This is probably the belief that caused me the most suffering.
One of the things that we are taught in the early years of our lives are absolutes and to discourage abstract thinking. This means that there is only one way to do things, only one path to God, only one way to go about living, only one way to achieve success, and so on through a plethora of subects. In this point of view only one religion can be correct. This also allows for only one person to be right in an argument. Yet, as I will discuss in a future post regarding Personal Rulebooks, we know for a fact that ANY situation can be viewed in multiple ways with a multitude of interpertations. This goes far deeper, but this is why eye witness testimony is questionable. Even watching a video of a crime can be interperted multiple ways depending on the angle and duration of the video. Does the video show the entire event, for example? There are always at least two sides to every event, often times the "reality" of it is somewhere in the middle. After all, as I said before, life is more or less subjective (entirely interperted by the observer) and not absolute in it's form. That is why each of us have our own individual realities and when we compare/contrast that reality with others we create a third reality that is shared. We, during this process, effectively create our reality as we interpert the data we perceive. Absolutes Don't Exist The problem is that absolutes don't really exist. We find the solution for this apparent paradox when we consider the nature of what God must be. God, in my best interpertation, is best described as All-That-Is. Now there are people who will absolutely reject this, they prefer that there is a man riding a cloud in the sky in another dimension looking down upon all of us, judging all of us and punishing all of us accordingly because guilt has automatically been assigned to us as human existence is a punishment for the misdeeds of our ancestors. I can't really help you if that's what you prefer to believe and I find that to promote a great deal of self-hatred and dischord within the minds and hearts of human beings. How can someone who hates themselves, who is at war with themselves, ever find peace? After all, your mind will be in a constant state of war, self-hatred, self-judgement and condenmnation...the opposite state of peace. All by choice. You give power to what you choose to believe and each belief must be examined...does this really reflect how I feel? Does this promote love within my heart? Does this belief bring me peace when I think it? If it does not...it is not serving you. Your mind, your consciousness was created by God to serve you. All-That-Is created you in his image. Nothing is Permanent Nothing in our life is permanent, nothing stays with us very long- not our friends, even family cross over at some point, not objects and not even the very cells within your body remain the same. The cells in our body are constantly being replaced. Nothing in this world is permanent. On a level of the atom everything is a bunch of paticles, floating loosely together (with space in between no less) and yet somehow a piece of wooden furntiure appears to have cohesion and solidity to our human eye. We can run our hand along it and if we punch it our bones may break while our skin cracks and bleeds. Yet, five years from now you might not have that piece of furniture. You might punch it every day...and yet, one day you decide you don't like it and you sell it or give it away. That piece of furniture then ceases to be in your reality. As far as you are concerned it ceases to exist. Thoughts Are Not Solid While the above reference with the piece of furniture represents a solid thing we can touch...thoughts are not solid. Thoughts are not solid within the mind of a person unless they choose it to be so...and I'm not talking about emotions. Emotions are temporary states that serve us as instinctive warning signals to help guide us to make the right decisions. Thoughts, what we believe to be true and use to interpert reality last far longer then emotional states. We hold onto thoughts, we nourish them, we return to them polishing them up and adapting them as we revisit them time and time again. We beahve a certain way in our interactions with others because of that thought. That which we hold as "truth" impacts the way that we view and interact with the world. Yet, they are not real. They are as phantom in their existence as the Northern Lights. You can see the play of the Northern Lights up in the sky but if you flew up there to touch them...you would find that they are not solid. You cannot take a bit of the Northern Lights home with you. The Northern Lights interplay of light and shadow change each time that they occur. They are never fixed...they are born and die every night giving a new display. Paradigm There is a natural human process where we create a "house" out of our thoughts. In this "house" the world is defined by very set paramaters. This little box that we make for ourselves encompasses beleifs and ideas that we have been taught by other people and interwoven with our own experiences. For those that are not exposed to diversitity, that are surrounded by people who are in agreement and think the same way...this "house" can be very one dimensional. There might not be many rooms or many doors or even yards...it is a simple structure. This type of pardigm isn't very creative and it takes the world very literally naturally placing ideas into ROOM A and ROOM B. A Paradigm is the way that people approach life, the thoughts that they project onto reality set an expectation for a set of experiences. When that paradigm is challenged it can cause a lot of pain and suffering. Here is the definition of paradigm: A typical pattern or example of something, a model. All of us start creating our little model "Thought House" when we are kids. As kids we take everything as absolutes and literally. We are only able to think in more abstract terms when we are adults and as adults it's important for us to examine this "House of Thoughts", question the buidling materials and the very nature of the way we perceive reality...or we can choose not to do so and remain in our Childhood Paradigm. Thanks to Free Will the choice is ours...remain in the childhood paradigm or examine it as an adult to create something new. Most follow the easy road of holding to their childhood "House of Thoughts" refusing to examine themselves (for fear of what they might see and fear of experiecing unpleasent emotions) and few seek the inner path of self-examination. This was the way even in Jesus time as he said in Matthew 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad the way that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it." Experiecing Disannonce Disannonce can be your best spiritual teacher. If you choose to move through this uncomfortable feeling, to expose yourselve to what is not known or ideas that are not familar...your paradigm, your "thought house" will expand....to the point where you realize it won't even be neccesary anymore. There is absolutely no need for seperation between you, via a "thought house" or "paradigm" and all of creation but that is a more advanced teaching I don't want to get into here. But first, what is disannonce? The problem is when we try to make our thoughts solid. When we say this is the truth and the only absolute Truth....and worse yet- is when we decide that a certain bundle of Truths is all that exists then compare it to someone who believes differently. The idea of "My Way or the Highway" is extraordinarly dangerious and painful both for the person unwilling to bend their mind in a new way and for the person they are trying to force into compliance with their paradigm. Nothing has been more destructive in the human experience then this self-limiting methodologial approach to life. Since Beliefs are not solid, you cannot show them to another human being nor can they expereience the exact same set of experiences you've had in your life that cause you to believe they are solid...you can't make someone believe the same exact way you do. That is impossible and anyone who claims to think exactly as you do is a liar...to you and themselves. If someone challenges your belief, and you have built your house on the sand that there is only one truth and one way, the house you have built within your own mind experiences an earthquake leading to pain and suffering. People don't understand you! How horrible! You must make them understand, you say in youthful insistence. By words or by fist you must make them see what is so 'obvious' to you. Psychologists call this inability to listen to another person truth that is very different from your own: Dissannonce. When you hear a point of view so radically different from what you consider to be Truth or your Paradigm (thought house) you cannot place it within this house. You hae no context in which to place it and so your mind cannot process the information. You will, literally, not be able to hear or comprehend this "truth" that is outside of your paradigm. Their words literally sound like incomprehensible noise. Disannonce Example Take for example someone who grew up listening only to the oldies...just the oldies and believes all other form of music is inferior. They won't even consider listening to other music. Then you play System of a Down for them. First, they will only hear bits and pieces of the song because they are not used to following this type of music. They will hear mostly noise. Based on appearances they will judge the band is singing about people committing suicide and that it's over all a negative song. Well, this was done with a group of older people who watched Chop Suey by System of a Down (one of my favorite bands). Those unfamilar with the band latched onto certain things they thought indicated what the song was about and decided it was negative. They missed the symbolic meaning of the lyrics by reacting fearfully to the way the band looks and the few words they can follow. Beacuse they were experiecing diasannonce they didn't consider that there might be a deeper meaning which is about spiritual searching and profound...if you have the ears to hear. (If the video doesn't pop up below click here to see this example: https://youtu.be/KTX5PruTHkE. Labels Are Make-Believe Things are not always what they appear based on our first knee-jerk reaction to them. Labels, often are one of the walls people put up between themselves and the rest of the world. They define themselves by that label and assign themselves to a group that seems to think or behave like them. If you entered their paradigm, and looked into their "Thought House" the name of their label would be in big bold word across their door. Proudly, they exclaim, "I am this," without truly identifying themselves as an individual identity. This excuses them from the idea of being a mere "human." This differentiate them from other groups them but at the same time removes their need to be an individual. Do you think that Bluebird knows that it's a bluebird and thus different from all other birds it encounters? Probably not. Birds have no use for names or labels. Do you think a lily in the field knows you call it a lily? Do you think that causes that flower to perform the functions of growth and decay any differently? Probably not. The bird just goes about doing what it does to meet it's basic needs with little worry to the title that mankind has given it and the flower continues to grow into the best flower it can be regardless of what we call it. This is how I see labels. They mean absolutely nothing. They are a made up concept that we have created to divide ourselves from others and they are absolutely unnecessary. Do they provide any significant positive role in our society? Do dividing ourselves into groups with labels bring love, unity and peace on an individual level? "A house divided upon itself will fall," such is the Fate of Mankind unless we can drop the need for labels. I believe labels dehumanize people. We are one people, we are not divided into predator and prey in the Evolutionary Theory paradigm...nor are we different in any other way. We each are capable of producing the same amount of abundance and well being if we choose to do so but we pick "our battles" when we chan choose the path of Acceptance. We stop seeing the unique individual faucets of humanity when we assign a group label to people, suddenly they are not unique but a member of a group. They are a faceless robot assigned to the Label they or society has chosen for them. Labels, much like the rest of human existence is just make believe...a rule we have agreed to that we can change at any time if the majority of us so wish. Yes, there might be people who cling to the old definitions but if the majority moves with that idea they will soon be swept along with the current of thinking. Let the "Thought House" of labels disintegrate as you realize that even within groups there are individuals, unique, beautiful prisims that reflect the divine light of All-That-Is. Instead, when you look at those cliniging to labels and group identities you see can see people who are divided in their own hearts painfully rejecting their uniquness and individuality. Thinking In Absolutes Produce Limitations When we set absolutes, when we insist on the way we will accept things, we limit the breadth an depth of our experiences. This naturally constricts the way that the Creator and the Matrix of the Creation can interact with the individual. We have a two bedroom "House of Thoughts" while the universe is infinite and unlimited. If you absolutely refuse to accept anything but one outcome...you become blind to other outcomes that might be even better. You actually limit yourself and become trapped in your own expectation. When you practice being open to all possibilities you invite a multitude of opportunities into your "thought house." Eventually, as your "thought house" continues to expand you become aware that it is not neccesary. That all "thought houses" are valid in unique individual situations and neccesary for the individual to retain their identity while they learn and until they choose to work to expand themselves. Conclusion - Plenty of Room We must release the idea of holding onto absolutes and narrow "thought houses" (paradigms). These limiting beliefs constrict our spirit which is the same infinite source from which all of Creation emanantes. Until we release these "thought houses" through a self-exploratory expansion we will be at war with ourselves and the world. If you choose to be at war within yourself and the world you are, in effect, arguing with Creation and the Creator. When you try to force your view of the world on others, to bend creation to your will, you are defying the Creator and demonstrating a lack of trust with the Creator. This has been, for me a very long process to reach the point where my paradigm has effectively dissolved. This is a far advanced point of view then what most people are capable of perceiving. That's understandable. The best way to describe all of this from my point of view, is that their is plenty of room in infinite creation in this moment for everyone to have individual unique beliefs, thoughts, and ideas. There is no reason to judge these individual unique thoughts or ideas when you reach the point where the need for a "house of thoughts" to categorize creation is dissolved. Things simply are, they arise into your perspective, and then they fade away when you have learned from them. There is no need to hold onto ideas, thoughts or even memory. Most are so trapped within their "Thought houses" they inflict pain as they travel through the world and when you're own "thought house" is dissolved you can see that, assess what beliefs are most likely causing them pain, but out of deep respect for the learning process they have chosen to go through you don't intervene or provide aid unless asked directly. Sometimes, in the desire to present relief without invitation, mistakes happen. Concepts too advanced for their level of learning are introduced and they suffer more because of the confusion and disannonce. The reason I have reached a place of non-judgement is because I understand that each step of the process is neccesary and just important as the level I have reached (in truth there are no "levels" or "steps" but that's how we tend to relate things so it is easily to visualize it this way). The amount of pain people need to reach in order to "Wake Up" to the nature of Creation is up to the indivual, the path and the routes they take is up to the individual...which is entirely beautiful and fantastic in every way. I didn't think non-judgement was possible, when I started this journey. I didn't think that was a possibility, my paradigm was very narrow, but now that we earch chart a course to be reunited with the Creator/God/All-That-Is in whatever way we wish...and that all of us that choose to be Seekers and turn to the Inner Path of self-knowledge fall off that path at some point. We are not "perfect"by design. I just want to explain, that if you are not there yet, keep going but it is possible. There is still discernment, "I do not want to be around this or around this person," but it's not judgement and no desire to change others or affect others. Post Script Here is one that I saw recently. Here is a kid who believes that he will be disowned by his friends...that he will be treated differently. He owns it by putting a seperation between him and others by wearing the Storm Trooper helmet. They, however, decide to accept him for his uniquness and then emulate him. Most of us are doing this, we use our fandoms to create a wall between us and the rest of the universe. Within our fandom we feel safe with people who think like us who are delighted by concepts that we enjoy. Yet, again, this is a way we misplace our identities by hiding it behind this fandom....because we are afraid of our unique flaws, differences, struggles and gifts.
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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
April 2024
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