Friday, July 23, 2010

How to avoid death

How to completely avoid death

What does it mean to die? To die means not to change. We change from an embryo to a baby, baby to adolescent, adolescent to adult, adult to elderly, elderly to eventually moving beyond the body completely, to the unknown. We call this “life”. What we are afraid of is not death, it is unknown change. Every night when we fall asleep, we move into the unknown, where time is no longer linear and we dive deep into the unrestrained creative power of our source.

When our sense of self, when our fixed ideas and patterns of thinking become so standardized that we are no longer open to change, that is death. That is the real death before the physical body dissolves. When the mind becomes as stiff as our joints, our world becomes restricted as well. New things, new ideas that threaten our old patterns are viewed with suspicion and resistance. When the walls we choose to define our way of living can no longer be tunneled through by the power of curiosity, we inhabit a prison of our own design.

What is the cure for death? The punctuation mark at the end of the last sentence is the cure. The question mark began as a “Lightning flash, from left to right” in the early middle ages. With this simple symbol of lightning - a force that both illuminates and destroys - the foundations of our previously held beliefs can be changed, adapted, and when necessary, exploded. When we allow a current of curiosity and wonder to swirl within even the things we take for granted, the possibility of seeing them as new unfolds.

Our big fear is that what we have believed in, the foundations of our way of living and seeing the world may change completely. If that were to happen, our sense of authority and value would be threatened. So to avoid this threat, we retreat into the walls of our own beliefs, retreating to the known.

So, how to avoid death? To avoid death, create an opportunity to let your beliefs dissolve, even temporarily. We can do this daily by taking a seat, closing our eyes for a few minutes and resting in the source that lies behind all of our thoughts and beliefs.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

127 keys to happiness - The first eleven

127 Keys to happiness.

1 - Stop caring what people think. Most people are too busy caring what you think of them to worry about what you are doing.
2 - Remember, eventually, we die. You don’t want to get sick and die, so resolve to die when you are healthy.
3 - Take a few minutes every day to recognize you can be a jerk, just as much as anyone else.
4 - When you wake up, say to yourself “ I am still alive!” Say it out loud.
5 - To create more personal space on the bus, practice yogic breathing, eyes closed.
6 - Good and bad are relative terms. To a wolf, tackling a weak caribou is good. To the weak caribou, it is bad. To the herd of caribou, it is good, because the whole herd’s bloodline will get stronger, but they may not know that.
7 - In the middle of any argument, crawl on the floor for 25 seconds, get up, and continue.
8 - When you happen to be crawling on the floor, have an argument with yourself.
9 - Be someone who categorizes. Create 2 categories - 2 kinds of people - those that categorize, and those that don’t.
10 - Occasionally, take a shower with all of your clothes on.
11 - Don’t do something everyday that scares you. That is bad advice. Home dentistry scares me, and I’m not about to do it.