Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Refocusing on our Choices

Today, more than at any other times in our lives, as enlightenment-seekers, we must remain vigilant about what we think and eat. It's vitally important for us to stop the busy work of chasing after things -- money, fame, social acceptance, and so forth -- and focus on the importance of working to achieve enlightenment (empowerment).

For many of us, the busy work seems more important, more real, than the enlightenment work. We frequently lose ourselves in the everyday madness of making decisions with cluttered minds. This is the clutter produced from our victim beliefs.

Sometimes, when our minds are cluttered with unimportant things, – money, regrets, status, doubts, and so forth – we don’t have enough space to make good, clear decisions about the important things – family, vision, life, confidence, and so forth – in our lives. Unfortunately, we can't see beyond the clutter.

During moments when we feel overwhelmed by the busy work, these are the times we must find the inner strength to stop, examine, and understand the criteria we are using to make our decisions.

Whenever we take the time to examine the criteria we are using to measure the effectiveness of our actions, we begin to understand how important our decision-making criteria is on our abilities to change how we think and live. Our decision-making criteria is present in all our decisions, even those we think are insignificant.

On this journey, even the minute decisions we make, like choosing where we live, work, and play, reflect what's going on in our minds. Regardless to the importance or, lack thereof, we place on our decisions, they all emanate from the clutter in our minds.

In many instances, our minds play tricks on us. We confuse victim choices with enlightened ones. The clutter from victim consciousness creates this confusion. And it's exacerbated by our lack of awareness about what constitutes an enlightened action.

If we have cluttered minds, then the criteria we use to make decisions emanates from this clutter. Since we don’t what the landmarks look like on the enlightenment road, it’s easy to get lost and to confuse victim actions with enlightenment ones.

To begin this process, we must refocus and make some different choices about how we're continually contributing to our own pain and suffering. Moreover, we must take deliberate actions to quell the noise from the clutter in our minds so we can think clearly about the choices we make as we move forward with our lives.

As we know, there are not too many of us who can say we’re proud of the choices, particularly the seemingly insignificant ones, we have made, and continue to make.


The essence of a victim's consciousness is the clutter and lack of clarity. As victims, those who feel powerless to change their lives, we live and suffer with our clutter. After awhile, we accept powerlessness similar to the way we accept our eyes blinking. It is natural, uneventful. We only become concerned with our eyes when they cause us pain. The same is true with our victim beliefs.

From our confusion, we find it challenging to free enough space to make clear decisions. Even during those moments when we feel we've made a thoughtful, deliberative decision, we frequently realize afterwards that our decisions were not enlightened at all. And we regret ever making them in the first place.

To illustrate this confusion we can examine how mindful we are eating burnt flesh, drinking sugar-laden drinks, snacking feverishly on chips and dip, or gossiping about people and things we know little or nothing about.

Similarly, we don't focus too much on the importance we place on seemingly, small, insignificant things that tend to benefit us. When a clerk or waiter gives us too much change for a purchase, we might find it easy to keep the money rather than return it to him or her. After all, we might say, "it's their mistake. Maybe, next time they'll be more careful."

We might find it even more challenging when a friend or relative approaches us with the latest gossip about some celebrity, politician, or coworker. This requires us to decide whether to participate or not. As we know, this is easier said than done, particularly, for those of us who frequently participate in such discussions.

On our journeys, the small, insignificant choices are the ones that measure our personal growth. The choices we make when no one knows what we are doing determine whether or not we return the overage to the waiter, or if we refrain from participating in mindless chatter

In the meanwhile, regardless to how small or insignificant our choices might seem, we must treat them with respect. For us to disrespect our choices, only invite them to return and bite us with further pain and suffering.

Nevertheless, to measure our progress on the enlightenment road, we first must commit ourselves to removing the tiny pieces of clutter clouding our minds with victim beliefs. This moment-to-moment task is a daily one. It requires mindfulness, particularly as it relates to clearing away the clutter and creating more free space.

These are the things that measure our personal growth on our enlightenment journey. We must take the time to do the small things first. Then, and after much work on ourselves, we will bask in the joy of having cleared enough space in our minds to see clearly what we are doing.

Meanwhile, as continue to work on removing the clutter, we are moving to different levels of awareness about ourselves. Sometimes it is helpful to have companions. We can use unselfish prayer and purposeful meditation as our companions.


1. An unselfish prayer is one that focuses on reaffirming your commitment to achieve enlightenment.

2. A purposeful meditation is one without predetermined goals or objectives. It is just you being free and open with yourself.

The power to choose is the greatest power we have. This power is effective when we use it with clear minds.

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