Look Forward with Anticipation

I am spending more time studying Spanish these days than writing. When I get wherever people go after they die, I will be able to converse with both the English speakers and the Spanish speakers. I very much intend to be bilingual in my next life as well. The neat thing about believing in reincarnation is having something to look forward to. A voice inside my head said to me once, “Always have something to look forward to.” Maybe that advice extends beyond death. Whether reincarnation and life beyond death are true or not, certainly having something to look forward to in one’s life is excellent advice.

The Third Way or The Third Path?

When there are two ways of thinking or doing something. An example is liberal vs. conservative thinking. Finding a midway point is next to impossible. The thing is, when there are two ways, there is also a third way out there waiting to be discovered that will be the best solution to the problem. We just have to find it. I will be looking for third ways, and I will post them in my blog. Following is some thinking I was doing in that area a few days ago.

We know for sure that the desire to be manly is a powerful one. Is it possible that men would carry this so far as to become dictators or start wars? One answer to my third way of doing things might be answered by putting a woman in the White House. That would stop having testosterone from mismanaging the country, as we see by having a Texas cowboy in the position. I don’t know if Hillary Clinton is the right woman for the job, but she certainly has the most knowledge and experience. Putting more women in government would lighten the macho factor. Putting a woman in the White House would lighten it a lot.

Peace of Mind

Well, let’s get back to human consciousness. From reading the book Flow by Dr. C., I have come to the conclusion that we organize our consciousness by learning a domain or field. Learning brings order out of chaos. I am learning Spanish as much as anything to bring order to the chaos of my mind. I am bringing forth psychosomatic wellness. I did a Google search on “psychosomatic wellness” and got 348 hits. I wasn’t even sure there was such a thing. I started playing a CD of Native flutes to make me feel better. Research has been done that shows music can be good for the mind. As it plays I feel peace sweeping over me.

Words or No Words???

I never fail to write each morning; it is a deeply engrained habit. But there are two things I do fail to do each day that I really want to do. I don’t always exercise, nor do I meditate. I’ve tried to make yoga asanas a regular habit, but I only do them occasionally. I sometimes call my writing “writing meditation”; but, is it? I think it is to some extent, but to what extent I can’t really say. What is this thing with words anyway?
Our lives are built around words. A stream of words is constantly playing in my head; how about yours? When I try to mediate, the first thing I do is to try and turn off the words. In Buddhist meditation they call this “being in the here and now.” To enter the Alpha state of mind by the Silva Mind Control method, one counts backwards. Numbers are words; are they not? A stream of words, “one-hundred, ninety-nine, ninety-eight …” takes me into the Alpha. It is my belief that the Alpha is the place to find the divine. Sometimes I just pay attention to my own breathing; that seems to work too. Being in Alpha doesn’t seem to me to be in the here and now, but more of a magic place where I see and hear strange and wondrous things.

Switching Focus

I have lived an odd life, and I don’t actually know why. I suspect that I have suffered from attention deficit disorder, but I can’t say for sure because I was never diagnosed with it. However, all that impulsive behavior and job switching is a good indication. It has taken 23 years of introspective journal writing to get where I am now. There is another way to look at it. I failed to mature in the normal time frame. One might call it “retarded maturity.” On the internet, I found that retarded maturity had more to do with fruit than anything else. I kept trying different keywords; the two that worked best were “maturity and responsibility.” After reading many things that many people consider to be true maturity, I arrived at two conclusions. First of all, I matured in mixed fashion; in some ways I was very mature, and in others very immature. Second, I realized that the very subject that I was exploring yesterday, inward and outward focus, has a great deal to do with maturity. You might say that maturity is the ability to focus outside one’s self, but this is not always true. It might be more accurate to say that maturity is the ability to switch focus as appropriate.

Dementia?

Preacher Pat Robertson suggested on his TV broadcast yesterday that the government should assassinate President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. I think he was trying to sound all macho when he said it, maybe trying to out-bush Bush. Sometimes trying to be macho just makes a man look stupid. We all know that it is against international law to kill the sovereign leader of a country. Also, Christian ministers should not be suggesting that anyone break the “thou shalt not kill” commandment. The man is 75; maybe Alzheimer’s is creeping up on him?

Who is screwing up America?

I was shopping at Sam’s Club today and stopped by the book department. They do sell books at about half of list price, so I don’t know anyplace better to shop for books. I also own Wal-Mart stock, which also prompts me to shop there. I liked fellow liberal Al Franken until the day he spent his whole 3-hour radio program trashing Wal-Mart. Anyhow, to get back to the point, there was a book on sale there called “100 People Who Are Screwing Up America.” I flipped through it and best I could tell it was just another conservative propaganda piece. It named a number of black people and put Michael Moore at the #1 spot. It really irritated me when he named Jimmy Carter. I, of course, did not buy that piece of trash, and came directly home to start my own list. Several names came quickly to mind, but then I thought. I don’t want to be like the propagandists! We Americans need to stop trashing each other and start thinking about the problems that we need to solve. Let us leave behind conservative and liberal and work for a better America together. There must be a third way. Here is a challenge to all bloggers: Can you think of a third way?

Own Worst Enemy

I read one article which talked about theocracy as something we talk about as history; but, theocracy is very much alive in the Middle East, and inching its way into America. The Fundamentalist Christians would like nothing better than to be able to control us all. Many of us are already sick of hearing about Christianity; but, let me take a more positive approach to the problem. The Fundamentalists are killing Christianity. The only way that Christianity is going to survive as a major religion is for it to separate itself completely from government. It has been proven over and over that theocracy does not work; and in addition, causes lots of problems for us all. Fundamentalists of all stripes are their own worst enemy.

Jesus

One fellow who went about preaching compassion, love, and caring, Jesus of Nazareth, is getting his name dragged into the fundamentalist talk. If he were around today, I believe he would reject fundamentalism as I do.
If I were going to go out preaching today, I would advise people to think accurately for themselves and care about other people. I’d say, pick up pad and pen and write your own script. Shakespeare was right, “the entire world is a stage…” Do as I do. Do more writing than reading. Writing is insight meditation. Do more meditating than praying. Listen to God more than you talk to Him/Her. Those who are enlightened will not cling tightly to any doctrine. Native Americans have their vision quests; they go out to experience enlightenment. In so doing they are learning from the Great Spirit rather than from fallible humans.

Introspector9

Buddha talked about taking the Middle Path, but I have doubts about that; or at least, I would like to frame this in a different way. Life is a matter of dealing with paired opposites. Thinking accurately is a matter of mixing two opposites – reason and quality. Quality of life is finding the right balance between responsibility and freedom. That would be sort of a middle path, but not every pair of opposites fits. This is why I am seeking a new framework for dealing with opposites. Buddha’s framework is a good one, but I think it can be improved upon.
Life and death is a very serious pair of opposites. I like the reincarnation frame around this pair. It takes some of the sting out of death, and gives us hope for future life. I feel like we can live better lives here on earth with the reincarnation frame rather than the heaven-and-hell frame. People will take better care of Mother Earth if they believe that they are coming back to her. People might be less inclined to fight wars if they thought their enemies were coming back to face them again in a new life. These are just a couple of examples. I believe there are many good reasons to believe in reincarnation. A third framework would be “life begins at birth and ends at death.” I don’t like that way that feels. It is not pretty. Whatever the actual truth is, we do not know. You faith-based people believe in heaven and hell. You reality-based people suffer with your hard “truth” that death is final. We reason-and-quality people will likely believe in reincarnation.