Monday, September 26, 2016

All the Time in the World

It never fails to amaze (amuse) me to hear people who need to do something important and necessary, say they don't have the time -- because they are doing everything unnecessary and unimportant.  Of course the most important and necessary thing to do is tend to their health -- which is the basis for everything else they do in life, and determines the quality of their lives.  That's nearly indisputable -- but then after that briefest second of clarity, resume the busyness that is responsible for their poor health, condition and quality of life.

Undoubtedly, they have been conditioned for self-destructiveness, rather than self-actualiztion of their own greatest well-being and good -- both intentionally, as well as thoughtlessly by those with their own self-aggrandizing agendas.

Even those one would think have all the time in the world to do anything they could hope for or imagine, often are trapped in their own self-destructive tendencies and inclinations -- rather than simply letting them go, which would already put them way ahead in the game.  It could even be that they have to push themselves to the breaking point each time as the only way they know how to be, or were conditioned to think is necessary.

Nowhere is that mindset more damaging than those mistaking needless competition and competitive strategies, for actualizing their best health and well-being.  In the former, one may have to sacrifice their health and well-being, to outshine all the others -- especially if one is not genetically-gifted for that battle.

Everyone I know who thinks they have to go-all out every day of their lives until they drop dead of a heart attack or congestive heart failure, will succumb to their own self-inflicted injuries -- in that way.  Most former super-athletes, go out that way -- because they cannot overcome that previous conditioning and mindset that would have allowed them to live many more years merely enjoying the gifts they were blessed with, instead of pushing their luck and limits to the breaking point -- sooner or later.

What is instructive to see is how the many "world champions," are able to make that adjustment to simply long lives in good health, rather than the all too typical story of their premature fall from grace, and many years of infamous poor health before their shockingly young end.  That is particularly true, for many of the strongest, largest and fastest people who ever lived.

There has to be a lesson for less gifted people -- as well, because those genetically predisposed, often cannot help themselves -- being the way they are.  They are so highly specialized and programmed, than they cannot be any other than they are.  So while they are young and competitive, those attributes may be what gains them that advantage, but once they retire and still think that is the winning formula, may experience nothing but injury, pain and torment -- with very little of the benefits -- yet persist for the no longer can recall and related "benefits."

That is simply how they think they ought to do things -- and the "only" way they know how to do anything -- all out, or not at all, when the solution more often than not, lies somewhere in between.  More often than not, a little goes a long way -- while of course, zero will remain zero, no matter how good one's intentions.  Regardless, the valuable and instructive exercise, is simply "finding out."  That is what most "too busy" people, never have the time for.  And that more than anything, is the key to well-being and happiness.

In that condition, one is always improving, and life is getting better -- and if not, their condition is what it is.  There is no denying the facts -- that what they are doing, is not working, and in fact, working to undermine them.  Yet they go on in that way, ignoring and denying the obvious -- which are the problems of their lives, invariably thinking there is nothing they can do about it -- when in fact, they are primarily and ultimately responsible for everything happening in their lives.

How do people get that way?  Unquestionably, there are a few things one cannot seem to help or hinder, but it is far from most, or everything one does in life -- or in most cases, does not do -- even if one has all the time in the world, to do anything one could possibly imagine doing.

Thus, it is very important first, to just stop whatever it is one is doing and thinking -- which is the quality of mind called "meditation," and just be aware.  In that state of mind, all things are possible, and all the time in the world to do it.  It doesn't have to be perfect at first -- especially the first time one does anything.  But only doing in this consciousness and attention, makes possible this improvement -- and no amount of doing thoughtlessly and compulsively what one has always done before.  No amount of doing that, will ever make a difference -- and effect the desirable change and outcome.  In fact, and quite probably, that is the cause of one's problems and difficulties.

For all the truly important things in life, there is all the time in the world to do it -- even if it takes one's entire life doing it.  For the unimportant things in life, there is little or no time for it -- and that is why one never has enough time for it, despite all one does -- first.

That's not the same as doing the right thing -- even just to find out.  That makes all the difference in the world.  Problems and difficulties do not arise DESPITE all we do; problems and difficulties arise BECAUSE of all we do.  That is the key to understanding what we are actually doing -- and the condition we are in. 

Thursday, September 08, 2016

Wiser Is Better

Many people grow old without becoming any wiser; many even boast that they stopped learning in kindergarten -- when the formal education begins for most.  That's how life is different now, when the opportunity and necessity for learning something new, never ceases.  That is the great promise for life in the future -- that one out of conditioning and necessity, never stops learning. 

 One observes that one can't teach an old dog new tricks -- but there is reasonable confidence that one can teach a young dog new tricks -- and that is what makes them "young."  Rather than age defining the learning, it is the learning that denotes the age of the mind, and general health of that individual.  We have never seen things that clearly before -- mistaking the effect for the cause -- and correlating all the wrong things.

That is especially true of problem-solving -- that done successfully and well, keeps one alive and thriving, while those not so successful, experience a difficult life -- and have no idea how to change that.  In the worst case scenarios, they simply get worse -- all their lives, and even drag down the lives of all they have contact with.  They are the classic "toxic personalities" -- that there is no denying that they exist -- more commonly in some places than others.

So a great part of life, is learning to avoid such "black holes" -- and moving toward the light, which signifies life and nourishment.  Life evolved in light -- and not darkness.  The total deprivation of light makes life impossible.  Light is energy -- which makes growth possible.  Light is information -- which tells us which direction to go.  Thus we move towards the light, just as plants do.  That's why it is so important, that the first words of God, is "Let there be light."  That's when all life begins -- and the knowledge of it.

What makes anything "food," is that it has energy -- from absorbing the light.  Those are the basics of life -- seen simply, and for us to go on, we have to revert back to the basics -- of questioning all our assumptions, as though we were learning everything new for the first time.  Because the world is always new in that way -- but the mind makes us old in thinking it is the same old world of yesterday, and the past gone by.

That is the problem of "aging" -- and not simply growing through the years.  The mind gets old and lives in the past -- never solving the problems of its own existence -- and dying to the possibilities of the future.  While the "problems" of aging are well-known and documented, the promise of successfully solving those problems, are not thought possible -- and obviously, therein lies the future.  Can one solve the problems faster than they arise?  And is it even possible, to live without creating these problems in the first place?

Can we see life without the problems? -- which creates the need for a solution, and our economic opportunity, or advantage?  Then there is only the basic response to what is -- which is never a problem.  It is simply a choice one makes to the appropriate information one is wholly aware of, and the realization that all one's problems, are the inappropriate responses (choices), and not that the problems are inevitable no matter what one does.  That is always a fatal conclusion -- leading to death, deterioration and disintegration.

It is the failure to integrate oneself with what is going on in the world -- cutting oneself off from vital life in the present reality, while choosing to live in the darkness of one's own memories, thoughts, knowledge, and beliefs -- as though they were reality itself.  That was the conditioning (education) of the old -- being supplanted by everything new.

But not if one convinces themselves, that everything older is better.  That which is better and best, is new -- and constantly renewing that fact, and not simply a habit of always doing things that way -- which is often the problem.  The problems we have, may be due to that fact that we always do things that way -- while not realizing that doing things differently, may be the solution -- and better, that no problem will arise.  It is simply doing the "right" thing from the very beginning -- or at any point thereafter.

However, no amount of the "wrong" thing, will ever make it right -- no matter how long one persists at it, or "forces" it to be right -- through denial or deceit.