Divine Intelligence uplifts each husband, wife, mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son, friend and relation, casualties of life stage losses incurred through circumstance and sacrifice. May all minds and hearts know Truth, forgiving freely and frequently both self and other for not being what we could not otherwise be to him or her, to you and me.
May all grow steadfast and current in the flow of Good, giving thanks where thanks is due. Amen
Although the origin of this prayer was written this morning to honor national heroes on Memorial Day, war on a global scale exists within our minds learning to live in a world of perceived duality. Good/Bad, empty/full, hate/love, etc. etc. Most human beings know what it is to become a casualty of thinking and behaving which knows not yet how to tolerate doubt, ambiguity, uncertainty, significant differences. Most know the experience of not belonging and persecution as well as popularity and acclaim. We are all casualties of the warring mind that exists in the world we encounter daily. What we don't acknowledge consciously, endangers life.
After parenting has completed its cycle...and its effects, society expects individual himself/herself assume the arduous process of enacting full responsibility for stewardship of personal resources: body, heart, and mind. Rather, that is the rhetoric we have been used to finding in our best-sellers, award-winning films, psychology classes, families and churches. It still is the actual philosophy practiced in relatively successful individuals, families, schools, and marketplaces. It is still how most prefer to think of ourselves.
People change, society changes, seasons change. "Change" is a sign of life. When we grow, we change seems inevitable. The Little Prince (Saint.Exuberay) reminds us that what is most important is often invisible to the naked eye. So let us consider a more fundamental understanding of "change": living entities simply reveal more of who and what to date has been dormant, unstimulated, underdeveloped. Intelligence is not static. Growth is developmental...development must be stimulated. This is why the qualities inherent in our environment, parentage, peer group, and educational system is so important. Our minds, our affiliations, our habits, our inclinations are so shaped.
Our esteem, our efficacy however evolves and is sustained by how we steward our personal resources across our adulthood -which is a long process of stage unfoldment. So how do we respond to life's continual opportunities to be current? to integrate our conflicting parts? to be more of who we really are at our core? The wisdom of the Buddhist tradition advises against attachment for a very good reason. Attachments cause blind spots. Attachments keep us weighted down. Attachments compromise balance as we move freely through the world within and the world without.
When we attach/identify too thoroughly with something outside ourselves we miss opportunities to grow, to become more of who we are designed to be. Locked into position, we let true life pass by. When we attach at the identity level we run the risk of missing the ships sent our way by an abundant universe offering only more good for all life. When we attach at the identity level to that which is outside ourselves, we react as personally offended to good expressed toward that which we don't identify. We behave no longer as a free and whole child of the universe but as a member of a tribe...our tribe-and tribes change as needs change. Tribes reflect the flavor of the day, the month, the year, stage of life.
Someone Else's good acclaimed, compliment given, affiliation supported does not need to prompt a personal attack, as if we personally have been offended. The type of offense we experience simply reflects what has been acquired, ready to react. Reacting as if personally offended is the essence of war in the human mind. We do not need to react in this offended way. Often offense perceived is not offence intended, but inherent in our very own projection. Projection is putting on another that which belongs to ourselves. More often than not it is a part of ourselves that offends us.
To allow safety for others, we must chip away at the reactions (inability to tolerate ambiguity, intolerance, offendability, need for certainty, etc.) we find in ourselves. Such acquired reactions crowd out our willingness to allow for differences in ourselves and others. Extending our capacity to tolerate uncomfortable emotions builds our capacity to tolerate ambiguity, uncertainty, discomfort, aloneness. And when we short-circuit that developmental edge, we silence the differences that will ultimately set us all free.
For as every snowflake differs, so do we. As different as we look on the outside , we are also different on the inside -physically, historically, genetically, mentally. We like to think we are exactly alike. That's what tribe is all about...dressing, speaking, dancing, eating. Hoping that if we do those things together it will make us one. It's an easy identification, very gratifying thought. However, learning that we can count on others to allow us to be who we are EVEN WHEN WE DIFFER FROM THEM...THAT is what brings home the undaunting message of UNIVERSAL BELONGING.
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Pervasive self-esteem. Authentic democracy. Connection with Abiding Source. Real Safety. Full Freedom. Whole.
We short-circuit true intimacy and access to this universal sense of belonging when we project-then-reject. "Know thyself," is a mission in a life committed to authentic intimacy with others. Relationships always experience conflicts. We are internally conflicted beings -acquiring many of our projections from the different worlds we imbibe daily. The habitual ones require vigilance. How we encounter, and respond to conflicting thoughts, ideology, developmental differences, alternative spaces, etc. opens doors or closes doors to our greater good waiting beyond the door of open dialogue. There is always more good ready and waiting in the wings...if we are willing to tolerate doubt, discomfort, disagreement. We cannot control other living beings, and not stimulate the mind of war within.
And we CAN control our response to inclinations to take offense, to engage our warring mind. We need only review the multitude of different responses from the general public when we ask a simple question, e.g. What's your dream career choice? There are as many answers, available among individuals populating our various environments, as there are differences among snowflakes. We are very different stewards of our many different minds. We have many different choices available:
- What's your favorite ice cream?
- Where would you live in the world if there were no borders or barriers?
- Who do you love (most often, more fully, unremittently, unconditionally, etc.)... and why? and how do you express your love? and who "gets" you? who doesn't? what gets in the way?
- When is it time to be so fully ourselves that our very being challenges the expectations of those we value deeply?
- Why do we prefer to belong to the current version of "politically correct" rather than disclose where, how, and why we actually deviate?
- How might we respond to ones who perceive and express a different portrait of reality than we currently do?
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ReplyDelete(Continued from comment above) The articles you post, then, are doing just the opposite of what I believe you intend for them to do: to get people to think differently and see your new perspective on things. But that's the problem: these are not *your* views. These are propaganda pieces meant to divide and incite anger. Watch the face of the anchor in the video you posted about President Obama's comments on the 99% protests in Chicago--her expression conveys something far from objectivity; it shows disgust, condescension, belittlement. This is not true journalism (which arguably doesn't really exist in the mainstream), but rather it is content that is designed to divide.
ReplyDeleteYour consistent passing along of such content as a new "truth" you have discovered, is what we are reacting to. Rather than engaging in actual open, reasoned, and respectful discussion, you are serving as a mouthpiece for an institution (modern mainstream media) that has its own motivations and monetary and political aims. You are taunting the "warring mind" in those you love, and who love you, not promoting respectful discourse.
In sum, working to embrace true and reciprocal intimacy in personal relationships requires an equal and respectful exchange of our own reasoned and thoroughly vetted perspectives--not slapping each other in the face with rhetoric of any kind, in my humble opinion.
As always, with love,
Stew
This reminds me, Stew, of a conversation I recently had with an elderly albeit very vital and active professional who has specialized over his lifetime in Ericksonian Hypnosis. I had sought some information from him. He had been very busy with company and had not responded to my requests in what I perceived as a timely manner. Finally, he returned my call but had to scan through a few data bases to give me a sufficient enough number of supply of the information I was requesting. After five minutes, I had what I needed...and said thank you in a way that brings closure to most conversations. He ignored that and went on. After a repeat of this sequence, he asked if I was in a hurry. I responded that while I wasn't in a hurry, I knew he had a full schedule and he'd already given me what I needed. Then he made a memorable statement: This is what I tell people, "I'm 79 years old and very willing to let you know what I think about this or that, and when I've had enough, so if you want to know more I'm willing to share what I have here."
ReplyDeleteWhat interests me most about the human mind outside of a meditative or creative state is how it tends to run programs that preserve our acquired projection of reality, Stew. That's why it is so important to carefully co-create the conditions and circumstances of acquisition. And to revisit and revise these earlier acquisitions ...updating and re-integrating on a regular basis. As for me, I recommend continual inquiry, dialogue...of both a written and oral conversation. In the super busy lives most of us seem induced to live during our career stage, written conversation through social media affords those we love as well as those we barely know the timeliness and comfort of responding when possible. Tut's high note from The Universe today went something like this...and being the Aquarian soul that I am, I love this: "Miracles aren't the impossible happening. They are the result of redefining the impossible!"
Love you more,
MimiMamaFriend