This page was inspired by an email broadcast
by Thomas Leonard. I've been dancing with several of these ideas,
and I find resonance with this expression. It's time for me to write
these down...
When we bash our keyboard in anger, we are bashing ourselves.
When we scratch a dog's ear we are scratching our own itches.
When we help others we are helping ourselves, and when we hurt
others we are hurting ourselves. This, I believe, is the esoteric meaning of the "do unto others"
lesson that Jesus teaches us; we are essentially One, one stuff,
one light.
The only thing we can really change is ourselves. Given the statement
above, this leads me to think the only way I can influence the world is
to work on my own self. I think this is the esoteric meaning of the
parable that instructs us to remove the log from our own eye before
telling our brother to remove his splinter.
"We are furry mammals." Yes, I know that may be redundant, but
this is the expression I use with my daughter to explain why we do many
of the things we do. We are animals first, mammals second, humans third
and [insert gender here] fourth.
Our use of language is intimately connected to how and what we think.
ie, sloppy language causes sloppy thought and vice versa. Maybe language
and thought are different sides of the same coin.
Everything we do is purpose-ful. We are built, emotionally and
intellectually, to do what we're doing right now. We are set up to
victoriously get the results we are getting now.
If we want a different result from recurring situations/patterns,
our behavior is the variable that must change.
Changework feels unnatural and difficult at first. Later it feels
natural and almost effortless. With practice, personal evolution becomes
a habit.
"We are all onions with infants at the core".
Peacefulness is a virtue; in rare cases violence may be justified
and necessary when all other options fail. I consider myself a well-armed (and well-trained) pacifist.
People make the best decisions they can with the information and
skills they have at hand.
Most arguments are the results of a misunderstanding: the combatants
believe the other has the same desired outcome, or the same _a priori_
beliefs. Not true.
Religious beliefs (and other forms of mythos) are important to
us humans because it gives us a complex Rorschach onto which we
can project our own experiences. Myths are important because, even as
we participate in archetypal/universal experiences, they allow us to
discover our buried selves. Whether or not a thing "really happened"
is unrelated to whether or not it is "really true".
We can do most anything we want to do. Desire is the driving force
behind getting what we want. The odd thing is we rarely know what
we want.
What do you want? What has to happen for you to get it?
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