Becoming Involved in Change

Nearly all victims are angry about something.  It's usually the way we feel about our living conditions vis a vis those of others.  Most often our anger is misdirected toward others, even those whom we don't know. And it's this misdirected anger that prevents us from becoming involved in changing how we think and live.

To change from victim to enlightenment, we must become aware of what we're doing to ourselves and others. This is not a lackluster, cursory awareness of our behavior, but a deep, prolonged examination of the origin and development of our beliefs that cause us to become angry at ourselves and others for not measuring up to our self-prescribed goals of success.

The change we seek must be from an intense desire to understand how we acquired our beliefs about ourselves and others. It is from this starting point that we must begin our transformation journey

Some of us believe change is an inevitable consequence of age or experience.  In other words, after we have numerous experiences with the vices and virtues of the world, we will ultimately decide to become virtuous. It's unfortunately for us that the transformation process is not based on either age or experience, but on our commitment to examine the origins of our beliefs and change those beliefs causing us to suffer. 

WE can decide to change at any point in our lives. There's no spiritual, psychological or material determinate dictating to us.  It's our individual choice to live as victims or as enlightened people.

The world we are living in now is composed of ideas, laws, beliefs, and prescribed virtues on right and wrong.  Nearly everyone has a opinion on how to change. So it's difficult for us to know who to trust or what to do to overcome the suffering. Most of us just continue to read, meditate, pray, and search for answers within our minds.  We believe, perhaps because we have been told so, that within our minds we will find a place that's free of all victim beliefs.

The inner search for something different is troubling for many of us. We cannot visually experience that which we seek either in ourselves or others. And while many people extol messages about how to change our lives, we continue to remain victimized by our beliefs. Unfortunately, some of us are in denial about the fact that we are still victims.  We cannot even accept that our suffering comes from us.

To be clear, some of us believe we can never go beyond the beliefs we have about skin color and race. We are forever inextricably tied to the beliefs that define our color and race.  And even after years or decades of meditating, praying, and trying to be kind to people, animals, and so on, we continue to perceive and accept ourselves according to the beliefs responsible for our suffering.

Some of us believe we were born into a victimized world that has grown accustomed to perpetuating itself as victims of imperfection. The generational changes, particularly in science and medicine, pale in comparison to the less than stellar spiritual progress. We are still searching for the meaning of enlightenment in a world we have judged to be overcome by victim beliefs.

Meanwhile, we remain in search of enlightenment in spite of our beliefs.  We continue to work on the judgments we have about ourselves and the world, and to reaffirm our commitments to achieve enlightenment.

Nevertheless, it's our willingness to seek enlightenment that changes our perspective of living in a victimized world. And this change in perspective allows us to engage in the work necessary to overcome our victimization.

WE have the power to change the world into whatever we desire it to be.  The only things preventing us from doing this are our beliefs.  When we change our beliefs completely, we change ourselves completely.  This allows us to become one with the world, not as observers, critics or judges, but as participants. We are responsible for the changes we seek in ourselves, not for those whom we judge to need changing.