Monday, August 30, 2010

"Rising Above Self-Condemnation"

Today, in some remote part of our minds, there's a cesspool of beliefs that's constantly putting us down. These beliefs are born from victim consciousness and nurtured by the vicissitudes of success and failure that we have bought into. And unfortunately, for some of us, it's our beliefs about our actions -- whether they are successful or not -- that inextricably tie us to victim consciousness, specifically, in this case, self-condemnation.

Most of us function without ever giving much thought or consideration to how our thoughts victimize us. We're too busy searching for the lost treasure of success and belittling ourselves for not being able to achieve it. Our thoughts have paralyzed us with doubts and limited our perspective of the decisions we are making in our lives. We are basically encapsulated in a web of self-condemning beliefs that's weaken our resolve to revalue ourselves with the tools of enlightenment that's available to us in our intuitive consciousness.

 Similarly, we frequently fall prey to the powerlessness associated with the doom and gloom of a slumping economy,  the deteriorating social, moral, and spiritual values, and political polarization spreading its cancerous destruction across this country. Even though this time period appears difficult to us, this is not the time to cling to our fears and doubts. This is the time to draw on the power we have to control our behavior and focus on our goal of enlightenment. This is our time to be empowered and to stop condemning ourselves for the failures and setbacks causing us to feel so unworthy to achieve the riches of enlightenment.

Some of us know the difficult we have with facing our fears and doubts. We have good days and days where we just cannot seem to overcome our feelings of inadequacy. On the days that we feel down, lowly to the point of depression, these are the days for us work harder on our vision of enlightenment. And contrary to what a number of well-intentioned people have told us about living in the present moment, many of us still find this to be very difficult. For some reason, we continue focusing on the past regrets and wondering if our lives would have been different if we had made different decisions.

Some of us, who are suffering with our decisions, want  desperately to live in the present moment. We would give anything to have our past regrets disappear so we can stop condemning ourselves. We desire to live in the present moment, but we're accustomed to the illusory contentment with the past. The past is home for us. It's where we live with the other victims, who are struggling for illusory political, economic, social, and religious goals. The freedom we seek is outside of ourselves.

It is from the position of darkness that we must seek the light of enlightenment. It is from the fears and doubts that we must seek enlightenment. of . It's here now in this moment where we must sit with the fears and doubts causing us so much pain, anger, self-hatred, suffering, and spiritual stagnation.

Whenever we become fearful of something or somebody, we seek to destroy it or ourselves. Some of us act this way because we are fearful of new information. We need our information to be rooted in the past, a cultural lineage of victimization, so that it's palatable with our existing beliefs.  If it's a denial of the cultural lineage of victimization, we find it difficult to listen to any information that holds us responsible for our actions. And while this type of behavior might seem strange to the present-moment advocates, it's normal behavior for those who have become victimized by our thoughts and beliefs.

What's even  stranger than our victim behavior is the narcissistic view we have of ourselves. In a world with billions of people, we believe the whole world is watching our every move. Whenever we want to do something, we wonder what others will think about us doing it. Will they approve? Will they support or reject us? We stop ourselves by our fears of being condemned by others.

Meanwhile, for us to go beyond condemning ourselves for not measuring up to some prescribed criteria of success and failure, we must be willing to nurture the enlightenment part of our consciousness. It is there where we find the freedom from condemnation.

Nevertheless, when we wake up from our victim nightmare long enough to go to the bosom of enlightenment where we are able to perceive ourselves existing in a meaningful and fulfilling way in this world, we will know the truth about who we are, and our relationship with others in the world. 

From the vision of enlightenment, we know we are worthy to exist freely with the billions of people on this planet. And we know there is no condemnation in enlightenment. We know clearly that we are powerful, compassion, and courageous enlightenment warriors.

Enlightenment is not magic, it's work. We must work to cultivate an enlightened mind. This requires us to remove the beliefs causing us to condemn ourselves.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Enlightenment Warriors

Today, unlike some other time periods, we seem to worry more. Some of us have become so enamored by all the new technology that we just cannot do anything for ourselves. It seems the more we search for inner peace and tranquility, the more we're exposed to all kinds of new technology. Some of it is a natural outgrowth of the times. While some is just downright crazy.

Those of us who are searching for enlightenment find all of this somewhat distracting. And unfortunately, in many ways, some of us are not working very well  with the new technology. We're finding it difficult to keep up with the changes.

 For some of us, it might be better to post "No Trespassing" signs on our brows. This psychological, symbolic gesture will remind us to become more vigilant of the information we allow into our minds. It will also remind us to stop worrying so much about  technology taking over our lives. And, hopefully, we can assuage our fears of being victimized by technology.

Those of us who feel victimized by technology and its effects on our behavior are become increasingly more apathetic to what's happening in the world. Somewhere along the way, we've lost our passion for living fully engaged lives. Perhaps it's the media saturation of news about war, unemployment, the stock market, home foreclosures, and the widening chasm of social and political changes threatening our emotional and psychological security.

Nevertheless, it's the overwhelming nature of our problems with the world  that's creating a viral strain of apathy within us. It's acting as a paralysis of consciousness. We cannot seem to get going like we used to when things were simpler. And now we're paralyzed by worry. Some of us can only hope and pray that things (technology) will slow down enough for us to feel meaningful again.

Similarly, some of us prefer the care-free, cavalier environment. We like the personal feel good approach where we can feel good about ourselves and others. It makes us feel less worrisome or overcome by worldly problems. In this environment, we can remain aloof and segregate ourselves from the deluge of information swirling around us. We can join with those who stand idly by and observe the world through the prism of  judgment, fear, and worry. We can, in effect, become apathy-warriors in the army of naysayers.

Whenever we succumb to apathy, we immediately become victims. And the more we become blinded by apathy, the more we devalue ourselves with less power. After awhile, and unbeknown to us, we become victimized by the information we are allowing into our minds. We are unaware of the moment-to-moment struggles we are having with taking action to solve our own problems.

As apathy-warriors, the victims of misinformation, we cling to the doubts and fears, which are the weapons we use to fight against action. We use them to wail mercilessly about the pernicious effects of powerlessness, and to reward ourselves with inglorious contentment with victimization.

Those of us who have lived with the stench of victimization permeating our nostrils are proud apathy-warriors. Everything in our behavior confirms inaction. We are the talkers -- the caretakers of private conversations -- seeking solutions with diseased minds infected by cultural beliefs of victimization. This is who we are and what we do. We are the advocates responsible for teaching, without realizing what we're teaching,  generations of  individuals how to become victims of information that devalue them as powerless.

The victimization process is quite simple. We begin teaching children to interpret information based on the racial, gender, religious, social, and economic categories  that define them. If we are uneducated -- academically, socially, politically and economically -- we can only teach our children what we know. And, unfortunately, in many cases it's not much.

If we are obese, with unhealthy lifestyles -- overeating and little or no physical exercise -- we teach our children how to become obese with unhealthy lifestyles. If we are addicted to alcohol, drugs, and so forth, then we teach, by example, our children how to become victimized by our addictive behavior. We can continue ad nausem with the examples, however, the point has been made.

Conversely, those of us who are educated, we teach our children how to assimilate and transform themselves into acceptability. We teach them the importance of having to be twice as good as others in order for them to achieve success. We victimize them by confirming our own victimization. We teach them to seek confirmation of their work from others.

Meanwhile, the victimization of us, and its corollary effects of apathy are illusory. They merely represent the beliefs that we have been taught by others. The entire concept of apathy-warriors is nothing more than another way to say victim. It's an opportunity to overcome, to change our thoughts and value our worthiness to be alive and successful.

The greatest power we have is our mind. When we allow information to enter into minds and become lifelong beliefs, we must ensure that this information is enlightenment. If not, we will remain inextricably tied to the victimization process that's causing us to doubt our abilities to take actions to solve our own problems.

The moment we decide to wake-up from our victim nightmare and seek enlightenment is the moment we free ourselves from the shackles of apathy. We stop fighting to be powerless. We free our minds of its self-imposed restrictions. We devote our time and energy to enlightening our minds to perceive limitless possibilities in our lives. We are aware that enlightenment is more than a word, it's a philosophy; a way of life.

We become enlightenment-warriors.