Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
Frog in a well
The first thing we need to understand is, that people in mayoralty has need, to explain things that surround them, since unexplained things, fright them. In the long history, there was a lot of explanations, for all the phenomena that was happening, and for the life itself. We aren’t new at that; also, we aren’t special, when we believe (so strongly) that we figured everything out. I’m sure people always believed, just as we do, that they figured everything out. The only thing that was constantly changing was the explanation.
As I said, we need explanation - we’re curious, and curiosity (as my friend said) is what make us humans, it’s the force which pushing us further and further. Of course, when talking about curiosity, we must take into account laziness, which seems to be even strongest force.
So, let me tell you a fairytale: long time ago lightning appeared - people were confused, and they were searching for an explanation, a wise man realized that lightning is something made by God; since he was convincing and since that explanation made perfect sense - all people agreed and didn’t though about it anymore. Many years later, and after many corrections of that theory, people accepted that lightning is just “an atmospheric discharge of electricity”, they weren’t sure what that is, but they were happy with it, and they made a lot of fun, of those savages from past, who believed that lightning is send by God.
There was always majority of people who just agreed with the explanation which was valid in their time, since they were too lazy to think with their heads; but what’s really disturbing is, that they were really ready to defend that false believe, defending it even with giving their or taking other peoples’ lives.
I’m concern when I talk to people nowadays, since mostly all I can hear, is just blindness and total inability to think with their own heads. I could swallow even the most crazy idea, if only that idea would be something that person actually figure it out on his own, and it’s based on his own experience, his own life. But what’s mostly happening is just repeating; the irony is, that mass media nowadays has more power (to brainwash people), than all churches put together ever had, but we still believe, that we’re somehow advanced, enlightened, that we understand everything, and (now here’s the irony), that people in the past were brainwashed and mislead by institutions of that time.
Does average person ever ask himself, “why do I believe in what I believe?”, it seems that such questions aren’t often on peoples’ mind. People seems to be fanatically closed, unable to open up to anything.
We’re like computers, outputting bunch of data, not knowing even what that data is, and why are we outputting it. We’re absorbing data, with same mindlessness. To know a lot, is insignificant, why do I care which is the longest river in world, which is the tallest mountain, what’s the distance to the moon and back? It’s just trash, kitsch, it has no real value. Everyone with too much time can learn all those facts. Give me wisdom and I’ll shake your hand, and I’ll even walk with you on your path and respect you. But wisdom is something, masses never were looking for.
I heard a story about the frog, who was living all his life in a well. Two birds has visit him from time to time, and tell him about the ocean. The frog, was trying to understand a scale of ocean, while still having in mind measure of the small well in which he was living. The more he was trying to understand the wideness of ocean, the less he could. He was asking birds, he was thinking and thinking, measuring, calculating. The more he was doing that, the less sense everything had; finally he concluded, there’s no such thing as ocean - it can’t be, it’s totally impossible.
Nevertheless, from time to time, even if only in deepest dreams, he sens the wideness of thing called ocean.
Indeed, in small puddles in which we live, which are all we can see, from time to time, even if only in deepest dreams, we sense the infinity, which is beyond anything we could ever understood.
Life…
The thing about life is, that you must fall in love with it, you must start perceive it, as lovers perceive each other — with tenderness and awareness of every detail, with enthusiasm and expectation of every moment. To spend this time here is great reward; our life offering us so much possibilities, about which we’re totally unaware, while being trapped in our everyday thoughts, which seems so important, but in reality are so insignificant.
In life, just like in love, is nothing to win and nothing to find, but just to experience. The greatness of being in love is the simplicity, the melting of what we’re calling reality, but actually what’s happening, is just melting of our everyday ideas, which are mostly based on fear, and therefore are mostly negative. There’s nothing but love or fear, so when we fall in love, our ideas emerge from love, and therefore, they’re not just positive, but actually limitless.
Falling in love with life, means simply that our perception emerge from love, instead from fear. To put it more simply, it means: when we fall in love with life, life fall in love with us.
To have a good life, I think, we must love it - just like, to have a good relationship, we must love the person with which we’re in relationship. We must be forgiving, patient, and mostly understanding. The recipe for good life, I think, is the same as for good relationship, but that’s not coincidence, since what is life, if not the most important relationships of all - the relationship with ourselves, with God, with universe.
Wise up!
Lets talk about suffering, about difficulties in life and about “overcoming” them, shall we?
I can’t imagine with what else to start, if not with Buddha’s first noble truth, which saying (simply enough) that life is suffering, meaning that sooner or later we’ll suffer somehow. Buddhism of course, offering answer on how to end suffering, actually - that’s the fourth noble truth.
Now that we know that life is suffering, with that in mind, we can look around. If I look around, for example, I see so many people suffering (because of) many causes: some are sick, some wanting(!) love - or better said relationship, some has experienced some personal trauma.
The way how we understand the suffering, is a bit confusing and mostly wrong. We mostly feel, that suffering has absolutely no meaning. Since people mostly think their suffering is meaningless, they’re not looking for a meaning - they fail to see meaning, so the meaning stays overlooked and unrealized. Result: their suffering really is meaningless and unproductive.
Since we mostly failing to see meaning, we’re looking for a quick fix, - maybe pills, maybe some therapy. Anthony de Mello said: “Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don’t really want to be cured. What they want is relief; a cure is painful.” Ahhh. So true. Cure is painful, since it does require a change. But people wanna quickly eliminate the suffering, and stay absolutely the same. Of course, things just don’t work like that.
I said before, that suffering has meaning, and the meaning is: the call of our life, the big shake of our life, the alert, the sign: “it’s time for a change, you’re doing something wrong!” And the fact is, we can’t deceive our life, .. we can deceive everything and everybody (even ourselves), but not our life.
The suffering is process, and it most likely won’t stop - until we realize it, and make some changes. Like in great song by Aimee Mann:
It’s not going to stop ‘Til you wise up.
We don’t wanna change, it’s amazing, people would rather die, than change. So they keep suffering, as suffering seems easier than the change. I heard people saying: “I’d rather die, than stop eating *some kind of* food”, or “I’d rather die, than give up smoking”. They don’t even try, and they really do - soon enough - die.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” – Albert Einstein
When suffering become just too much, too loud, too big, we can start realizing good sides of it. The suffering can bring us back to ourselves, it can eliminate all the noise that’s going on in our life, and focus our view on more important things: self-realization, our inner world.
Really, the suffering, can make us a better person, a more aware person. But it’s necessary, to realize the meaning of it. When we finally do realize the meaning, does suffering stop? Well, I said in the beginning, life is suffering. If I have fatal disease, I’ll still feel pain; or I can be still single (and alone) as I was before, or if someone had trauma in past, that won’t just go away.
“Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed: after enlightenment, I continue to be depressed. But there’s a difference: I don’t identify with it anymore. Do you know what a big difference that is?” — Anthony de Mello
Do you know? “Before, when the rainy days came, I felt like a clouds, now I feel like a sky. Calmly observing them, passing over.” When I found at lease some meaning in my suffering, when that happened, things started to change. Indeed, I was still as I was before, but yet different. I start realizing things, I start realizing myself. When I look back on my life, I see what a big and important role suffering played in my life, and how drastically changed me. Without doubt changed me to better.
To be honest - sometimes, I want a new wave of suffering, as I realized what a big power is in it. How much energy, and how that energy can be transformed into something creative, how that energy can push me forward. When I suffer, I look mostly for what needs to be changed, what needs to be realized, I don’t search for quick solutions anymore.
We sometimes don’t wanna wake up early in the morning, but when we finally do, we see priceless sunrise, wonderful morning, full of life, so fresh and relaxing. What the realization of suffering brings, is just as beautiful and full of life as the morning is. We must just open our eyes, and wake up.
Of course, this doesn’t cover all types of suffering. For example, probably it’s unfair to expect that a kid who has nothing to eat, will realize some higher meaning in his suffering. I was mostly talking about spoiled society, who suffer mostly because of some bad habits, and wrong views on life. Instead they’d actually try to do something, to realize something, they’re putting all energy into search for a quick fix. On other hand, if we’re able to lost ourselves in our suffering, to disconnect off our body, and ideas - the suffering (that’s believe in many religions) could brought higher realization.
The New Religion
We finally understand everything, and with understanding and predicting, came control.
— The New Religion by VxMxPx
Now, there’s no need for God anymore, since indeed, we’re Gods in this world.
We’ll follow only one thing, since our heads, as our hearts and souls are blank, and our faces - invisible, flat - we’re nonexistent. We’ll follow only one thing, since we don’t see nor feel suffering, and suffering can’t see nor reach us, in our golden castles, indeed, we’re Gods. We’ll follow only one thing, and for it, because of it, we’ll do anything. We’ll follow only one thing — our common sense, which tells us, that we need more money!
