You dont need to do big things to change the world, you only need to change yourself. Determination and positivity gives positive life experiences, and when many of us focus our thoughts in this way it inspires positive world events. The same happens when we think too much on the undesirable. Focusing too much on your distaste for 'war', for example, and the decisions surrounding it will never bring lasting peace. Although you intend peace, you also feed the conflict.
A love of peace and a demonstration, or manifestation, of peace in our own lives is a far more efficient method for lasting peace. The peace you create within yourself then inspires you to speak and behave differently which has immediate effects with the people that you come into contact with, and it vibrates through the web of collective unconscious minds, inspiring peace in other people and other places, that you don't even know or never even have been.
Overall, every person and every thought, emotion, idea and dream contributes to the landscape of humanity. There is no one more important or less important than you, only people with different roles. Everyone's presence aids to the collective consciousness. If we want the world to be different, each of our intentions contributes to the whole and changes it in someway, like creating a website changes the information content of the internet. Every thought, emotion, value is valid. However, consistency is the important part. If you want to see something change, take a look at your own mind and thoughts of what you are consistently projecting out there for everyone to see. Of course its hard and many people have to resolve personal suffering first in order to bring thoughts, attitudes and actions into alignment with what you wish to see. Individuality in this way is heroic as our values and personal validation really do reflect and effect society. We are all more powerful than we think we are.
Many people will look down on events that are undesirable, almost hating people for not doing anything to change things while never realizing that they themselves have a constant hand in their creation. Mindfulness of yourself is what I am trying to say. Being mindful is taking personal responsibility for your own life and for the part you play in the world. We are all separate pieces of inspiration to people all around the world. Who you choose to be impacts people you come into contact with, and through the web, the people you do not and the places you've never been.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Small Thoughts, Heavy Gravity
=Hope=
If anything has ever held me back in life it has been the concept of hope. I am realizing that hope is important for many people because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow we will be better we can bear a hardship today. But that is the most that hope can do for us - to make some ridiculous hardship lighter. But when I reflect deeper into the concept of hope, I see something pretty tragic. Since we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment, and thus life is literally flying by. We use hope to believe something better will happen in the future, that we will arrive at peace sometime soon..hopefully. Hope becomes a kind of obstacle. If you can refrain from hoping, you can bring yourself entirely into the present moment and discover all the joy that is already there...We must go back to the present moment in order to really be alive.
Western civilization places so much emphasis on the idea of hope that we sacrifce the present moment. Hope is for the future. It can not help us discover joy, happiness or peace in the present. I do not mean that we should not have hope, but essentially that hope is not enough. Hope can create an obstacle for you and if you dwell too much on it, we can not live entirely in the present, where we can find that joy and peace are inside of us and all around us.
=Essence of Cohabitation=
Every person has an essence. Our essence defines our existence, likewise our existence does not predetermine our essence. When it comes to living with someone in equilibrium and happiness, we have to see the essence of the person. Once we see it, we understand him or her, and there will be no trouble. We can live peacefully and happily together.
For instance, when we bring natural gas into our homes for heating and cooking, we know the essence of the gas. We know that gas is dangerous, it could kill us if we are not mindful. But we also know that we need the gas to cook, so we do not hesitate to bring it into our homes. The same is true of electricity. We could get electrocuted!, but we know the essence of the electricity. A person is the same way. If we do not know enough about the essence of that person, we may get ourselves into trouble. But if we know, then we can enjoy each other person to his or her full potential and benefit a lot from one another. The key is knowing a person's essence. We do not expect a person always to be a flower. We have to understand his or her garbage that is the foundation of the flower...
=What's not wrong?=
Why is it such a familar practice to ask..WHAT'S WRONG? For the lord's sake, doing this we invite all the painful seeds of sorry to come up and manifest 1 or 100 times over in that person. We feel suffering, anger, and depression, and produce more such seeds. We would be much happier with our relationships and with ourselves if we tried to stay in touch with the healthy, joyful seeds inside of us and around us. We should learn to ask WHAT'S NOT WRONG? and be in touch with this. There are so many elements in the world and within our bodies, feelings, perceptions, and consciousness that are wholesome, refreshing, and healing. If we block ourselves, if we stay in the prison of our sorrow, we will not be in touch with these healing elements.
Life is full of little things and instances compact with simple beauty, and many of us have to change the way we look at them to fully appreciate them. Like breathing for example. We don't need to wait until we have Asthma to enjoy our breathing. Awareness of the precious elements of happiness is itself the practice of right mindfulness. Elements like this are within us and all around us. In each second of our lives we can enjoy them. If we do so, seeds of happiness will be planted within us, 1 to 100 times over again. The only way to or to get something is through that something. The only way to happiness is happiness itself. Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, a tree, the presence of a friend, numerous simple things. We don't have to travel anywhere else to do this. We can be in touch with these things right now...
If anything has ever held me back in life it has been the concept of hope. I am realizing that hope is important for many people because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow we will be better we can bear a hardship today. But that is the most that hope can do for us - to make some ridiculous hardship lighter. But when I reflect deeper into the concept of hope, I see something pretty tragic. Since we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment, and thus life is literally flying by. We use hope to believe something better will happen in the future, that we will arrive at peace sometime soon..hopefully. Hope becomes a kind of obstacle. If you can refrain from hoping, you can bring yourself entirely into the present moment and discover all the joy that is already there...We must go back to the present moment in order to really be alive.
Western civilization places so much emphasis on the idea of hope that we sacrifce the present moment. Hope is for the future. It can not help us discover joy, happiness or peace in the present. I do not mean that we should not have hope, but essentially that hope is not enough. Hope can create an obstacle for you and if you dwell too much on it, we can not live entirely in the present, where we can find that joy and peace are inside of us and all around us.
=Essence of Cohabitation=
Every person has an essence. Our essence defines our existence, likewise our existence does not predetermine our essence. When it comes to living with someone in equilibrium and happiness, we have to see the essence of the person. Once we see it, we understand him or her, and there will be no trouble. We can live peacefully and happily together.
For instance, when we bring natural gas into our homes for heating and cooking, we know the essence of the gas. We know that gas is dangerous, it could kill us if we are not mindful. But we also know that we need the gas to cook, so we do not hesitate to bring it into our homes. The same is true of electricity. We could get electrocuted!, but we know the essence of the electricity. A person is the same way. If we do not know enough about the essence of that person, we may get ourselves into trouble. But if we know, then we can enjoy each other person to his or her full potential and benefit a lot from one another. The key is knowing a person's essence. We do not expect a person always to be a flower. We have to understand his or her garbage that is the foundation of the flower...
=What's not wrong?=
Why is it such a familar practice to ask..WHAT'S WRONG? For the lord's sake, doing this we invite all the painful seeds of sorry to come up and manifest 1 or 100 times over in that person. We feel suffering, anger, and depression, and produce more such seeds. We would be much happier with our relationships and with ourselves if we tried to stay in touch with the healthy, joyful seeds inside of us and around us. We should learn to ask WHAT'S NOT WRONG? and be in touch with this. There are so many elements in the world and within our bodies, feelings, perceptions, and consciousness that are wholesome, refreshing, and healing. If we block ourselves, if we stay in the prison of our sorrow, we will not be in touch with these healing elements.
Life is full of little things and instances compact with simple beauty, and many of us have to change the way we look at them to fully appreciate them. Like breathing for example. We don't need to wait until we have Asthma to enjoy our breathing. Awareness of the precious elements of happiness is itself the practice of right mindfulness. Elements like this are within us and all around us. In each second of our lives we can enjoy them. If we do so, seeds of happiness will be planted within us, 1 to 100 times over again. The only way to or to get something is through that something. The only way to happiness is happiness itself. Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, a tree, the presence of a friend, numerous simple things. We don't have to travel anywhere else to do this. We can be in touch with these things right now...
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