Crying

Crying is underrated as an emotional behavior.  Some men refuse to do it.  In many cultures young boys are taught not to do it, “big boys don’t dry” is not just the name of a song.  This is unfortunate because the act of crying, shedding water is very cleansing.

The release of pent up emotions allows the body to rebalance.  Yes, it is exhausting and afterwards you may feel as though you were run over by a train but there is no other way to relieve anger, frustration or pain that is a safe nonviolent response – except through mindful shedding and release.  Tears use the bodies’ natural water to wash away the emotional build up, but it does come with that train factor.

Mindful release on the other hand, works just as well, without the train factor.  By visualizing the release of your pain or suffering and then being willing to actually let go, your remaining physical state is one of relief and freedom instead of a train wreck.

The problem is that most people will not let go of their pain even though they say that they want relief from it.  Pain becomes a self-identifier, it is familiar, and it is predictable.  If “A” happens, then I will feel the painful but predicable “B”.  No one likes change, even if it might make us feel better.

Instead, if we give ourselves permission to wallow in the painful emotion for only a limited time, feel the experience in every fiber of our being, allow it to well up and then consciously shed it, the ensuing relief will be healing.

Consider the pressure cooker; with the lid off, the boiling water will eventually fully evaporate.  It will take awhile but eventually it is spent.  With the lid on with no pressure release (i.e. no crying) then eventually when a tiny crack appears in the seal, an explosion will occur.

On the other hand, if you vent the pressure cooker, the steam will quickly escape and the volume of water remains about the same; it is not completely spent.  So it is with mindful release.  Open each of your chakras and use them as emotional vents. Allow the pain of relationships to escape out of your second chakra (just below your navel.)  Visualize the pain turning orange and releasing.  For pain from security needs or lack of material support, visualize red gasses leaving your base chakra (in the pubic region.)

By visualizing the pain as a color, you neutralize it and it goes into the environment purified.  Changing it into a color and releasing it also empowers you to gain control of the emotions that once controlled you.  What is left afterwards is a sense of weightlessness, lighter, freer.  The anvils will be lifted. 

Determine the category of the source of your pain and color it appropriately based on its source chakra.

• Red (pubic region) – basic material issues.
• Orange (just below the navel)– relationships
• Yellow (just above the navel) – self esteem, feeling not good enough.
• Green (heart)– loss of a loved one through death, divorce or separation.
• Blue (base of the throat)– anger at ourselves for not being able to speak out against injustices do to ourselves or our loved ones.

The process of classifying the source helps you to understand its control over you.  Actually coloring and releasing it gives you your control back, in a loving way.  No train wreck feeling afterwards – just relief.  While a good cry is temporally cleansing, mindful release is healing.

The Price is Right

Everything has a price associated with it.  It could be the actual specific sales price or something of barter value if you traded for it.  It could also have the value of the time that was used during the period that was required to obtain it.  All of these are material payment and most likely not of extreme importance.  The spiritual price one pays to hold onto an idea or “truth” is very different – it could be invaluable and might cost you your life.

Ideology has the power to make us royalty or paupers.  Hitler used the ideology of the supremacy of the Aryan race to change the world forever.  Apartheid was equally as powerful and damaging.  Today, most people agree that these philosophies are wrong at any price so they are no longer politically correct to hold.

But here is another philosophy that is even more costly in term of human lives that still goes unchecked today.  In fact, it is such a strongly held belief by a huge percentage of the world’s population that it is unhealthy for the planet, even the universe at large.

This philosophy states there is only one true religion and all other religions are dangerous.  In order to be saved for eternity, one must ascribe to this religion whole heartedly.  All other religions should be vanquished.  The problem that obviously comes in here is that the religion of “choice” is different around the world and across the street, sometimes even in the hearts of those that live under the same roof.  So many lives have been paid for over the millennia to hold fast to this belief that is impossible to count.  It is time to stop the madness.

This is not a new observation, much has been written by scholars and activists about this terrible curse of inaccurate vision but nothing has changed.  A cursory internet search on the similarities of religions produces more sites about the differences that the similarities.  However, there are some blogs and academic sites dedicated to spreading the understanding of the similarities.  Some commonalities are the central theme of ethics, use of sacred art or imagery, sacred texts, concepts of powerful influences outside ourselves and the belief the faith will change the lives of the adherents.  Other sites list the “Ten Commandants” in various forms adopted by the different religions.  All this is fine to point out but really it is made to be too complex.

The one simple similarity that is most important, that which can save the world from self destruction is “compassionate wisdom”.  Pure and simple, it is making the best decision you can make with the intention of holding in mind the highest good for all sentient beings.  Instead of the negative “Do no evil”, “Do only good with compassion in your heart for all.”  When this is adhered to in its purest form, all wars will stop, all abuse of every type will stop.  All pain inflicted by man on man and animal will stop.

This is not a new concept; it has been understood for decades;  so why has the population of the world failed to adopt it? One word, “EGO”!  The human psyche likes the feel of being the exclusively chosen group.  The select few of the earth that knows the “real truth” and only they will be saved.  What they do not understand is that no one will be “saved” or liberated from suffering until every last soul or person is also liberated from suffering.  Since we are all physically connected by microscopically minute particle webs that are invisible to the naked eye, if you hurt I hurt.  This connection has been scientifically proven by distinguished astral physicists.

We must accept this concept that even those we considered to be our mortal enemy are really just an extension of ourselves.  That which we hate about them is no more than a mirror of our own flaws.  When we accept this fact and correct those flaws in ourselves, then we can accept the flaws in others.

In order to be able to recognize the mirrored flaws we must practice compassionate wisdom.  Compassion is needed to hold dear our immortal connection with all sentient beings.  Wisdom is needed to be able to determine what action is in the best interest of all.

When compassionate wisdom is practiced in earnest, the price paid for a peaceful co-existence and global happiness is just right – the price is the elimination of suffering.  Are you willing to pay the price?

Happy Birthday!

Birthdays are wonderful times in our lives and they are gifts that occur each year.  These are opportunities that are given to us to renew our connection and recognition of who we are – at our core.  They are opportunities to express gratitude to our ancestors and those in our lives that provide us with opportunities for growth on a daily basis.

Oftentimes, they are periods of reflection.  “I am one year older and one year closer to dying.  What have I done with my life thus far?  What should I do with my life in the future?”  This reflection can be a celebration if you are satisfied or a lamentation if you feel there could have been much room for improvement.

The good news is that in respects to your past there should be no regrets whatsoever.  You did what you did; you thought what you thought because of where you were in your growth cycle – PERIOD.  You needed it be there to learn what you needed to learn – as painful as it might have been.  Your future has yet to be written.  It can be whatever you choose to make it.  I am not talking about material gain here, that has nothing to do with happiness and growth on your path.  In fact, it can be an impediment if you get caught up in the myth that the material world can satisfy your needs – it cannot.

You need ONLY yourself to be happy.  If you cannot find a way to be happy with yourself alone, then no number of other people will help.  Your loving children and spouse certainly are wonderful fringe benefits but if you don’t have love of yourself, if you are not comfortable in your own skin with whom you are, then it does not matter they they are in your life.

So take this day of rebirth and renewal to heart.  Don’t use it merely as an opportunity to imbibe in spirits of the liquid kind but instead drink in the spiritual energy and wisdom of the universe, earth, and sages.  Spend some time in quiet reflection.  Truly be grateful for your life as it has been up until now.  Rejoice in the continued opportunity to grow and develop your spiritual self on your pathway to enlightenment.  Today is truly a gift.  Thank your parents who enabled you to be in the form you are in.  Thank them for providing direction and protection as needed.  

Life is wondrous.  Live it to the fullest spiritually.  Love yourself and others will love you too.  Turn everyday into a birthday.  For every day, every moment is an opportunity for renewal and reflection.  Rejoice!  Happy Birthday, today and everyday!

(This posting is in honor of my two sons one whose birthday is today and the other whose birthday is July 10th.  Love ya guys!)

On Wealth, Fame, and the Pursuit of a Really Great Loaf of Bread

The endless pursuit of love and happiness is highly over rated by most people.  It is what drives some people to work excessively long hours, claw their way to the “top” on the backs of others and ultimately provides only an unhappy shell of existence.

To some, the attainment of wealth, power, and fame is at the core of their existence.  The problem is that these states are not 100% compatible with being content.  By their very nature, wealth, power and fame are addictive.  They have the hallmark qualities of addiction.  No level is ever enough, if other people get in the way, they may be crushed or hurt, and the drive replaces all other emotions.  Life eventually looses all joy.

The reality is that in life, you are only racing against yourself.  Comparing yourself against others is useless and counterproductive.  We never know the ultimate goal of a particular behavior of another person.  We may believe that a person is doing action “A” in order to be successful because that is our goal and surely others would ultimately have the same goal as we.  But in fact, the goal of the other person, may be to just maintain their sanity and get by with the least effort.  So if we copy their behavior, then the behavior become counter-productive to our own goals.

Instead, if we develop personal goals of BEING and embodying compassionate wisdom, then our outlook on life and behaviors will be quite different.  If we strive towards turning our lives into a really great loaf of bread, then the true riches of life, happiness and contentment, will follow.

Great Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

1. Understanding
2. Patience
3. Generosity
4. Regular practice of caring and honest personal reflection
5. Regular practice of chanting and meditation
6. Seeking out better understanding of the pure universal teachings of spiritual co-existence among universal beings
7. Compassion for all sentient beings-including oneself.

Directions:

Add the all ingredients to your life.  Gently kneed and blend them into a consistent form.  Smooth out all lumps.  Let the dough sit and rise in a calm environment.  Once raised to full height, bake in the glow of acceptance until content.  Share with all you meet.

Karmic Baseball

We have all heard the phrase “Life is short,” the truth is life is very long.  A “lifetime” may last 5 years or 105 years but what we do within those years may stay with our karmic debt load for thousands of years.  If the Christian view of the afterlife is correct then one would just need to burn off the tarnish accumulated within one lifetime then entrance into a stress free heaven will be acquired.  Or one can go straight to heaven or straight to hell for the rest of the eternity of their souls.  This is not exactly what happens.

Typically, the karmic build up must be rebalanced with positive corrective action before it is removed.  It is an active not passive process.  Karmic debt is not considered sin; it is merely lost opportunities to learn.  When we do something mindless that is not in our highest good or that of others, then we did not learn the lesson we were given the opportunity to learn by being presented with the situation.

An external life’s existence is not a game of baseball where you get 3 strikes and you’re out.  Instead you are thrown as many pitches as necessary for you to learn how to adjust your aim and hit the ball squarely on the sweet spot.  The number of swings one needs to take is directly related to the degree of compassionate mindfulness, the batter is engaged in, at the precise moment of each swing.

So the answer is simple.  If you want to hit the home runner sooner (learn the lesson sooner) then bring full compassionate concentration to every moment in your life.

For when you are fully aware of what you are saying and doing, it is much less likely that you will unintentionally do or say something that causes harm to you or others.

Karmic debt is accumulated through intentional actions not random accidents.  However, it is intentional if you refuse to look at what the impact of your words and actions are on others.  By choosing to get lost in your own ego view – that is intentional and therefore contributory to the karmic debt load you carry into your next physical lifetime.  Instead it is much wiser to pay attention to every moment and make those choices that reduce the load instead of contributing to it.  The amount of energy needed to ignore is the same as that needed to pay attention so there is really no excuse to be lazy.

Be brave and be willing to honestly examine your patterns.  Make your adjustments now so you do not have to keep swinging at the same lesson for many lifetimes.  Hit your home run and then rest before the next game.