13
"There may be times when we are
powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to
protest."
- Elie Wiesel.
21 April 2002.
Was just thinking of reaction. If I
encounter Pigsy - when I next meet him. Took an Angel Card from the bowl and it still says ‘Forgiveness’ - the lesson stands! Give up all thoughts of
engagement on negative and destructive levels.
“Always forgive your enemies;
nothing annoys them so much.” - Oscar Wilde.
“It is constructive and worthwhile
to analyse our emotions, including compassion and our sense of caring, so that
we can become more calm and happy. Hatred, jealousy, and fear hinder peace of
mind. When you're angry or unforgiving, for example, your mental suffering is
constant. It is better to forgive than to spoil your peace of mind with ill
feelings.” - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.
Okay, we can play your game. You
scare me then I scare you - or rather get someone else to do it (in front of
your girlfriend). We’ll see who scares the easiest.
Be a strong warrior and a practical
strategist. Stay calm - stay cool.
Angel Card:
Compassion - he’s a monster - a long
way astray.
“Remember men, you are fighting for this lady's honour; which
is probably more than she ever did.” – Groucho Marx.
2
May 2002.
He made as much noise as possible
walking with shoes on the wooden floor in his flat again this morning, waking
me up so early (I didn’t wear ear
plugs). Angel Card: Light.
Children laugh regardless of having
something to laugh at or about.
Just laugh. It is good therapy for
you.
How to Direct Your Compassion.
“When you meditate deeply enough on
compassion, there will arise in you a strong determination to alleviate the
suffering of all beings, and an acute sense of responsibility toward that noble
aim. There are two ways, then, of mentally directing this compassion and making
it active.
The
first way is to pray to all the buddhas and enlightened beings, from the depths
of your heart, that everything you do, all your thoughts, words, and deeds,
should only benefit beings and bring them happiness. In the words of one great
prayer: ‘Bless me into usefulness.’ Pray that you benefit all who come in
contact with you, and help them transform their suffering and their lives.
The
second and universal way is to direct whatever compassion you have to all
beings, by dedicating all your positive actions and spiritual practice to their
welfare and especially toward their enlightenment. For when you meditate deeply
on compassion, a realisation dawns in you that the only way for you to be of
complete help to other beings is for you to gain enlightenment. From that a
strong sense of determination and universal responsibility is born, and the
compassionate wish arises in you at that moment to attain enlightenment for the
benefit of all others.
This
compassionate wish is called Bodhicitta in Sanskrit; bodhi means our
enlightened essence, and citta means heart. So we could translate it as ‘the
heart of our enlightened mind.’ To awaken and develop the heart of the
enlightened mind is to ripen steadily the seed of our buddha nature, that seed
that in the end, when our practice of compassion has become perfect and
all-embracing, will flower majestically into buddhahood. Bodhicitta, then, is
the spring and source and root of the entire spiritual path.”
- Sogyal Rinpoché (The Tibetan Book of Living
and Dying, Rider & Co., London, U.K., 1992, p.200-201).
Power
of Bodhicitta
The mighty Buddhas, pondering for many ages,
Have seen that this (bodhicitta), and only this, will save
The boundless multitudes,
And bring them easily to supreme joy.
Those who wish to overcome the sorrows of their lives,
And put to flight the pain and sufferings of beings,
Those who wish to win such great beatitude,
Should never turn their back on bodhicitta.
Except for Perfect Bodhicitta
Thus behold the utter frailty of goodness.
Except for perfect bodhicitta,
There is nothing able to withstand
The massive strength of evil.
- Shantideva.
The mighty Buddhas, pondering for many ages,
Have seen that this (bodhicitta), and only this, will save
The boundless multitudes,
And bring them easily to supreme joy.
Those who wish to overcome the sorrows of their lives,
And put to flight the pain and sufferings of beings,
Those who wish to win such great beatitude,
Should never turn their back on bodhicitta.
Except for Perfect Bodhicitta
Thus behold the utter frailty of goodness.
Except for perfect bodhicitta,
There is nothing able to withstand
The massive strength of evil.
- Shantideva.
Retrospective
inserts.
“Nothing
ought to be unexpected by us. Our minds should be sent forward in advance to
meet all the problems, and we should consider not what is wont to happen, but
what can happen.” – Seneca.
We must expect everything. For, if we do not expect
something, then we did not create it consciously as a manifestation of our true
Will as creator gods. We are, to hijack Alain de Botton’s comments, therefore
injured when something unexpected happens to us because it represents the pain
of separation from our true Being and Will. Everything that happens has already
happened (in astral form, one assumes). We should see it coming because we know
our own purpose and potential and, moreover, we are fulfilling and expressing
them.
Human beings have been suffering from lack of
perspective, of seeing all angles. We are not conscious enough so we see and
identify with one thing (what we want) but do not recognise its polar opposite.
We are divided by the ego and if we are demanding of life and other people we
may react angrily when things don’t go our way. We feel insecure in our
limited, self-centred view of life; it’s dark outside. Consequently, we seek to
be in control. Yet, we seek perfection in the wrong places - in an impermanent
world.
When we believe in the illusion it is delusion,
says Mooji. ‘Are we experiencing our suffering or experiencing our suffering?’
Anger
Angry men are dangerous, argues
Seneca in his book De Ira.’ “There is
no swifter way to insanity” than anger, he said. As a useless, destructive
emotion, we should all do what we can to extinguish it permanently, he suggests.
When we deny our anger, as the insane might deny their insanity, we provide it
with impetus; we allow it to rise up and be vented on others thus enabling it
to survive, even thrive. When we
recognise and own our anger we can see it for what it is: an unnecessary,
destructive force. As a result of being conscious and present, we are in a
position to quell it the moment it starts to stir, before it gets the better of
reason and takes over. Anger is but raw energy misdirected. It is the mind
which allows it to fire off (and as Alain de Botton puts it, allows one to lose
control to darker forces) and it is the mind which can also call the canons
off. “Enemies to their closest friends...heedless of
the law...they do everything by force...The greatest of ills has seized them,
one that surpasses all other vices,” says Seneca. If we expect too much from
the world, presuming that which we desire to be our entitlement, we are likely
to feel frustrated and turn to anger, reiterates de Botton in his book The Consolations of Philosophy (Hamish
Hamilton, London, 2000, p.82-85). It is
unrealistic to be so ridiculously optimistic in a world of limitation when it comes
to projecting one’s expectations upon it instead of creating one’s world and
circumstances consciously. In other words, one has not learned to walk before
they fly. Tyrants expect life and people to answer their will but they are
stuck in duality, cut off from the whole and therefore dependent on it. Yet
they behave, demand and act as though they were completely independent and can
do and have whatever they want. They are conscious only of their own ego self
and are not even willing or able to perceive others as existing beyond the
jurisdiction of their own judgement which, ultimately, is an unconscious
acknowledgement of one’s own limitations, one’s fears, weaknesses and faults.
But the tyrant does not wish to look within and make that acknowledgement conscious
because he, or she, would then have to change and that is what such a person
fears the most. It is more convenient to simply and savagely identify with the
projection that everything outside of oneself is – or, rather, should be - a
reflection of one’s ego rather than a consequence of one’s own limitations. We
have allowed ourselves to sink into density and it is our responsibility to
climb steadily up and out of the swamp (albeit with help once we apply
ourselves). Taking our frustrations out on others, or on objects, only serves
to make matters worse by reinforcing that state of tension.
It is almost ‘comically optimistic’ that a person would expect to get
their own way all the time regardless of the myriad limitations both within and
without. It is “the ultimate infantile collision,” says de Botton, when things
do not go as we, in our pride and obstinacy, want and, in our arrogance and
hubris, expect. His favourite example is the person who, having lost their keys
or the remote, slams doors and has a fit. But, as we know, anger is rarely if
ever a pure and direct reaction to external circumstances. Always, the anger is
there first, and is simply triggered from the outside. One is already
frustrated and angry and read to explode in a fit of rage as soon as a good
enough excuse emerges. The only solution, however, is to recognise that the
anger is there to begin with and to both find safe ways to release it and
diffuse it through awareness and the renewed flow of feeling that should result
(and, ultimately, the flow of divine love in the heart uniting us with
universal Reality).
The tyrant also anticipates insults and other annoyances and finds all
kinds of things threatening because he/she feels that they deserve ridicule and
other bad trips. Consequently, he or she identifies with the belief that such
threats are imminent. To expectation is added suspicion. When we suspect that
we could be targets, the next obvious step appears to be that injury is,
indeed, on its way, as de Botton discusses (ibid. p.100-102). Of course, it is anger itself that is the tyrant. For, if we do
succeed in ‘overcoming’ this weakness, there is nothing for us to react to
either inside or out. Our energy is then less volatile and can be directed
positively and creatively for the good of all.
"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." – Buddha.
“But when I asked him to think about
the competitors who worried him, it turned out he was making big bright
pictures of them looking confident and strong. I simply told him to step in
(associate) to the picture of winning while taking the pictures of his
competitors and shrinking them down into tiny black-and-white images. He
practised a few times until he could do it automatically. The next day he went
out and beat his personal best in practice.
In
a nutshell:
The way you feel from moment to moment is a
direct result of the way you are using your body and the pictures and sounds
you are making in your mind.
Now
you know how to influence your state, you don’t have to be at the mercy of
others or of circumstances to make you feel a particular way. By taking
responsibility for the pictures in your mind, the things you say to yourself
(and how you say them), and the way you use your body, you can now begin to
choose how you want to feel in any situation.”
–
Paul McKenna (Change Your Life in 7 Days,
Bantam Press, London, U.K., 2004, p.66-67. McKenna goes on to discuss the Inner
Critic, offering a valuable reminder not to presume that, simply because we
have a voice in our head, we have to listen to it, and that “criticism is meant
to be constructive.” He quotes Cheri Huber: “That voice inside your head is not
the voice of God. It just sounds like it thinks it is”).
ABe what you wish others to be.@ - Alma Gygi (Gifts That
Reach Beyond The Sundown, UT., U.S., 1975).
“The importance of healthy
boundaries can’t be overstated. It’s up to you to be clear about what feels
right and true for you. Only then can you communicate your boundaries to
others, rather than hoping that they figure them out for you. They won’t, and
it’s unkind to ask them to try. It’s far more loving to be clear and direct
than it is to beat around the bush being vague or passive-aggressive in an
attempt to manipulate others into meeting your needs.
Getting
in touch with your boundaries is actually simpler than it sounds. Usually, a
boundary has been crossed or ignored if you find yourself feeling irritated,
angry or frustrated. When these feelings arise, simply check in with yourself
and ask a few questions:
Have I said yes when I mean no?
Have I failed to express my need?
Have I gone along with something
that doesn’t honour my Spirit?
Have I stayed in a situation when my
Spirit wanted to leave?
Am I willing to change that now?
Have I made a decision that will
take the pressure off?
These
simple questions begin to work your awareness muscles and help you better tune
in to what’s kind and loving to your Spirit.
The
moment you do what feels kind to Your Spirit, the Universe will help you build
healthier boundaries. Until you decide that it’s okay to communicate your
limits, nothing can change at all.
Another
way to be fundamentally kind to yourself is to make choices that take the
pressure off your life rather than living in a state of constant emergency and
drama as you move from day to day. Kindness is rooted in being practical. The
more grounded and realistic you are in your commitments, the less stressed-out
you are – hence, the more peaceful and kind you can be.”
–
Sonia Choquette (The Answer Is
Simple…love yourself, live your spirit, Hay
House, Inc., Carlsbad, CA., U.S., 2008, p.174-175).
“Laughter
is the best medicine.”
No comments:
Post a Comment