Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Again, the Subject of Change
Change is usually not something that is wished for, but rather something that is called for. As an example, use yourself. When you were first born, your needs were basic: to be fed, to attend to your body's needs, to be loved. In no time at all, those needs changed, because you had grown into a new stage of your life. Your entire life has been one of change from the simple fact of your growth as a Human Being. Take a good look at yourself today and notice the changes that have occurred since the time of your birth. It's astounding! A big change was leaving home for the first time as an independent adult, or finding a spouse, or having a child. All of these events brought about personal change, often not wished for but necessary if your life were to succeed in a satisfactory and fulfilling way. Your ability to flow with that change makes all the difference in your life.
Now we can change our focus from a personal one to a societal one. Most of us have read history books, not just of the United States, but of the world as a whole. Our recorded history shows the same set of changes that occurred to you as an individual, the change that is and always has been a response to growth. The world of today is vastly different from the one we read about thousands of years ago, or even hundreds of years ago, or even ten years ago. Growth goes on uninterrupted, no matter what the wish is, and with that growth, the change that flows hand-in-hand with it. If you were to attempt to impress social or political mores of two centuries ago on the United States today, you at first would be laughed at, and later, seriously considered a lunatic.
Can you remember life before cell-phones? Can you not witness the power of change, instrumented by only one device? How long did you resist this change? Do you still have a "land-line" in your home? Why? For "old-time's-sake"?
The past, the "good old days", is, in our memory, alluring. Everyone remembers the good old days, not realizing that today will be someone else's good old days. Change can be fearful while it occurs, and we find comfort in the "stability"of the past, not remembering the tension of change even then.
I find change fascinating, and my only regret at the time of my passing from this world will be that I will not be around to witness the future changes. For example, I would like to have the opportunity to witness this planet from space, something that in the future will be just an every-day, ordinary experience.
Embrace change. It's necessary, and it's good.
Now we can change our focus from a personal one to a societal one. Most of us have read history books, not just of the United States, but of the world as a whole. Our recorded history shows the same set of changes that occurred to you as an individual, the change that is and always has been a response to growth. The world of today is vastly different from the one we read about thousands of years ago, or even hundreds of years ago, or even ten years ago. Growth goes on uninterrupted, no matter what the wish is, and with that growth, the change that flows hand-in-hand with it. If you were to attempt to impress social or political mores of two centuries ago on the United States today, you at first would be laughed at, and later, seriously considered a lunatic.
Can you remember life before cell-phones? Can you not witness the power of change, instrumented by only one device? How long did you resist this change? Do you still have a "land-line" in your home? Why? For "old-time's-sake"?
The past, the "good old days", is, in our memory, alluring. Everyone remembers the good old days, not realizing that today will be someone else's good old days. Change can be fearful while it occurs, and we find comfort in the "stability"of the past, not remembering the tension of change even then.
I find change fascinating, and my only regret at the time of my passing from this world will be that I will not be around to witness the future changes. For example, I would like to have the opportunity to witness this planet from space, something that in the future will be just an every-day, ordinary experience.
Embrace change. It's necessary, and it's good.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Time
Time has become a preoccupation for many of us, we are surrounded by clocks and watches of all sorts, and we use time to schedule practically everything. It is a "yardstick" by which we measure our world. But there is one element of time we pay little attention to, and that element is the "moment". While one may be able to relate to me their schedule of time on a daily basis, such as what time they wake-up, what time they have meals, when they have to be at work, when a particular television program is aired, when they go to sleep, few can find the answer when I ask the question, "What are you doing at this particular moment?", because they have no real understanding of the concept of a "moment" in time.
Mastering the "moment" creates a mastership of Time itself, replacing the preoccupation one has with it. If one is true to each moment in his life, a flow is created that is never ending. Their is no regret, or guilt, over events of the past, and there is never fear of what may occur in the future, because the proper attention was given at that time or will be given when necessary.
Every experience I have in life is an element of the total me. If I invest myself completely and truly in each experience, sorrow or fear can have no meaning for me. I am not sorry for what I did yesterday, and have no fear of what tomorrow will bring my way.
Living in the moment eliminates guilt and fear. Who doesn't have time for that?
Mastering the "moment" creates a mastership of Time itself, replacing the preoccupation one has with it. If one is true to each moment in his life, a flow is created that is never ending. Their is no regret, or guilt, over events of the past, and there is never fear of what may occur in the future, because the proper attention was given at that time or will be given when necessary.
Every experience I have in life is an element of the total me. If I invest myself completely and truly in each experience, sorrow or fear can have no meaning for me. I am not sorry for what I did yesterday, and have no fear of what tomorrow will bring my way.
Living in the moment eliminates guilt and fear. Who doesn't have time for that?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The BP Experience
We have been trained by the world we live in to reach outward to find expression. In so doing, we depend on those outside forces to give us a personal identity and in the process remove us from personal responsibility. Hence, anything that occurs for us individually is the result of something that is basically out of our personal control. In that way we can absolve ourselves from any setback and make it the fault of something or someone else. We assign blame outward.
The model for this outward expression exists within most organized religions, as God is defined as an entity that is removed from us, something that exists "out there". Authority is received from without in this ultimate sense, and then everything else is a "trickle-down", from God to Government to Job to Spouse to Teacher to Family to Mother. Everything, it seems, is produced and directed from the outside-in. In this scenario, the self, then, is but the victim, and most of us feel victimized all of the time. "The Devil made me do it!!"
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the fault of British Petroleum. Period. We assign no personal blame in any way to ourselves, even though we have become so dependent on energy that we will go to war to secure it. In America, the cry is ever "more, more, more". We never get enough of anything, everything must be fast, and it must be easy. And whenever anything goes wrong, we fuss like small children and throw the blame outward.
It's time to grow up. It's time to reestablish the "self" and the realization that you are always the Creator and never the Victim. You do not exist because of your world, your world exists because of you, is but a reflection of the condition you find yourself in.
The BP accident is my fault, and I take full responsibility for the ongoing atrocity.
The model for this outward expression exists within most organized religions, as God is defined as an entity that is removed from us, something that exists "out there". Authority is received from without in this ultimate sense, and then everything else is a "trickle-down", from God to Government to Job to Spouse to Teacher to Family to Mother. Everything, it seems, is produced and directed from the outside-in. In this scenario, the self, then, is but the victim, and most of us feel victimized all of the time. "The Devil made me do it!!"
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the fault of British Petroleum. Period. We assign no personal blame in any way to ourselves, even though we have become so dependent on energy that we will go to war to secure it. In America, the cry is ever "more, more, more". We never get enough of anything, everything must be fast, and it must be easy. And whenever anything goes wrong, we fuss like small children and throw the blame outward.
It's time to grow up. It's time to reestablish the "self" and the realization that you are always the Creator and never the Victim. You do not exist because of your world, your world exists because of you, is but a reflection of the condition you find yourself in.
The BP accident is my fault, and I take full responsibility for the ongoing atrocity.
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