Feedback

Published on by Jim Category: Health Mental

I want to thank those who have been so generous with their feedback, criticism, judgment and even persecutions of me.  These greatest of all possible gifts are been very good for me.  I recognize that no feedback, criticism, judgment or persecution can harm me, only my reactions can do me harm.  However, they can point out to me how my reaction to them might be doing myself harm.

To be honest I have not always enjoyed and love these challenges.  I am now.  This morning I woke up and realized again the gift that this feedback, criticism, judgment or persecution is to me.  I am grateful for all those who questioned my integrality, honesty, sincerity, empathy or compassion.

I recognize that what I want is a beautiful life filled with appreciation, joy and love.  In addition, I recognize that the measure I give is the measure I receive, so when I am appreciating, enjoying and loving what life is offering me then my life is filled with the light of that appreciation, joy and love.

It is easy to love those who love me; even the dualists can do that.  Nevertheless, there is so much greater spiritual benefit or profit to be able to love those who criticize, judge and persecute me.  Moreover, to me there can be no greater gift than this feedback.

I do hope that all will continue to give me their light, insight, wisdoms, criticism, judgment and even persecutions.  For I recognize that I am forever falling asleep and this feedback is what can help awaken me from that sleep.  Should I take offense, resist or defend my “self” then I know that I have again fallen asleep.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

Unnecessary Suffering

Published on by Jim Category: Health Mental

  I am sad to see people abusing themselves emotionally just over something someone said to them.  It is a sad world that programs us to abuse ourselves just so others can control and manipulate us.  I am glad I took the time and effort to overcome the world’s ability to stimulate my self-abusive behavior.  I would really like to find a way to share this ability/skill with others.

We can all overcome the world’s ability to stimulate our self-abusive behavior IF we are willing to take the time and effort to develop the skills necessary.

It is obvious that the skill of controlling our bowels and bladder improves our life experience, for we no longer need to wear diapers.  Nevertheless, most people have no idea that they can learn to control their emotional self-abusive behavior with just a little awareness and effort.  Anger, fear, guilt, shame, doubt, pessimism and all forms of negative or unattractive emotional and mental states and with consciousness we can choose to experience these or not. We can also choose happiness, joy, love, peace, freedom and we can choose to see beauty in all that life offers.

However, all this takes skill and practice just as it took awareness and effort to develop the skills of walking, controlling our bowels and bladder, riding a bike, driving a car or most anything else.

The greatest gift we can give others or ourselves is our UNCONDITIONAL happiness, joy, love, peace and freedom.

Fear & Conservatism

Published on by Jim Category: Liberality & Conservatism, Love and Fear

Fear and authoritarianism are the two foundations of conservatism, but mostly just fear because authoritarianism is felt as necessary for those in fear.

It takes a lot of love and courage to look at and speak to the fears that are within us all. I have always done that by first confronting within myself the beliefs that are the foundation of these fears until I had overcome them and then confronting the beliefs in others that they have not examined themselves. I wonder if there is a better way to address this challenge.

I am God

Published on by Jim Category: Christ, God, Health Mental, Jesus, Nonduality, Religion

I love life and all that it has to offer.  Nothing is impossible to me.  I love judgment and criticism.  I love to judge and be judged.  Judgment cannot hurt me it can only awaken me should I fall asleep.  I love to push buttons and I love to have people try to push my buttons.  If I react with less than love then I am asleep and it is only an opportunity to wake up, or, I can choose to stay asleep. 

The worldly will tell me I am not God.  I only smile, for their darkness has no power over me.  I have overcome the world and its ability to darken my light.  And I love the worldly as they try to bring their darkness upon.    I can choose to stay in the darkness and sleep or I can wake up to the light. If I submit to darkness it only means it is time for me to sleep.

Does God sleep?  God does EVERYTHING for everything is God.  God is in everything and everything is in God.  There is only one, separation is only an illusion.

Does God change?  God changes and does not change.  God is inclusive of change and is outside of change. 

Why be God?  God is love and God loves.  Who does not want to love all that life has to offer?  Who does not want to enjoy all that life has to offer?  Yes, there are those who are too afraid to love all, so their fear will dictate to them that they do not want to be God, to be love and to love.  They are just those who are still in the darkness and asleep.  As the light starts to shine on them they will start to awaken and want to be awakened.  As those of us who have awaken to who we really are start to shine our light then those in the darkness, those who are asleep will start to yearn for the more light and to be the light. 

We can all be the light of the world.  We can all be God.  To the awakened there are no limits, all is possible. 

Jesus the Abuser

Published on by Jim Category: Christ, Communication and Relationships, Jesus

Jesus was a massive abuser and he was rightfully put to death for these sins, at least according to the people of his day.

In the culture of Jesus’ time, Judaic law had 613 documented “sins” from their scriptures.  One of those sins was called “Ona’as Devarim,” which is Hebrew meaning “words that hurt.”  It simply states that if you say something and anyone takes offense at it, it is YOUR sin.  It further states, “If your words hurt lots of people then this is a capital crime and you should be put to death.”

This wonderful ‘law’ came from Leviticus that has given us other wonderful gems of wisdom, such as we should kill people who work on Saturdays; we should kill people who are homosexuals; we should kill those who pray to a different God; we should kill people who blaspheme God,  among many others.

Jesus’ words ‘hurt’ many people, for many people took great offense at his words.  Jesus hurt people when he blasphemed God by calling himself one with God, for people took great offense at that.  Jesus hurt the scribes and Pharisees when he called them names, like hypocrite and blind guides.  Jesus abused people by advocating doctrines that were not approved by the ruling classes causing people to turn away from “sound doctrine” and be punished by the hierarchy of authority.

Jesus was rightfully put to death for his offensive behavior.

And, please, let us ignore the fact that theme of Jesus’ teachings, which pathetically made in the Sermon on the Mound, was the value of blessedness.  One of the beatitudes that Jesus talked about said “Blessed be those who do not take offense at me,” which puts the onus of responsibility back on the person who CHOOSES to take offense at Jesus or anyone else.  Let us forget this for it was not the doctrine of the day and Jesus, trying to show a more peaceful and blessed way, was only offending people by preaching something outside the accepted doctrine or the boxes in their mind, which only future upset them.

The true and “sound doctrine” was that people were to be ‘slaves and good servants to their masters’, to quote a famous law book that is worshipped even today.

YES, Jesus was a massive abuser and he was rightfully put to death for his hideous crimes.  And let all remember that if they are to emulate Jesus’ way, truth and life in any way that they too will be punished harshly.  Let us remind one another of that by caring around figures of Jesus being crucified on chains around our neck and by putting them in our sacred building.  Let us remind one another that your words DO hurt people and that you too will be harshly punished if you say anything that is outside of accepted and proper speech.

We would not want to upset the paradigm of those who take advantage of our innocence and ignorance and subtly stimulate our self abusive behavior so that they can intimidate, control and manipulate us to their own bidding.  Let us curse those who attempt to show us a way out of this subtle abuse, for they only want to disrupt the status quo, to change that which we can all see is working so perfectly well.

Yes, Jesus was an abuser and a petty tyrant who was rightfully tortured and put to death for his brutal sins.

If you are gullible enough to believe this then you deserve the hell you are creating for yourself.

 

Oneness and Separation

Published on by Jim Category: Nonduality, Religion

In the beginning was the idea that there was separation within the Unified Field of Consciousness. Before the idea of separation came into being there was no beginning and no end, there just was Consciousness. But without the illusion of separation there could be no drama to enjoy and love, and there could be no joy and love, so imagination happened and “we” came into being and that “we” existed as separate beings just so we can have the drama of life.

Some of us have forgotten that there is no “we”, there is only “I”, as in I am that I am. Without awareness of the non-duality reality we imagine that our dramas are real and that creates needless suffering and misery. So the part of ‘we’ that is awake has always tried to tell the part of ‘we’ that is not awake to be aware of the “I AM” that is One and All. To do that sometimes we would say, “Know God” and other times we would just say ‘wake up’, but always it was just part of the ‘we’ telling the other part of ‘we’ that all is ok, all is perfect just as it is.

And part of the beautiful and perfect drama is our attempt to wake each other up. It is part of the love that we came for, loving and caring enough to make the effort to try and wake each other up.

Thank God for the delusion separation, for without it there cannot be love.

Meditation in Conversation

Published on by Jim Category: Communication and Relationships

It deeply saddens me to see people who have a habit of harming himself or herself or limiting the quality of their life experience.  This is only a product of habitual thoughts and not something we need to stay trapped in for the rest of our lives.

Somewhere along the way, I recognized that I could change my behavior or habitual reactions to what life was offering me.  For instance, I noticed that there were certain words or combination of words that if somebody said I had a habitual reaction of getting upset, offended or angry.  At first, it was hard for me to acknowledge it was MY habitual mental/emotional reaction causing the negative inner experience and that it was not the fault of the person who spoke the words.  Nevertheless, when I finally accepted that fact and took responsibility for my reactions, I started to find peace.  With the awareness and skill that gave me peace, I was then able to choose positive reactions to the same stimuli or words so that I could have a positive experience.

For instance, let us say that a child has drilled into them that when his parents, family or teachers said the word “bad,” as in “you were a bad boy” they were supposed to feel, well, bad.  At first, that bad feeling might have come from spanking, which causes physical pain and that pain became associated in the mind/brain with the word “bad”.  Therefore, from then on when somebody tells them they are being a “bad” person, they have a habit of reacting by contracting, fearfully anticipating pain.  The reaction of contraction itself was painful, or at least an uncomfortable experience.  Therefore, we have a negative emotional reaction to the word “bad”; people can observe that and use the habitual reaction to control behavior.  Hence, perfect programming…people can be conditioned to be controlled by mere words.

When I came to realization of this, I also realized that I could RE-program myself to have different reactions to those same words or stimuli.  Since I had realized that what I really wanted was to experience positive things like happiness, joy, love, peace and freedom, I could reprogram myself to respond to what people said to me in a way that enabled me to have those positive experiences.

I also have realized that human relationships make up the vast majority of experiences and relationships are primarily about communications with other people.  Just as my parents had communicated to me the “meaning” or the intended response of the word “bad,” so, too, there were an almost infinite number of words or behaviors that I was supposed to respond to in the usually prescribed manner.  But a lot of these usually prescribed reactions produced for me negative experience that I did not want to have.  So I developed a practice of reprogramming myself to have the type of reactions I wanted to have and not the type of reactions that others expected from me.

I call this practice Meditation in Conversation. Meditation is the practice of first learning to relax and not react around various stimuli, including thoughts. Second, meditation is the practice of positive response to those same stimuli, including thoughts. So Meditation in Conversation is the practice of learning to relax and not react around the stimuli of words or in conversation and second, it is the practice of responding with positive emotional experiences.

Meditation is a state of focused relaxation. Meditation in Conversation is the intentional effort to relax around the stimulation of words. When I am relaxed I find that I no longer feet a ‘need’ to react to what was being said. I become more tolerant and can allow people to express themselves even if it was only venting their frustrations.

Meditation in Conversation is developing the skill of respecting and loving our selves first; learning how NOT to abuse our selves when someone says something to us. Meditation in Conversation is about developing the skills of honesty and intimacy. Honesty only happens if we are not afraid of OUR response to what people say to us. When we no longer fear ourselves and our reactions to what people say to us, then we will have the courage to be honest both with ourselves and with those around us.

The skills that the practice of Meditation in Conversation gives me enable me to choose the quality of my life experience instead of being a victim of whatever was said or whatever life is offering me. I have become empowered to have the quality of life that I have always wanted. I have all the happiness, joy, love, peace and freedom that I want, regardless of and sometimes in spite of what life is offering me.

I developed this aphorism for myself to remind me of the true power that I always have: words cannot hurt me, only my reactions to words can do me harm. With this reminder I took my power back from all those who would either intentionally or unintentionally stimulate my habit of abusing myself emotionally around words.

I also developed a simple method to remind myself of how to get back to a place of inner peace and clarity how to go further, how to create a positive experience whenever my programmed habits caused a negative reaction to what life was offering. This method I call the Four S’s, which are Simplicity, Softness, Smile and Stillness.

Simplify: Start by reminding yourself of the simple truth of the aphorism that nothing anyone says can harm you, only your reactions can do you harm. Remember to be in the simple truth of the Present Moment and that thoughts of past and future are not real, they are only memories and imagination. Simplify your intention by recognizing that before you can be of service to other you must first be of service to yourself; before you can love another you must be able to love yourself—Self Love First. I have learned that if I am uptight, I am not being loving to myself so I cannot love another or be of service to them. NOW is the time to relax and let go, not tomorrow or when you have the time to meditate. NOW is all you will ever have so start NOW to let go.

Soften: Become aware of the tension in your body, mind and heart. To soften the body take deep, whole breaths and allow yourself to relax with each out breath, feeling the tension flow out of your body with the breath. Become aware of the tension in your face, head, neck, shoulders, back, arms, stomach, legs and so forth. With each out breath feel the body relaxing and letting go. To soften the mind, recognize that you really cannot KNOW anything and that whenever you know something you are creating hardness in your mind which manifests in the body. To soften the heart recognize that nothing that ever has happened or could happen on this puny speck of dust in the universe that we call Earth could ever be important; that all is meaningless and all importance is vanity and let it go. In this process you feel the softening of your entire body, mind and heart.

Smile: When you smile you are shining your light. Light enables you to see clearly what is really going on. Research has shown that smiling has multiple benefits: it relieves stress, boosts your immune system, changes your mood and helps you stay positive. Smiling is the practice of appreciation which leads to joy and eventually to love. We are naturally drawn to the experience of lightheartedness or just lightening up. Use the word Smile to remind yourself of this so that you can go back to this enlightened state of being.

Whatever is happening in this moment is your moment; this is your life so you might as well enjoy it. The more you can smile on your life’s moments, the more your life is filled with the light of appreciations, joy and love.

Our deepest motive in life is to appreciate, enjoy and love life. Awareness is to remember that nothing is more important than the quality and richness of joy and love. If we remember this, then we will remember to enjoy what life is offering us. Nothing is more important than the sense of appreciation, joy and love.
I have coined a term for this sense of appreciation. I call it “Yesness”. We want to experience the light so we lighten up, we become light hearted. To lighten up is to feel a sense of YESness about life and what we are experiencing. To smile is to recognize where we are habitually saying no, to release that negativity and say YES. When we are up tight, thinking and saying NO becomes a habit. By relaxing, thinking and feeling Yes, we begin to find the quality of life that we are looking for.

Stillness: There is a time for motion or effort and there is a time for stillness or effortlessness. No effort, no intentions, no will, no plans, no goals, just relaxing and being. With stillness comes clarity that allows us to perceive the truth that will set us free from all negativity. With stillness we can see through the illusions that create fear and negativity. It is in the peace and stillness that comes after letting go that gives us the clarity to perceive the perfect truth that will set us perfectly free. With stillness we can see the light of joy that will guide us on our next step in our life. When joy is your guiding light, then joy will always be your companion.

Stillness and rest is necessary for the human instrument to live. Without a balance of motion and stillness the quality of life will be lost.

Stillness produces clarity that in turn enables us to see the truth that sets us free to enjoy and love all that life has to offer. Stillness is the peace that enables us to relax into appreciation, joy and love.

Confidence comes in stillness. As you cultivate the skill of relaxing and not reacting to the stimuli that life is offering you gain confidence in your ability to deal with what life is offering. Stillness will enable you to not beat yourself up emotionally with a strong reaction around life’s challenges.

The skills that Meditation in Conservation gives you will enable you to be fully with ALL that life is offering and to be a full participant in society. Imagine being in a relationship where the other comes home after a hard day at work where they have been challenged by their boss and the traffic coming home was worse than usual. The first thing they do when they get into the house is to ‘vent’ from their day and start bitching or just complaining about whatever it is that first sets them off. Usually you would have gotten defensive or had some other negative reaction to their unhealthy or negative venting. But now, with the skills you have developed from Meditation in Conversation you catch yourself in your own reactions and you relax, let go, smile and just be still. You allow the venting because you can see that it can do you no harm and that the other needs to release all the pent up tension they have developed throughout the day. You might even encourage them to vent. And, after they have fully vented, you smile and give them an encouraging hug, telling them you love them.

The cycle has been broken. No longer are you reactive to what people say to you. Now you have the capacity to let go of your negative reactions and just allow what needs to be. Then you can come forth in life and offer your light of appreciation, joy and love. Life has become much more fulfilled and you are at peace with a beautiful and perfect world.

I would suggest that you open yourself up to ANY opportunity to practice this Meditation in Conversation. That would mean with family, friends, loved one, but also with those with whom you disagree or have hard feelings toward. I would go to extremist organizations and listen to their ranting and raving while practicing meditating and watching my responses. My next step was to go to meetings where I could engage with others and watch my reactions to their reactions of me (judgments, criticism and even rejection).

I recognized that we first have to get to equanimity for the clarity that it offers, and then our natural compassion for others will come out. The practice of Meditation in Conversation brings me to a place of inner peace and equanimity that I was looking for. I am sure that it will do the same for you.

 

Modern Scriptures

Published on by Jim Category: Religion

We have re-written the scriptures to show the modern understanding beyond gender and many of the other limitations of ancient people.  If you go into any bookstore today rarely will you see a modern spiritual book with these biases.  YOU just do not see them as scriptures yet.  Wait a few hundred years and that might change.

Nothing changes over night except our minds.  Quit thinking of those ancient books as holy texts and “poof” they are gone.  Change your ways of thinking about the recent “holy texts” and “poof” they are rewritten to show the non-biased perspective.

You have all the power.  Change starts with you and moves outwards.

I Killed Myself

Published on by Jim Category: Nonduality

Dead, gone and forgotten.  My “self” is dead. I no longer have to defend it. I no longer have to worry if it is going to heaven or hell or what karma or sin it has or if it will reincarnate into a bat.  It is dead; I killed it.

Boy, what a difference a dead self makes.  Of course, it does not mean that there is not worry for this piece of carcass known as Jim, but the carcass is just a tool, a vehicle, a toy to be played with until it is worn out then thrown away.  “I” do not have to worry about it anymore because “I” am dead.
You might ask, “How did you kill yourself if you are still here?”  Well, “I” am not here, the body is.  “I” am dead.  At least the part of Jim that thinks of himself as a body or a separate being with beginning and end.

I killed myself by looking for the self.  Eventually I saw that the self is just a thought, an electro-magnetic impulse traveling around the brain/body mechanism.  When I fully let go of focusing on anything, particularly the sensations in the body/brain, then the instrument relaxed, let go and stop creating any more impulses, including the impulse known as ‘self’.

Of course, acknowledging that this happened was another impulse which brought back the original impulse of self.  HOWEVER, the power of the idea or thought known as “self” is broken and has diminished ever since.

It is wonderful being free from the grip my ‘self’ had on me.  No longer is there worry about ‘my’ career.  Karma and sin have no meaning.  Since “I” am no longer important then ‘my’ world is no longer important.  Hell, I can now see that nothing in the manifested universe is important so why worry about anything.  It is all here just for the fun of it.  All is meaningless (unless I want to play with meaning and create meaning for it).  All is vanity.

Even writing this is vanity, but it is also a lot of fun.
Now I am free to enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer.
Yet, habits are hard to die and the habit of thinking about my ‘self’ is strong.  Sometimes there is forgetting that the self is not real and I go back to worrying about it.  Usually I wake back up by myself but sometimes it take a true friend, one who really cares about me, to stun me back awake by confronting my silly idea that I am real or important or that I matter or that anything I could ever do mattered or that anything anyone could do or has ever done could really matter.

Sometimes a go a long time before I wake back up.  In those times, I wish I had more friends who really cared about me enough to jolt me back awake.  So I have dedicated my life (Oops, there I go again, like it is ‘my’ life in the first place, silly me) to waking up others so that they can wake me up when I fall asleep, AND, so they can fully enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer.

Wait, OTHERS?  There I go again, thinking there are ‘others’ in the universe.  How can that be if “I” have no beginning or end, I am infinite and all-inclusive.  In infinity, there is no ‘other’ so there are no others.  Ah, then I am not waking up ‘others’ so they can fully enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer; I am waking the REST of me up to fully enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer.

Phew, that was a lot of work.  Ah, but it is worth it.  What greater gift can I give to myself (and all there other ‘selves’ of me out there) that to wake up to enjoy this perfect world and universe?

Does anybody want to join me?

Religion & Believing

Published on by Jim Category: Jesus, Religion

The value of religion is to keep the gullible masses in check. Unfortunately the apposing forces of domination, the trouble makers like Jesus or myself have not been doing our job in stimulating the masses to question the authority of the religions or wake them up from their unconscious gullibility.

Religions are not like educational systems that have a program in which if you follow it you will eventually graduate from the system. Instead religions want to keep you bond to them indefinitely: perpetual bondage.

As there are some dogs that seem too stupid to understand the dangers of life in a city where there are cars on the road, there are people who are too stupid to understand the dangers of life in a world where there are unscrupulous people who will injury or harm them. Many of those unscrupulous people work in churches and states, religion and government, but they are not always as unscrupulous as some other people who could do greater harm.

BUT, this is how nature works to get rid of stupid people and stupid creatures; it allows them to get run over by cars. Hence, because of religions and governments we have a world over populated by stupid people who are destroying their own planet.

Why People Believe

People choose to believe something because they do not have actual knowledge of something but the THOUGHT of that something is emotionally attractive. They want that which they believe to be true.

For instance, they believe that an airplane they are about to fly on is going to function appropriately and that they pilot is competent. They don’t know this to be a fact but want it to be true. The belief calms their mind somewhat.

The same thing happens in religious beliefs. A religious believer have some beliefs that are creating discomfort for them so they choose other beliefs to give them comfort from the first set of belief.

If they would just question their original assumptions till they can see that those are not real then they would have no need to lie to themselves about the other beliefs.