Ξ January 31st, 2007 | → 13 Comments | ∇ Life |
The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life. The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is… Eckhart Tolle I believe that to be true. If it is true, he is also saying there is some pain which we don’t create ourselves. What kind of pain is that? I have been witness several times to an example of that type of pain. The pain a mother feels when something accidental, unavoidable happens to her child, regardless of the child’s age. It could be nothing more than a scraped knee, a small cut on the finger, or something quite benign as injuries go, but the mother doesn’t see it that way. All you have to do is observe her. The pain is just as great to her as to the child. This goes for psychological pain as well as physical pain. I’m not sure mothers fully fit his pattern. Recently, I observed a mother in the midst of dealing with an emotional tragedy which had stricken her child as the result of poor choices. It resulted in her child losing his job. It was a good job, one with a great future. But that’s neither here nor there…It was obvious to me who was suffering the most. Was it her fault? Did she do or fail to do something which could have prevented this unfortunate event from happening? No. She had absolutely no control over the unfolding events. Did that matter to her? No. She still wept as though it had happened to her. In many ways it had. This is her child. Her flesh and blood was suffering. It was as emotional to her as to the child, yet she was several hundred miles away at the time. What is the connection that ties the child’s pain to her; that makes her feel so deeply. It may look to all on the outside that the event happened not to the child, but to her. We as humans, share spiritual ties to one another in ways that we haven’t even begun to understand. I believe there are fields of energy, spiritual energy, which are transferred between humans that are tangible. I’m not at all convinced that proximity has much to do with the potency of that energy. All of us have felt this energy at one time or another. Why else would we cry when another is suffering? Why else would we break out in perspiration when a certain person is near? Why would we be embarrassed when someone else executes a real faux pas? We are so tuned in to ourselves that we, more often than not, miss these spiritual exchanges. They are what binds us together as living beings. We need to pay more attention to our fellow travelers on the same journey as ourselves. We are so self-centered that we hardly notice what is going on all around us, except on rare occasions. We are so attuned to our own selves….with one very noticeable exception…………mothers.
Pain is inevitable on this plain, suffering is optional……
Ξ January 28th, 2007 | → 3 Comments | ∇ Life |
Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing.
Ξ January 27th, 2007 | → 3 Comments | ∇ Life |
What will be left of all the fearing and wanting associated with your problematic life situation that everyday takes up most of your attention?……
A dash – one or two inches long, between the date of birth and the date of death on your gravestone………..
Ξ January 22nd, 2007 | → 5 Comments | ∇ Life |
According to an ancient story, there lived a king in a middle eastern land who was continually torn between happiness and despondency. He could go from extreme happiness to utter despondency in a matter of minutes. He finally grew tired of this situation and decided something must be done or he would surely die. He sent for a man who lived in his kingdom who was said to be very wise and was reputed to be enlightened. When the wise man came, he appeared before the king. The king said to him, “I want to be like you. Can you give me something that will bring balance and serenity in my life? I will pay any price you ask.” The wise man said, “I may be able to help you, but it would cost you more than the value of your kingdom. I will therefore, give it to you as a gift. But, you must promise to honor the gift.” The king gave his assurances and the wise man left. A few weeks later, the wise man returned and gave to the king an ornate box, carved in jade. The king opened the box and inside was a simple gold ring. An inscription was carved on the ring. It read. “This too will pass”. “What is the meaning of this?”, said the king. The wise man said, “Wear this ring always. Whatever happens, before you call it good or bad, touch the ring and read the inscription. That way, you will always be at peace.”
What is the power of those simple words. Superficially, it seems that while they could provide comfort in a bad situation, they would also diminish the enjoyment of the good things in life. Seeming to say, “Don’t be too happy because it won’t last. The full import of these words only come clear when we consider two other ideas: non-resistance to what IS, and non-judgment of what IS. Then, with these two ideas, the story of the ring will bring us to the third idea; which points to impermanence, which when recognized, leads to non-attachment. (This is the idea that we shouldn’t become attached to things that will not last. It speaks to the materialism of the world today). Non-resistance, non-judgment, and non-attachment, are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living. The words on the ring are not to prevent you from enjoying the good moments in your life nor are they there only to provide comfort at times of suffering. They have a deeper purpose; to make you aware of the fleetingness of every situation, which is due to the transient nature of material things, good or bad. When you become aware of the transient nature of things, attachment lessens and you don’t identify with them as much and make them a part of who you are. Once you see and accept the transient nature of all things, and the inevitability of change, you can actually enjoy the pleasant things of this earth even more because you understand the true nature of them, their transience. There will be no fear of loss or anxiety about the future because you understand this. When you are detached, you gain a higher vantage point to view the events in your life, instead of being trapped inside them. It’s like an astronaut who views the earth, seeing it surrounded by the vastness of space and realizes a paradoxical truth; the earth is precious and at the same time insignificant. How is it that we all become like the king in the story, wanting a simple answer to our complex problems? Yet the answer is simple. Don’t become attached to transient things, things of impermanence. Non-resistance to what is, non-judgment of what is and non-attachment to impermanent things are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living in today’s world.
*paraphrased from, A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle
Ξ January 18th, 2007 | → 7 Comments | ∇ Life |
While reading blogs recently, it has come to my attention that a lot of us are haunted either unconsciously or consciously by things in our past. I have heard more than one person say, paraphrasing here, “if I could just get it out in the open, deal with it, I would be so much better off”. When we delve into the past, it quickly becomes a bottomless pit. There is ALWAYS more! You may think that you need more time to understand the past or become free of it. In other words, that the future (time to come) will eventually free you of the past. This is a delusion. Only the present can free you of the past. MORE time cannot free you OF time. You must deal with the past on the level of the present. The more attention you give to the past, the more you energize it, and the more likely you are to make it a permanent part of yourself, rather than freeing yourself of it. You need to be able to stand back and look at your past without making judgements on yourself or others. Don’t be critical. By continually giving attention to the present, you will be dealing with the past, and dissolving it and all that goes with it that you find so unpleasant, through the power of being present (putting all your attention to what is happening in your life now).
*ideas and some paraphrasings, and quotations from Tolle’s, “Power of Now”
Ξ January 14th, 2007 | → 7 Comments | ∇ Life |
*Sorry, but the B.C. comic has been taken down. They only keep them available for 30 days.Here is another post I wrote on "free will. http://donrogers.org/?p=197 Martin Zender has written a short book on the subject. See it here: http://www.martinzender.com/books_etc.htm Here’s another article by Martin on "Free Will": http://www.martinzender.com/Zenderature/free_will_and_the_oh_well_creed.htm Hope these help.
As you might have already surmised from my previous post on Non-Sequitur, I am a big fan of the comics. I say, start the day on a "good" note. B.C. is also one of my favorite comics. Most of the time Johnny Hart presents great and funny stuff. Every once in a while, he throws in his religious point of view. That’s OK, freedom of expression and all that, ya know. Today’s (Sunday’s) comic is the first one I’ve noticed since coming into the knowledge of the gospel of grace, that deals with a topic that I have since deposited into the refuse heap of religious doctrines; The Doctrine of Free Will. For your perusal, here’s a link to B.C. : http://www.comics.com/creators/bc/index.html When will we all take ourselves out of the redemption picture and give all credit where credit is due, to HIM.
Ξ January 12th, 2007 | → 8 Comments | ∇ Life |
As my journey in search of life and truth continues at a fast pace, there is something I want my friends out in bloggyland to know. First of all, I do not tell you this to elict sympathy or pity because I do not like either of those words. Never have liked the word pity and I prefer empathy to sympathy. Don’t know why, I just do. But I digress.
About 2 years ago I found out that I have a CSF (cerebro-spinal fluid) leak in my head. This was discovered only because I had a tube replaced in my left ear after one had come out some months earlier. If I had no tube replaced in that ear, the fluid would have simply gone down my throat and I possibly would never have known about it until it was too late. By too late, I mean CSF leaks frequently lead to Bacterial spinal meningitis, which is really bad stuff. I don’t how long it had been leaking when I discovered it and it was diagnosed.
The Neurosurgeon which I saw wanted to repair it as soon as possible. So, I had neurosurgery to repair the leak last February, but the surgery failed to do the job. Then again, last July, a world renowned ENT at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas did a mastoidectomy to repair the leak. Well, it’s back again…. Today I had an MRI and CT scans done at Southwestern. Next week sometime I hope to hear the prognosis. I am probably facing a third surgery in less than a year!! Joy, Joy! Let me say now that the surgeries were not too bad. I recovered quite quickly. It is just the fact that they can’t seem to get me patched up successfully. I mean if we know how to patch a tire, why not my head!
My good friend, Chaplain Roy and I have talked about this condition several times. He’s a great comfort and has helped to allay my fears. There are lots of bad things that could happen from this condition, the worst being a fatal case of meningitis. At my age, the chances go down a lot if I contract a case. I will be perfectly honest, I don’t worry much at all about the outcome. I think about it once in a while, but don’t dwell on it. I trust God to do his will for my life and whatever is OK with me. As I recently listened to the audiobook of "The Power of Now", by Tolle, I was impressed by something he said. Tolle says that our compulsive, egoic minds can really make us miserable when it compulsively dwells on health problems (like mine). I have found that to be so true. I only worried a lot about the condition at the beginning; for maybe the first month. Then, I gradually began to feel a peace about it. And, after a while, it was as if it wasn’t all that serious a deal. I know that was the peace of God that came over me. It wasn’t a flash of light, a voice from heaven, or anything similar. Just a warm, peace. "Surrender to what is", as Tolle puts it. I had never heard that phrase before a couple of weeks ago, but it is exactly what happened to me. I don’t worry about the future. I trust the physicians who are treating me. But most of all, I trust my God. I put myself in His hands some time before I realized I had done it.
I have thought a lot about death lately, but not in a negative sense. Can you do that?? You can. I have! Anyway, Chaplain Roy’s promised to do my service, if and when there’s a need!! Sometimes I say to myself, "how can you speak so lighthearted about such a serious life situation." The answer is that God has given me peace about it, THE PEACE OF GOD….
Ξ January 9th, 2007 | → 5 Comments | ∇ Life |
This post is a dialogue taken from Eckhart Tolle’s THE POWER OF NOW. It is his thoughts and my thoughts on his thoughts. Quotes from the text will be shown in italics, my thoughts in regular text.
Your life exhibits a cyclical nature. Cycles of success when things come to you and thrive, cycles of failure when they wither and disentegrate. You must let the failures go, to make way for the new to arise or for transformation to happen. If you cling to what failed and resist the failure at that point, it means you are refusing to go with the flow of life and you will suffer.
It is not true that the up cycle is good and the down cycle is bad; except in the mind’s judgement. Growth is usually considered positive. But, nothing can grow forever. If growth, of whatever kind, were to go on and on, it would eventually become monstrous and destructive. Dissolution is needed for new growth to happen. One cannot exist without the other. The down cycle is absolutely essential for spiritual realization.You must have failed deeply on some level or experienced some deep loss or pain to be drawn to the spiritual dimension.
I have found this to be absolutely true for me, personally, and for many people that I know. Read MY STORY, on this blog for further proof of that fact. This is a deep spiritual truth in and of itself.
Perhaps even your very success became empty or meaningless and so turned out to be a failure. Failure lies concealed in every success, and success in every failure. In this world, on the level of the material , everybody fails sooner or later of course, and every achievement eventually comes to nothing. All material things are impermanent. All things come to an end. The cyclical nature of the universe is linked to the impermanence of all things and situations. Impermanence is central to much of Jesus’ teaching. He said,”Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal.” Change is inevitable. The things or persons or positions or even our bodies that may make us happy today, do not satisfy tomorrow because they have ended or changed or at least they have changed in the mind’s view of things. A condition in your life may simply disappear and it’s absence makes you unhappy. The mind cannot accept the change. When the mind identifies with a condition, that is by it’s nature, impermanent, and so changes, the mind will cling, desperately cling, to the situation or condition, even though it is an illusion; impermanent. To seek something through a condition, situation, or person, that they or it cannot give; an identity, a sense of permanency and fulfillment, is a recipe for frustration and suffering. The whole advertising industry and consumer society would collapse if people no longer sought to find their identity through material things. The more you seek happiness in this way, the more it will elude you. Nothing out there will satisfy you, except temporarily and superficially, but you may need to experience many disillusionments before you realize that truth. things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they can also give you pain. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you JOY. Nothing can give you JOY. Joy is uncaused and arises from within as the JOY OF BEING. The JOY of oneness with the spirit of God; the state of PEACE, the PEACE of God; your natural state, not something you have to work hard for or struggle to obtain. You must learn that all is impermanent and therefore, you must offer no resistance to what IS; learn to allow the present moment to BE and to accept the impermanent nature of all things and conditions. Through this, you can find that peace. The true peace of God.
Ξ January 4th, 2007 | → 5 Comments | ∇ Life |
From, The Power of Now, by Eckart Tolle:
“Only those who have transcended the world can bring about a better world.
The dual nature of true compassion is an awareness of a common bond of shared mortality and immortality. At this deep level, compassion becomes healing in the widest sense. In that state, your healing influence is primarily based on not doing, but on being. Everyone you come in contact with, will be touched by your presence, and affected by the peace which you emanate, whether they are aware of it or not……..You teach through being, through demonstrating the peace of God. You become the light of the world, an emanation of pure consciousness, and so you eliminate suffering on the level of cause. You eliminate unconsciousness from the world.”
To me this sounds a lot like Jesus, and His ministry here on earth. The New Testament speaks of how people were changed merely by being in the presence of Jesus. The Apostle Peter spoke of partaking in the divine nature. Since God is in us ALL, could it be that Tolle’s ascertion applies quite well to us.
*If you haven’t read, The Power of Now, it would be well worth your time…
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