Near Enemy

A good tool, technique, practice, or philosophy, can help you out of suffering and into greater happiness and love. And when that tool, technique, practice, or philosophy is taken too far, it can become it’s own dogmatic trap that create unhappiness and suffering. That applies to the tools, techniques, and practices I teach as well.

For a more detailed explanation and understanding of  the Near Enemy issue.

Finding Peace

As you become aware you see things with clarity.  When you have clarity you will see the world is chaotic, filled with, inequities, and uncertainty.    With clarity you are aware without a doubt that your future, and the future of the world around you is completely unknown.

The temptation is to try to make sense of the world, or put order to it, or control your world, so that you feel safe.   This is to chase the illusion of safety for a single human can not control all circumstances and changes of life.

The real challenge is to remain completely aware that the world and future is unknown to you, and to be accepting of this fact.  Acceptance of this fact will make your mind quiet and your heart peaceful.

To find, or in another sense create, a quiet mind and peaceful heart in the midst of a chaotic world with an unknown future is more challenging, and yet clarity reveals it is the only choice we have in the matter of how we will live our lives.

 

 

Difficulty Making a Choice

Sometimes we struggle making a choice.  We know we have to, but we don’t know the right thing to do.  Maybe they are difficult because each outcome results in someone getting hurt.  Or each choice is good so we want them all.

Sometimes, when we can’t see clearly what to do, it’s because it’s not time to make a choice.  Sometimes, not all the time, it’s best to wait, and watch.  Observe more closely.  Take the time to look more closely at what you really want.  Take more time to develop clarity about the nuances of the situation and possibilities.

Sometimes by patiently waiting you can watch the people around you react, fidget, and do their drama in the way they do it.  If you sit still, you can see their drama for what it is.  This gives you an extra level of clarity to make a better choice.   When you develop clarity you don’t struggle to make a choice.  You don’t struggle at all.  You just see it.

Of course,,, you have to be able to sit still long enough to get the clarity.   You could say that making wise choices is a developed skill.   Good luck with your practice.

Challenge to Love

The challenge is not just to love.  We’ve all done that quite successfully and easily as children.  The greater challenge is to love with awareness that the world is a difficult place, where people are not always kind, or what we want them to be.  The challenge is not to love people when they are beautiful, but to love them when they are not.

The challenge is also to love and accept your self, even when don’t measure up to your beliefs about what you should be.  This is a spiritual warrior’s challenge.

Posted at: A Spiritual Warriors Challenge to Love

Website:  ToltecSpirit: A guide for spiritual warriors based in the Four Agreements

 

Fear and Power

My friend studied political science. He said politics was basically a scramble for power. But power is a need to control,,,, and a need to control is only necessary if you are afraid. So the scramble for power is really just a reaction to fear. If we really want to study political science we need to understand fear. Power is just the tail being wagged by the dog.

The irony here is that those that seek power often do so because they are powerless over their fear.

As a spiritual warrior,,, you will not develop real personal power until you develop awareness and win over your mind from fear.

 

 

The Law of Attraction Is A Myth

I don’t buy into the Law of Attraction. You don’t always attract what is in your consciousness. You only need one instance to prove a law invalid. Christ had his body beaten and crucified but it wasn’t something he attracted because he had it in his consciousness.  He was treated that way because of beliefs other people held in their consciousness

Nelson Mandela spent years confined to prison, but not because it reflected his consciousness.  He was held in prison because other people held in their consciousness beliefs of apartheid.  You don’t always attract what is in your consciousness.  Sometimes you are the recipient of what other people express from their  belief system.

If something is a law it operates all the time everywhere.  The law of gravity is a law because it applies to everything we know everywhere we can measure and test it.  If it only worked sometimes or in some places it wouldn’t be a law.   The same with the Law of Attraction.  It’s too inconsistent.  It’s only a theory that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.   It’s not a “Law.”  It’s a Myth of Attraction.  If it really worked a lot more people would have what the want.

Originally posted at The Law of Attraction is a Myth

Where you can find Guidance and Wisdom for the Spiritual Warrior based in the Four Agreements

For the Love of Christ

The evangelists stopped by my door this morning.  They brought their bibles and were sharing the message of Christ.   They were two nice ladies so I spent a few minutes with them.  We got to talking about love and one woman said, “That’s what we should do.  We should love more.”

Saying that, “We should love more,” implies that we aren’t loving enough. It’s kind of an indirect way of putting your self, or someone else down for not doing what they were supposed to do.  I don’t think that was Christ’s message.

His was more like. I love you just the way you are.

Addicted to Suffering

Are people in love with their suffering?

People are not in love with their suffering.  Rather I’d say that either it saddens them, or they hate it.  In either case their emotional reaction of hate and sadness to their suffering causes them to suffer more.

What is important to breaking this cycle is the awareness that our emotional reactions are not something that we control.  But this very idea that we are not in control,,,  this frightens people more.  So to avoid their fear they cling to the idea that it is reasonable or justified to hate or feel sad about their condition.  In effect they close themselves off to the truth out of fear of acknowledging something that is already happening.

 

Originally posted at Addicted to Suffering

Published at ToltecSpirit.com   Guidance based in the Four Agreements for  Spiritual Warriors seeking happiness and love.

 

Morals and Ethics

In the basic quest of morality and ethics “right” trumps “wrong”. In Advances levels of morality and ethics,,,, Love and Respect trump “being right”. The challenge for those who are attached to “being right” is that if they cling too tightly,,, love and respect appear to be wrong.