' because of the perception of chaos in my life situation...I am just seeing unclearly.  Through a change in perception,  I will see that what I look upon with my body's eyes isn't chaos after all...but God's Will which I will someday realize is my own.

So that is where the similarity comes into play. 


All is well in my world!

References

ACIM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metanoia_(theology)

http://www.aish.com/jl/p/ph/48964596.html

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A8&version=NIV

The Nature of Chaos

Unless we understand the nature of Entropy, we can not resolve the deleterious effects that make it difficult to achieve desired results. Therefore a sound knowledge of the Second Law is extremely important to our quest for happiness.
-https://www.rationality.net/entropy.htm


I am so glad to be reintroduced to the second natural law of thermodynamics: Entropy.  Why?  Well it helps to validate the state of my surroundings and my life situation right now as, at the very least, being a natural phenomenon. :)  I am following the natural law of order allowing things to just be as nature would have them. lol

What is Entropy? 

Entropy is the law that loosely and by no means scientifically states the universe has a tendency to move from a state of order to disorder...the universe has a tendency to move toward chaos.  Of course...chemists, physicists and mathematicians will argue until the cows come home  on the 'actual scientific meaning and limitation 'of the term when it comes to thermodynamics. (http://entropysimple.oxy.edu/content.htm). 

I am not even going to go there.  I couldn't if I wanted to. :) I just like to think  that things follow a natural flow from high energy order that becomes dispersed in a random fashion to low energy disorder.  It is natural for life to be a bit messy and it takes great energy and resistance against a natural momentum to keep order.

A simple Lay person's Example

Housework is a great example of my version of the law (and my understanding  is limited).  We build a big beautiful new home...all its structures are neat and in order.  It's natural progression, however, is to go from this order to a state of disintegration and 'mess'.  If I don't pick up after myself or let the dust pile up...nature will take over...piles will build up, dust will build up.  If I don't clean away the food particles left from meals the biological world will eventually step in and do what it is inclined to ( bugs and germs will multiply in chaotic fashion).  We will have what we would consider a messy, dirty home. It is, in our interpretation, chaotic.

Natural

Yet it is natural...requiring the least amount of energy expenditure from us.  It requires no time or effort on our part to let things fall to pieces, does it?  We just 'let go' and do not resist  this natural progression.  We could resist it, at least to some extent, as many of us do, by putting energy into tidying up and cleaning. By fixing things that get broken. 

Resistance

It takes time and energy to resist disorder...and basically that is all we are doing...putting energy into resisting.  We are also just redistributing.  We take the pile of papers off the coffee table and put it in the junk draw...we just moved it.  We call it creating order in our homes...but we aren't doing that...we are not 'creating' anything ...we are just resisting and redistributing a natural phenomenon from taking over as nature intends.

Is it chaos? 

What we, lay people,  loosely term chaos is what the scientific world calls 'randomization'. Randomization increases as energy release decreases. Things that were once orderly in their appearance begin to happen at random.  They become unpredictable and more challenging to control or 'fix' because of this unpredictability. I am told that if I don't stay on top of things in my home and continue to let nature do what nature does, it will eventually reach a point where I won't be able to do anything to make it better.  The disintegration will be irreparable.

We see the messy house as chaos...We place a subjective interpretation on it...but in the natural world is it chaos?  No...it is a perfect pattern of existence, of death, of growth of dispersion of energy...of Life. what we as humans see as random...is actually a result of a universal plan we have yet to understand. Maybe it isn't 'natural' to fight nature and have an orderly home.  (Thank God!  lol.  I am doing something right these days!)

No I am not saying,  let your house fall apart.  I am not saying don't do anything or put any effort into getting what you want. I don't like the state of my surroundings right now...natural or not. I want a little order...I just want to expend the least amount of energy (what I have to offer) and not get caught up in time pressure. 

We just need to be okay with 'random', and be free, maybe, of the need to predict and control before we can accept. That's all. We need to stop expending so much effort and time into doing and allow things to simply 'be' as they are, every now and again.  I guess what I am saying, is that we need a balance between doing and being.

Of course, I am oversimplifying some challenging to understand universal laws...but I guess what I am trying to say...is that it is okay to just let things Be from time to time.  As human 'doings' we have a tendency to resist, reorder, predict the future and to  control nature and Life...we put great energy into doing that.  We get caught up on this notion of 'Time' and become so focused on the time it takes to work against this law. We just don't allow Life to do what Life does. 

We also tend to  see chaos when Life sees order and a natural progression of things. If circumstances are not going our way...if we go from a state of orderly life situation to one that is full of messy situations...we say 'Life is chaotic'. What is random and chaotic for us, however, may not be random and chaotic for Life.  Maybe, according to Life, it all may  simply be going as planned?

Hmm!  This natural law of entropy may give us a little something to think about.

All is well in my world.

References

http://entropysimple.oxy.edu/content.htm

http://see.library.utoronto.ca/SEED/Vol2-3/2-3%20resolved/Salthe.htm

https://www.rationality.net/entropy.htm

Forces of Nature

We are just forces of nature with a sense that there is a person there until it is not.
Suzanna Marie (Davidya.ca)


Hmmm!  How beautiful and simple that seems.  Is it really as simple as all that??

I am trying to make sense of this journey of waking up I am on.  It is a bizarre little journey that I seem to have no control over.  I am completely and utterly confused most times lol.  Nothing seems to make sense to me.  I have a hard time understanding any of it...at the same time I cannot seem to focus or accomplish anything in my physical world...in my old ego known life. I feel pulled from both ends.  Nothing is stable.

 I have set out, then, to listen, compare  and learn from others' experiences.I am glad to find out that I am not alone.  I am  not the only person who has ever gone through this....far from it  :)  Many, many people are coming to the same understandings I am...maybe in somewhat different ways but I am not alone. That allows me to depersonalize my own experience somewhat...to see it not so much as something "I" am going through but as the particular way the Life force is being expressed through this 'little me'.

How is it being expressed through me at this point?


Through Thoughts and words?

I can intellectualize all this....even though it is not an intellectual experience.   I can put it into words...even though it is something to be experienced rather than explained.  It is like someone or something is inputting all the Truth into me and I am downloading it on the page.  It is automatic and quick...natural.  I seem to have little control over that even.  I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be writing about awakening at this point in my life.  Still...I do...again and again. This is how it is happening in me...this is how Life is being expressed through me. This is how I am waking up.

But who is "I" and who is waking up?  This 'I", that I am, is realizing intellectually, at least, that I am merely a force of nature who is as of yet still clinging to a sense of person.  That's why I feel pulled and unstable. I haven't yet let go of my sense of person. 

Saying to Life, "You Win!"

I haven't yet truly began to trust that Life knows what it is doing, that is guiding me and supporting me.  I am still clinging to 'me' and resisting Life  to some extent.  I am still afraid, for all kinds of reasons, to give up this need to control so that the 'Force of Nature' can just Be.

It is not like I haven't been given the opportunity to submit. Life keeps throwing circumstances at me, with the intention, maybe, of getting me to put my hands up and say, "Okay you win...I give up.  We will do it your way!"

I have already conceded so much. I have accepted and let go of so many things and diminished my sense of person.  I did give up, to a great extent, on my need to control and 'fix' my health situation...I have totally put aside my need to get diagnosis and appropriate treatment from allopathic medicine. I gave up on that! I have given up a job and my professional identity when I realized that my body and life  limitations were beyond my control.  I let Life have that one. I have certainly given up any dependence on material wealth...my bank account attests to that one.  :)

Still clinging to a need to 'do', find and fix.

Yet I am still clinging somewhere, still fighting, still consumed with the need to do 'something' to make this better, to fix my parenting crisis' and at the same time  find harmony between Self and self until there is no self, just Self ! (That is the spiritual equivalent to 'How much wood, can a woodchuck chuck lol)

I feel like there are things I gotta 'do' and gotta 'find' both in ego's world and in the greater one. Yeah...I am still hung up on doing...When I don't do...I feel so guilty and so unsettled.

I keep thinking that if I felt more peace...more ease..if my life circumstances became less chaotic...this would all be signs that 'I am there'.  I would be a better being for those I love.  And though I have precious moments of peace...I feel so much chaos!  Man...I don't know lol.  I don't know anything.  I just know I am not there yet!  And that is okay! I just have to be where I am, right here and right now.  Eventually, whatever remains of this  sense of person will disappear.  I am confident of that.:)

It is all good!



References:

Davidya (November 19, 2016) On the Falling Away of Self-Adyashanti and Suzanna Marie. Davidya.ca.  Retrieved from https://davidya.ca/2016/11/19/on-the-falling-away-of-self-adyashanti-and-susanne-marie/

Mad Man's Dream?

Not everyone is capable of madness; and of those lucky enough to be capable, few have the courage for it.
-August Strindberg (Early 20th century Swedish playwright) (a-Z quotes)


Yah!  It is all so crazy

Every now and again...I get this overwhelming realization about just how different I am from other people...and it floors me.  I see where I am at , at this point of my life, sometimes with the vision of an awakening person ...and that is pretty cool.  I feel inspired, creative, unique and motivated. 



Other times I see my reflection and my life situation through the eyes of a 55 year old woman who has been conditioned to believe her entire life to date that being a productive member of society and following all 'the rules' is the right thing to do...therefore I am either crazy or totally in the wrong.  I am not sure which. 

Over the last couple of days I have been seeing myself with these blurry appendages on my face and not feeling oh so happy with what I am seeing and where I am at. I am allowing myself to fall victim to other-opinion (both assumed and real.:))  The world looks pretty dark and a tad fearful...especially when I look into my bank accounts lol.  I slip so quickly into this mental state and question: Which world is real?  The one I see in physical form or the one, Something tells me, exists beyond the seen and heard. So few people seem to think the way I do...to question ingrained beliefs,  to step aside and leave everything behind. Maybe, I am just crazier than a bag of hammers? 

I could probably get more than a few people to attest to that:) .  If I am not crazy, maybe I am just wrong in my thinking and decision making?

I doubt sometimes...and the rare occasion I want to go back to the world where I worked to earn money and pushed my body and mind beyond what was comfortable to do this.  I want to go back into the school of guppies and see if I can find a way to make my fins and gills keep up,  Why?  Because sometimes I think it would be easier than awakening.

Man, how many people actually believe or even consider the idea of 'awakening' without rolling their eyes or having judgmental and critical thoughts? Why the heck am I suddenly here on the other side of that judgment and feeling...knowing...that I couldn't go back even if I wanted to?  It is just so bizarre   I, my ego, is reacting to this change in thinking, feeling, being and  it is wagging a finger at me saying, "How could you do this to me?" Ego is what is generating the doubt. It does not like where I am going.

Regardless if ego likes it or not, if others like it or not or of society and the world at large like it or not...  I am going in this direction.  I feel a certain Truth calling me and I have no choice but to follow. I am determined to see in a different way.

I would not perceive such dark and fearful images.  A madman's dream is hardly fit to be my choice, instead of all the loveliness with which You blessed creation; all its purity, its joy and its eternal, quiet home in You. -ACIM-W-263:2:3-4

What do you see as the madman's dream: one possibly created by ego or one created by God?

All is well in my world

It is what it is!

Flicking Off the Worry Switch

Worrying does not accomplish anything. Even if you worry twenty times more, it will not change the situation of the world. In fact, your anxiety will only make things worse. Even though things are not as we would like, we can still be content, knowing we are trying our best and will continue to do so. If we do not know how to breathe, smile and live our lives deeply, we will never be able to help anyone.
-Thich Nhat Hanh from The Heart of the Buddha's Teachings https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8002976-worrying-does-not-accomplish-anything-even-if-you-worry-twenty

Do you ever wish there was a switch that you could simply flick off when it comes to worry?  A switch that made everything clearer and less scary to look at?  One that brought you away from all those future possibilities and 'what ifs' to the moment you were in? A switch that by the simple movement of your fingers could end the tormenting mind activity that was so darned exhausting?

We all know, at this point, that Thich Nhat Hanh is right, don't we?  Worry does not accomplish a darn thing. It only makes matters worse. All that anxiety is hard on the mind.  All that anxiety is hard on the person.  All that anxiety is hard on the world.  Yet here, most of us are, worrying our lives away.

I am no better.  I am worrying.  I worry about silly things and I also worry about challenging things. I have situations in my life that others support as 'worrisome'. I can get lots of validation that I indeed have a right to worry.  I could feed the ego real good with other validation and worry could run wild through my life with some form of righteous abandonment......but...that's not what I want.  I do not want to spend any more time in senseless worry.  So how do I flick the switch and put an end to the energy source that feeds worry?

Well Hanh says it all in the above quote.  He tells us, in not so many words ,what we can do to avoid getting lost in worry. He tells us to:

• Try our best (within our locus of control) to change the situation that is causing us to worry.  That, of course, would involve knowing what we have control over and what we don't.  We can not make people change but we can encourage, teach and support in a non-judgmental and loving way.  We cannot pull people away from dangerous self-destructive paths but we can lead by example when they are ready to follow.  We can't change many of the things life hands us as it unfolds but we can choose whether we respond to them or  react.
• Commit to continue doing so
• But know that sometimes things are not always going to be in our control.  When things or people are not as we expect them to be or think they should be and our efforts at changing them fail...that's okay. Sometimes the best thing we can do is let go of our need for control...to trust Life and just let it be what it is.  "It is what it  is and I'm okay with that" is my new mantra.
• Accept, then, the situation  for what it is regardless if we like it or not
• 'Be' Content Anyway.  Even when life seems to be handing us plenty of things that ego tells us we 'should' worry about...we do not need to listen to ego. We do not need to worry!  We can, instead, just be content with being in the Life situation...whatever it is.  The key thing is 'being'.  We can just be content with being regardless of the details or circumstance.  Get back to being.  In being we can be nothing but content.  That doesn't mean we have to be thrilled or even happy when we ponder the circumstances...just accepting.  Contentment comes when we put away our need to resist or struggle against life.
• Breathe and become aware of that breath when the worry is turned  on.  As soon as you notice the worry thoughts, the thing to do is bring yourself away from their projections into the future and to settle in your moment...in the now.  The quickest way to do that is to breathe slowly and focus on that breath going in and going out.  Just feel it inside you as you bring yourself  gently out of your head and into the here and now. Focus on the breath as it calms and soothes the nervous system...turning off the worry switches in your body.
• Smile...practice smiling in times of adversity. Smiling is not just a social expression it is an internal soothing mechanism.  Smiling helps us to release dopamine and other feel good emotions that will soothe and ease us away from worry. Put on a big goofy smile when you catch yourself worrying and see what happens.
• Live life deeply.  What does Hanh mean by living life deeply? I assume he means to experience life not just in our minds and at the direction of our superficial egos but to live it from the state of  awareness that is within. Beneath the circumstances or situations, beneath all that mind stuff and beneath the worry is Life.  Be mindful of that awareness and 'experience' Life instead of just getting through one life situation after another. There is a big difference. Live Life deeply!

We should be able to enjoy the wonders of life in us and everywhere around us.  The whispers of rustling pine boughs.  Flowers blooming.  The beautiful blue sky.  Fluffy white clouds.  The smile of a neighbor.  Each of these is a small miracle that has the capacity to nourish and heal us. They're there for us right now.  The question is: are we there for them?  If we are constantly running around, if our mind is caught up in endless planning and worrying, it's as if all these wonders don't even exist. -Thich Nhat Hanh, peace is every breath, page 79



 

Be there for those wonders. The worry switch will be flicked off, maybe even permanently,  by the simple experience of being there, living life deeply.

 

References

 

goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8002976-worrying-does-not-accomplish-anything-even-if-you-worry-twenty

 

Thich Nhat Hanh (2011) peace is every breath. New York: Harper One

Breeze: Opening the Window of Form

Why should I perceive  a thousand forms in what remains as one?  Why should I give this one a thousand names, when only one suffices?
-ACIM-W-262:1:4-5

It is funny how this works for me.  I will get to a lesson in A Course and the words will sink in a bit.  Then all of a sudden I seem to come across the same message everywhere while I am contemplating the lesson. No escaping the learning, I guess.  The Universal teacher is determined that I pass this course. :)

A Tolle Coincidence

Speaking of the body and the Oneness that unites all things, Eckhart Tolle's video seemed to pop into my life echoing what I am presently reading in A Course. He speaks to this Universal Presence that exists within the 'thousand forms' that seems to define us all as individuals.  We get hung up on the body/bodies but the body is merely a vehicle to house this Presence. 

Breezes Through Open Windows

Tolle, in the video, describes how people will often try to get physically closer to him because they feel so much peace coming from him that in turn makes them feel more peaceful. He described what they felt coming from him as ' breeze' because the window of his body and mind is opened...so the breeze flows easily  through.  Everyone, he said. Wants to be close to the breeze.  He then said that they too have the breeze flowing in them or else they would not even recognize the breeze coming from him.  His open window leads to them opening their own so their breeze can flow through comforting others as well.  Thus is the nature of true teaching and learning.

When we look into the eyes of a loved one...we may also sense this essence, this breeze.  A peace and love may seem to be coming from the other person that makes us feel peaceful and loved.  What we don't realize is that it is not the form that makes us feel peaceful...it is the presence that is the peace and love they emanate, that is in us. 

Beyond Connection

What we are feeling is not just 'a connection' but a Oneness that goes beyond connection. They are not just like us...they are us. The same presence in them is in us.  Their transparency is reflecting who we are!   What we are actually feeling is the peace and love in us. What we are experiencing is the presence that is in us.  What we may someday realize is that there really is nothing 'outside' of us.

So what is this Oneness?  A Course calls it God the Father's Love; Eckhart Tolle refers to is as spacious presence, the Buddhists call it Truth.  It is referred to as Source, the Universal flow of energy, Life, consciousness and in so many other ways.  Could it be that They are all the same thing unifying all of us?

For he is part of me and I of him, and we are part of You Who are our Source, eternally united in Your Love.-ACIM-W-262:1:8

The point is we are not separated by body lines or anything in this physical world.  Something much deeper and much more real than flesh and bone is unifying us. What would the world be like if we all realized that truth?

Nobody is more divine, closer to the Source, to God than you. The only difference, maybe, is that you don't know how close you are.
-Eckhart Tolle

Hmmm! Food for thought.

All is well in my world.

References

ACIM

Video: Namaste Publishing  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zcurl7QUCw

Do not affirm or defend your form identity.
-Eckhart Tolle

Tolle echoes what A Course says about the body living in this world of form.  Identifying with form is nonsense because form is impermanent.  Yet we do so much, don't we, to affirm who we are based on the ideologies of the physical world?  We identify with our bodies, with what we own, where we live, what we do. and we will go so far as to defend or even attack (sometimes kill) to preserve this identity, won't we?

The Dali Llama, as well as all Buddhist sages, teaches "Nothing is permanent." We will lose the things we worked so hard to gain, we will lose our possessions, our things, our social recognition,...and we will lose our youth, our health and our physical bodies eventually.  Identifying with this world will only bring pain and suffering (Dukkha)

Nothing of this physical world will last so why do we identify with it?  We fail to realize that we are so much more than this body.  Eckhart Tolle reminds us,

"At the heart of you, and at the heart of the universe, which is the same thing there is a timeless essence.  Yes there is a temporal you[a physical you; a body] ...and there is a nonphysical being, a higher self and then there is the transcendent dimension."

Why limit ourselves to the temporal when are so much more? Why suffer when we can embrace our beingness?  Why stay stuck in this limited and painful dimension when we can transcend it by being fully present and alive?  We can be transparent allowing this timeless presence to shine through or we can be fearful, hiding it behind imagined borders that need defending.

The thing is this presence we hide away in separate  body forms is not separate...It does not belong to me...and it does not belong to you.  It is something that can not be owned or possessed nor can it be separated by body lines. It is everything and everyone.  You are this presence; I am this presence.  How then  can it be attained, contained  and subject to loss?

Bodies do not need protection from other bodies.  These lines can not hold back who we really are.  Though it appears we are separated by flesh, we are not separated by presence.  Presence is Love. Exchange fear for Love and see this higher Self shine through. 

Love your neighbour as yourself because you know your neighbor is yourself.-Tolle

All is well.

References

Namaste publishing (2001)Eckhart Tolle Omega 6.  Retrieved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zcurl7QUCw