State of Being
Recently, my air conditioner went out. For about a week my husband, dogs and cats had to cope with above average hot temperatures while we waited for the machine to be fixed. We would open the windows even when the wind was blowing like mad. As a result everything in my house became covered in a thick dust. For a clean freak like me that thick layer of dust was disgusting. I've had to learn not to care so much about it as my husband routinely opens up the windows and allows a lot of dust into the house. If I were to maintain the house on the level my mom kept our house as a kid I would continiously be dusting. I wouldn't have time fo ranything else. My husband was trying to become grumpy. I mean really grumpy. He wondered how I could be in such a good mood. I explained to him, "This is just temporary. This will last a week and no more. That's not long. We can do this." Put in that terms, instead of wallowing in the moment of unpleasentness, we were able to continue on. Neither of us were in a bad mood. Yes, I could have focused on how dirty the house was and be absolutely misreable if I had chosen that...but I chose to focus on the fact that this was a temporary interesting experience. By knowing that this was a limited experience it made it endurable. I could endure through it knowing that it wasn't a permanent experience. That's how I feel about life in general. Often times, life can be pretty rotten. There are beautiful moments and beautiful expereinces. Yet, we often feel we are facing an uphill battle. There seems to be so much going against us in this world...yet, it is a fleeting temporary experience. Of course, to look at it as a temporary experience you have to believe that you're an eternal soul. Without that component you will think this miserable little world is all-that-is which is clearly not true. Nor is this world really that misreable. All of it is a state of perspective. Holding On I've been that type of person who holds on to things. I would stretch out eating a box of candy to over a week. I'd use very little of my favorite loition so that it lasted for years. I don't wear some shirts because I want to keep them nice. Since I do this I still have some shirts from high school...oh and yes, they do still fit. I try to make things last instead of just letting them go. As a result, sometimes I had to throw out that candy because it went bad or others discoverd them and ate them. In trying to hold onto some of the things that I liked so much I actually lost the opportunity to enjoy them. Letting Go Realizing that the general rule of this world is that everything is temporary when things fall apart you can let go of them naturally. You're no longer trying to hold onto the illusion that every company, object, person, place or thing will last forever. Instead, you realize that it was just a temporary thing to start with and that nothing here lasts forever. Then you can let go of the little things. For me, I can really enjoy my favorite things without guilt that I used up the last of it. Emotional States Emotional states are also temporary. I know the PTSD and the panic attacks were my refusal to deal with the emotional fall out after my daughters death. I went through a phase of blaming, being numb, feeling guilty and generally hating the the world. At first, I buried all of those feelings deep because I needed to get through a galbladder surgery right after everything happened. I was afraied that a weakened emotional state would lead to a weaker body and possible death. Then I simply couldn't process what happened. The pain was too much to dwell within. Then I started my spiritual work and came to this teaching again. I had read it before in Sakyong Miphams Turning the Mind Into an Ally and Pema Chodron When Things Fall Apart. By finally letting go and allowing myself to feel those emotional states I was able to relase them. The only way I could allow myself to experience those emotinoal states was to know that they are temporary. All emotional highs and lows are temporary. Uncomfortable Situations We all get into uncomfortable situations. Sometimes it's a job we don't like, a relationship that's seen better days and sometimes it's just a traffic jam on our commute. This is when it's best to remember that this is just a temporary state of being. Tomorrow or three years from now we might not even remember this exact situation. That's the context I put things into now. Don't dwell on the uncomfortable moment you are in, raging at it impotently...accept it for what it is and let it go. This too shall pass, as King Solomon said. Conclusion Everything in this world comes with an expiration date. We only experience pain when we try to hold onto those states of being or repress emotional states we don't want to experience. We can let go of these and experience a better life. The one thing we can depend on is that when something ends something new will take it's place. Often times, it's something far better then we could have imagined when we were stuck holding onto people, places, or things to which we had become accustomed. When one door closes, as they say, another one opens. This is the way of the world. To resist this basic underlying principal that no one in the West talks about is to bring misery upon ourselves. To embrace this principal is to embrace peace. While some might see the temporary nature of a realm as a curse it is actually a blessing. Within that continous process of rebirth and renewal there is plenty of room for new things and innovation. Remember if the dinosaurs had not died there would be no humanity.
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Today's videso was really easy to make.
I think it's because I really love Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I find Malsow's approach to be a bit novel. His idea of Self-Actualization comes from a positive frame of reference. This is information everyone can benefit in knowing...and it makes absolute sense. In fact, I'd say it's common knowldged but it's not. This one was pretty simple and I did struggle not to make the video extremely short. So, I added in the bit about diet because I think for people in the United States that's the most important part. Thre eason I explaim about the homeless is for most people in the United States it's easy to gain adequate shelter. A lot of homeless have gone out and bought tents to live in. For whatever reason, they just can't make it in what everyone else considers 'normal' housing. That's why I'm a little rough with the homeless of the United States. There are a lot of resources to help them but they are happy living the life they choose. A basic rule in psychology is that you can't help people who don't want to change. Therefore, I focused less on the homeless problem and more on the problem of diet that plagues the United States. I gave basic nutrional guidance. I admit I"m not perfect at following Cacye's guidelines. I indulge way too much in bakery goods and sugary sweets. As a child I loathed vegetables. As an adult, especially with my garden, I love eating vegetables. I've learned how to make them into a salad (which doesn't always require lettuce and most of my favorite veggie salads don't contain lettuce) and to steam others. I do not like frozen or boiled vegetables. That said, this was a simple video and I hope you find value in it! I bought this book on a whim. I love the vibrant green hue of the cover. The cover design is amazing. The price was right and I was curious. Well, it was an interesting experience. Jesus Vs. Muhammand For one, Muhammad is very different from Jesus. I mean, he lead raids on caravans and lead men into battle so that they killedpeople. He raided caravans which is pretty much thievery. You could say he was a land pirate. Albeit he was mainly trying to harm the people in Mecca. Jesus was a pacifist who said when someone wanted to slap you to turn the other cheek so they might slap the other. He defintely wasn't known to kill people or lead armies. Muhammad's prophecy that Jesus would descend from heaven and spear the antichrist...well, that image doesn't compute in my mind with Jesus as I understand him. At the same time, Joshua defintely led bloody campaign'skilling entire towns in order to win over God's promise land of Israel. The bible does have a good deal of blood and murder in the pages of the Old Testament. (http://www.toughquestionsanswered.org/2011/03/31/who-did-joshua-kill-in-jericho/) The question, can a man be of God and kill people seems to be, yes. In fact, the Jews were looking for a Messiah that was more like Joshua. They wanted someone who would be king and lead the people conquering the people around them. (If you read my review of the book Many Lives of the Master...it's not surprising that Jesus was Joshua...and one of the reasons he had to be crucified was karmic payment for the blood he shed as Joshua). So, while I would say that Jesus and Muhmmad can't be more different...Muhammad was more like the Messiah the Jews wanted then Jesus. I can't, therefore say that it was totally wrong. Muhammad's Many Wives At the same time, another thing that bothered me was how much Muhammad married....he married a lot of women. Originally, when he first had these moments when he received messages and first met the angel Gabriel he was married to one woman. He didn't marry the others until she had died of natural causes and Islam had taken root (although, the followers were persecuted). He broke with his own law, given in the Koran, that a man should only have a maximum of four wives (why would a man want such a thing? Most men I know can hardly tolerate one wife!). Since he was a prophet he could marry any number of them. There was only one young girl that he married. She was seven at the time that she was 'given' to him and continued to live with her parents until she was nine. She had no qualms or regrets about the marriage. She became his most devoted wife and most jealous. She was also his favorite. Her words were included in bits of the book. Here's a quote where it's clear she was jealous of a wife that he marreid after her: "She was a woman of great loveliness and beauty. No man looked on her but she captivated his soul, and when I saw her at the door of my room I was filled with misgivings, fo rI knew that the Prophet would see in her what I saw." Can you hold it against him that he married someone so young if she had no regrets? In fact she was jealous of the other wives? I'm not sure you can. Most of the other wives were widows that he took into his household to help. The fact that they were all described as extremely beautiful is neither here nor there. However, I wonder if it was Muhammad's own inability to control his desire for women that led him to require the Hajab and the Burka. Was Muhammad A Messegener Of God? Can I say that Muhammad was as Messenger of God? I would say yes. There is not enough information about the other prophets for me to compare and contrast their lives to his. Muhammad's life is well documented. When the 'messages' took hold of him he seemed to enter a different state of consciousness. In fact, it all started with him doing Automatic Writing. Automatic writing is when someone writes something that isn't coming from their consious mind. In fact, the other moments he spontaneously gave messages seemed to be nothing more then the same thing that channelers do. Muhammad, for all intents and purposes was a channel. Do I know for certain that Gabriel, who claimed to be an Angel, was from God? Well, we are One, so technically yes. At the same time, the brutal messages seem out of touch with the message Jesus spoke so...Muhammad wasn't a very clear channel. I think he had a lot of his own psychological baggage so he didn't hit the level of mastery that Jesus did. Maybe, the messenger of Gabriel is to blame too. I'm not sure but the message of Oneness is lost save for the fact that the idea that there is only one God. Channeling is a whole different issue, but you don't want to go with whatever spirit presents itself to you. The people stuck on the Astral plane for different reasons are given to lies. If it was an extra dimensional/ extra terrerstrial presence they might have had their own motivations. Acknowledgeing Jesus Was Adam Now this utterly blew me away. Here is the quote: "Verily, the likness of Jesus with God is as the likness of Adam." (The Surah of Repentance). I know from the book Many Lives of the Masters that Jesus was Adam. To hear in Islam is an awesome validation. This is why I can't say that Muhammad was not in contact with an entity that was in touch with the One Creator. Is Islam A Religion of Peace? Well, it depends on what you consider peace. World Peace? No. They are a people who were given a message not to be friends or tolerate people who do not believe in the One Creator...and further it has come to the point where they will not tolerationg people who don't think exactly as they do even if they do believe in the One Creator. .This is, probably, the fault of the channel being unclear and allowing his own biases influence the communication or 'Gabriel' not being so pure. Personal Peace? Yes, when someonea accepts Oneness it brings a tremendous amount of peace. Having faith brings an incredible amount of peace as well. That's what I think they mean that Islam is a religion of Peace. Conclusion I believe Muhammad was a messenger of God. He was the type of messenger the Jews wanted and I think it's hilarious he ended up being a descendent of Ishmael. I can't comprehend the battle the children of of Abraham are having and why they cannot find peace. I really wonder if the two fish of Pisces was Jesus and Muhammad...you couldn't get two more different entities. He did make great strides in presenting Oneness to people who did not hear the call of Jesus. On the opposite side I don't think he achieved Atonement. He doesn't seem that enlightened. I wouldn't call him a master in the same way as Jesus or Buddha. He's similar to the Old Testament figures and prophets. Was he a messenger of God and a Prophet? He did perform miracles and seems to have fulfilled all the necessities. The Catholic's would at least say hew as a saint if he had been from Europe. Do I beleive he is the last prophet/messenger of God? Nope....but then I guess that's what the Saints are but they were just given a new title. Again, I don't think he was a clear channel or that he reached at-one-ment/enlightenment so that affected his message. That doesn't take anything away from his role but at the same time it does suggest that when reading the Koran, much like the Old Testament and the books of Paul the Roman, a person has to apply Discernment. He had a great relationshp with Gabriel but not the One Creator. I highly recommend that you be open minded and check out this book. I found it really fascinating. You can buy Muhammad: His Life Based On The Earliest Sources on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. |
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Brave Soul! May Your Journey On The Path Of The Seeker Bring You Joy and Peace! I'm currently posting every Saturday. With a new addition the family I have pre-scheduled most posts through December 2022. Full Moon Posts will contain up-to-date content when I can get to them. Thank you so much for your support and understanding! This is a place where you can encounter new spiritual ideas that have helped me develop as an Individual On The Path of the Seeker. Take or Leave this information as you see fit. Archives
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