Wanting the Future to Come Sooner

Waking at 5:30

 

Restless, Getting up

Sitting on the cushion

Dissatisfaction arises

What are the next steps

What must change

When must change

 

The future is an illusion

Ramana Marharshi writes

There is no Destiny

There is no Free Will

Being present

Right now, now, now

I get up to write this

Is this Spiritual Bypass

Is this a Gift

Heading back to the cushion…

Fixed Political Beliefs Make Us Stupid

I love studies that show us the truth about who we are as humans. 

Yale law professor Dan Kahan did a study that shows that smart people cannot “do the math,” if it goes against what they believe.  The article in Mother Jones outlines this nicely and links to the original article:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/new-study-politics-makes-you-innumerate

When given data that gun control doesn’t reduce crime, liberal types with excellent math skills interpreted the data as if the gun controls did work.  The same was true for math savvy conservatives given data that gun controls helped decrease crime. 

This is about gun control.  However, professor Kahan has written about similar studies regarding drug legalization. 

 

So what does this mean about who we are as humans?

We are frail creatures, full of fear of the unknown.  We are fearful of loss, fearful of death.  If we are wrong, it can feel that we are dying.  Loss of the Ego can feel like death. 

Much of this same way of thinking I see in scientists who can’t believe there can be anything beyond the science that they think they know well. 

As Thomas Kuhn wrote about paradigm shifts, often the people “in charge” need to die before new ideas can be accepted. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift

Once again, I advocate, “letting go.”  Let go of any fixed belief.  Be open to new ideas.  Dialogue and spend time with people who have different beliefs than your own.  Sit with your own beliefs and examine them for flaws. 

Anything that raises your emotions may be the best place to examine for false beliefs.  Sometimes we don’t know the truth.  Better to admit this than to carry and try to spread your own false beliefs. 

I am not immune from false beliefs.  Yet, I try to stay open to all possibilities of truth. 

Drink from life and ideas with a sense of humor. 

Remember, there are only 3 Commandments: 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/04/enlightenment-part-5-final-secret.html

Acknowledge that there is only One Source,

Love Everything, by doing no harm,

then

Enjoy Yourself, and all that surrounds you! 

Sacred Awakening

3:30 AM

Awake

Laying prone

Breathing in, breathing out

The worries arise, and then slip away, with each breath

Getting up,

                to sit,

                        on the cushion

Feeling deep within the bones

The dirt of corporal being

Stardust 

            animated by Spirit

Empty Fullness

Light in the Dark

           De-light in the Dark

With each breath

 

Everything slips away

And 

there never was

Anything 

to slip away

Anyway…

Enlightenment is a Verb

I was thinking about Steven Covey’s guidelines for living well.  I liked his statement that “love is a verb.”  Love is action.  The good feelings we get when we are “in love” are the gifts from engaging in loving actions. 

http://www.build-creative-writing-ideas.com/stephen-covey-love.html

You are always already enlightened.  The funny part is that Source hides this away from us.  Source hides and we seek. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-first-commandment-part-2.html

So we have no need to label any human as “enlightened.”  Enlightenment is simply right actions strung together.  That is the Second Commandment “Love Everything.”

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-second-commandment-love-everything.html

Like ivory soap, we can only be perhaps 99.4% pure.

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/04/what-is-health.html

But, we can get closer and closer to having all our actions be right actions. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/04/enlightenment-part-5-final-secret.html

Yes, follow your intuition. 

 

Choose your own pathway toward stringing together right actions. 

Then bathe in the feelings of being blessed with the gift of traveling in this world. 

Do I Have to Be Perfect?

I was thinking about the 3 commandments (followed in strict order, of course).

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-second-commandment-love-everything.html

1-There is only One Source. 

            2-Love Everything. 

                        3-Enjoy Yourself. 

Then I wondered, would people feel that had to be perfect in following these Commandments?   What if you were my friend, and you screwed up. 

You did something that put Enjoy Yourself ahead of Love Everything.   Maybe, you had a steamy affair.  Or, you hurt someone for what, at the time, looked like a good cause. 

Would you be afraid that I would think badly of you?

 

First of all, that would assume that I did everything perfectly myself. 

And that would be a wrong assumption.

I am human, just like everyone else.  I mess up just as often.  Well, I never had an affair.  But, I have many other faults. 

I can be jealous of others.  Perhaps they don’t have to work.  Or, maybe they don’t work any harder than I do, but make loads more money. 

I have my hungry ghosts and I spend a bit more than I really should. 

The key is Radical Acceptance.  

I forgive myself for those transgressions.  I try not to shoot that second arrow. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-second-arrow-is-optional.html

Therefore, I also forgive my friends.  They are also allowed to make the “Oh so human mistakes” that simply being alive brings to us. 

Yes, following the 3 Commandments in strict order can be helpful in living a less stressful life. 

But, forgive yourself when you are not perfect. 

And, forgive me when I am not perfect. 

Then we can travel together, laughing at our imperfections. 

Perhaps,

            sharing

                        a nice red wine…