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Here is a Simple Test
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wolfthinker said:
on November 3, 2009 09:53 PM ET
Here’s a simple test If it’s soothing or comforting, if it makes you feel warm and fuzzy; if it’s about getting into pleasant emotional or mental states; if it’s about peace, love, tranquility, silence or bliss; if it’s about a brighter future or a better tomorrow; if it makes you feel good about yourself or boosts your self-esteem, tells you you’re okay, tells you everything’s just fine the way it is; if it offers to improve, benefit or elevate you, or if it suggests that someone else is better or above you; if it’s about belief or faith or worship; if it raises or alters consciousness; if it combats stress or deepens relaxation, or if it’s therapeutic or healing, or if it promises happiness or relief from unhappiness, if it’s about any of these or similar things, then it’s not about waking up. Then it’s about living in the dreamstate, not smashing out of it. .
http://www.spiritualteachers.org/jed_mckenna.htm . How about it? Where are you with your spiritual explorations?
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I think that after 10 years of inner work and turmoil, I'm finally coming down to the same place. Thanks for this comment.
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Self induced suffering has become one of the single worse causes of poor relationship interactions and self actualization. I have come to believe that so many people, enjoy this state of unhappiness and thoroughly enjoy spreading it far and wide. Why? I've never figured it out other than no other way is known - generational programming perhaps?
The world is simple to learn to live, love and grow into. But the pursuit of self indulgence has become a primary goal which can never be satisfied. When I retired, I took so much time trying to answer this question: "Did I do any good?" I've come to understand that I will never know. But...what do I think? Yes, I did some good but the measurement is with me not others. Now I want to live quietly, read, and communicate as I can - I've returned to where I began; simply living each day as it comes. A very hard lesson and even harder to practice.
edited on November 4, 2009 06:59 PM ET
Yes, I agree. I was not clear in my response. There are many phases to waking up from anesthesia. If anyone has ever had trouble waking up from anesthesia after surgery...awakening to reality is similar. You start to wake up, then you do not have the strength and fall back. And there is not one awakening to what is real. They continue as we move deeper into healing. Thank you for a great description.
I'm with you. But at some point, there is a shifting into a state of living, a lifestyle, and way of seeing things that is "well." It is not that suffering stops. It is that self-caused suffering is no longer necessary. We change our behavior. We change our atttitude. We change our beliefs, our opinions, our view of what is necessary to be content, our view of what we "must do" or "must be." We relax into life and what life had to offer us. We surrender to life's imperative and flow. We not only see things differently; we see different things...like rather than seeing the traffic, we feel the sunshine on our skin; instead of seeing the unmown lawn waiting for us to cut it, we feel the wind on our face; instead of smelling the dog, we feel the love the dog has for us; instead of hearing the voices of fear on television each evening, we hear the frogs singing on the pond outside in the darkness. The world is not waiting on us to work to satisfy it. The world is simple...a miracle, beautiful and waiting in the sunshine to be tasted and savored. If we could see the miracle see that as our work, how much more happy we might all be.
It is up to each of us to decide what we want to do with it. We have a choice to keep exploring further, but sometimes, the uncomfortablity of awakening from anesthesia causes one to retreat. Find Bliss! But bliss is not the answer...the answer lies in digging further. Spiritual exploration is very uncomfortable.
