It is important for us to remember: The search for power begins with our minds.
Many of us use our minds to search for power in different ways. Some of us use books, schools, bombs, guns, churches, movies, money, and so on. While some of us use meditation, prayer, mind-body practices, and so forth.
What is important for us to remember in all these situations; we are using our minds to guide us. And that our minds are filled with beliefs and values acquired primarily from outside sources.
When we acquire a lot of information about history, politics, religion, and so forth, we use this information to navigate our way through the illusions of people, places, and things. And unfortunately, as we navigate the treacherous challenges of overcoming the illusions distorting our clarity, we become powerless to the illusions we are seeking to overcome.
After awhile, we believe that our beliefs in religion and politics, for example, are sacrosanct. So if we are born into a Baptist-Democrat family, we accept these beliefs as being who we are. And for most of us after we do this, we eschew ideas about pursuing other religious and political beliefs.
Similarly, some of us understand and accept the rights of others to have different religious and political beliefs, but we do so believing we have superior ones. We are quite content believing we are who our beliefs tell us we are.
In the main, once we embody certain beliefs and values, we keep them. And this intransigence philosophy keeps us going around in circles. In other words, we are searching for our inner-power by using the light from our illusions to guide us to this power.
Nevertheless, we continue inexorably on our spiritual journeys with flickering lights of illusory beliefs and values guiding us in our search for the ultimate power of The Creator.
Unfortunately, many of us, despite pronouncements by the enlightened ones, believe this power exists outside of our minds. So our searches are limited by our beliefs. That is, it's too difficult for us to believe that such power exists in our minds.
Meanwhile, it's not easy for many of us to enlighten our minds. And whether we know it or not, it wasn't easy for others either. It takes a lot of courage to free our minds.
For us to achieve enlightenment at the level of those we now worship and believe did so, we must be willing to move beyond our family-societal beliefs and values. This means we must have the courage and commitment to enlightenment to withstand the inevitable criticism from them.
The commitment to enlightment requires us to lose ourselves (the illusions) in order for us to find ourselves (enlightenment).
Brother Malcolm Kelly, MA is a Spiritual Freedom Philosopher. He shares insights about how to use the Enlightenism philosophy to overcome our dependency on others for power and clarity.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Enlightenment Insights on Power
Friday, October 12, 2012
Enlightenment Insights on Stacey Dash Brouhaha
Several days ago, actress Stacey Dash created a maelstrom of social media fodder by endorsing Governor Mitt Romney for president. Some of the tweets, posts, and blogs castigated her for this endorsement.
Based on the work I am doing on my own mind, I usually don't comment on political machinations. However, sometimes there are circumstances that illustrate some of the challenges we face on our enlightenment paths. This is particularly true in the case of Ms. Dash.
When people have been conditioned to bond together because of oppression, there's a commonality of passions about the beliefs and values most of us adhere to. And whenever someone from the oppressed class goes outside of these beliefs and values, others in the group are quick to pounce on them.
On the enlightenment road, we have the opportunity to change our beliefs and values. This means we must diligently work on creating an awareness that allows us see beyond the illusions we are using to liberate our minds. And it's this level of awareness that allows us to perceive Ms. Dash without personal judgments and vituperative language.
Today, those of us with the clarity to understand that the source of our power comes from within our minds, we must share this awareness with others. This means we have the opportunity to tell Ms. Dash and others who are exploring other paths, particularly political and spiritual ones, that she has the power to support whatever ideas she chooses.
And whether people like it or not, there are no right or wrong paths to travel in our illusions. There are only illusions, which distort our perceptions of ourselves and others..
Nevertheless, for us to grow in our own awareness, we must move beyond our self-righteous condemnation of ourselves and others. This means accepting personal responsibility for the beliefs and values causing the judgments.
Moreover, as we accept personal responsibility for our own suffering, we must be willing to admit to ourselves that the beliefs and values we are clinging to have not liberated us. Regardless of how much we believe in what others tell us, there's little denial that this information is sufficient enough to make us feel whole, perfect, and complete.
In other words, we are just as flawed in our beliefs as others around us. And we will remain in this position until we do the necessary work to overcome our illusions. This entails our awareness that liberation of the mind cannot emanate from the illusions we embodied during our oppression.
Some of us on the enlightenment path believe now is the time for us to rise above our pettiness. We must open our minds to create the space to clearly see that Ms. Dash's actions are not any different from most of our own. We all acquired our beliefs and values from others -- society, parents, and life experiences.
Meanwhile, many of us are busy destroying our minds by ingesting and expressing pernicious dosages of beliefs and values that only creates more suffering for ourselves. And, unfortunately, we suffer each time we attack someone for doing something they desire to do.
No human being has ever been able to stop or prevent the suffering of others. We can only enlighten others with information and actions that have the potential to awaken their minds. They, however, must do the work to fully understand what was said years ago: "you must be born again."
For us to be reborn does not mean engaging in rituals and personal pronouncements; It means being born with the awareness that we are greater than what the world has taught us.
Similarly, if we desire to attain sufficient power to conquer the illusions of this world, we must first begin with our own minds. That is why some of us advocate for Powers of Mind. It is the source of our power to perceive ourselves and others outside of us with power.
Meanwhile, enlightened awareness is the recognition that we are born with the powers of liberation in us. So we don't have to search for another person to express this power, because it's a part of our divine birthright.
Many of us forget that it's our confusion about the Powers of Mind that tricks us into believing others have power to give us enlightenment. And with a little clarity, we can see that this power already exists in our minds.
So let's be clear here: enlightenment is not born of this world. What we are experiencing now is what others experienced before us. And unless we conquer this world of illusions, we will continue searching outside of ourselves for someone to liberate us.
It's important for us to be mindful that Stacey Dash's beliefs and values come from the same sources as our own. And when we attack her for expressing them, we are also attacking ourselves without realizing that we are doing so.
All power comes from "Powers of Mind."
Based on the work I am doing on my own mind, I usually don't comment on political machinations. However, sometimes there are circumstances that illustrate some of the challenges we face on our enlightenment paths. This is particularly true in the case of Ms. Dash.
When people have been conditioned to bond together because of oppression, there's a commonality of passions about the beliefs and values most of us adhere to. And whenever someone from the oppressed class goes outside of these beliefs and values, others in the group are quick to pounce on them.
On the enlightenment road, we have the opportunity to change our beliefs and values. This means we must diligently work on creating an awareness that allows us see beyond the illusions we are using to liberate our minds. And it's this level of awareness that allows us to perceive Ms. Dash without personal judgments and vituperative language.
Today, those of us with the clarity to understand that the source of our power comes from within our minds, we must share this awareness with others. This means we have the opportunity to tell Ms. Dash and others who are exploring other paths, particularly political and spiritual ones, that she has the power to support whatever ideas she chooses.
And whether people like it or not, there are no right or wrong paths to travel in our illusions. There are only illusions, which distort our perceptions of ourselves and others..
Nevertheless, for us to grow in our own awareness, we must move beyond our self-righteous condemnation of ourselves and others. This means accepting personal responsibility for the beliefs and values causing the judgments.
Moreover, as we accept personal responsibility for our own suffering, we must be willing to admit to ourselves that the beliefs and values we are clinging to have not liberated us. Regardless of how much we believe in what others tell us, there's little denial that this information is sufficient enough to make us feel whole, perfect, and complete.
In other words, we are just as flawed in our beliefs as others around us. And we will remain in this position until we do the necessary work to overcome our illusions. This entails our awareness that liberation of the mind cannot emanate from the illusions we embodied during our oppression.
Some of us on the enlightenment path believe now is the time for us to rise above our pettiness. We must open our minds to create the space to clearly see that Ms. Dash's actions are not any different from most of our own. We all acquired our beliefs and values from others -- society, parents, and life experiences.
Meanwhile, many of us are busy destroying our minds by ingesting and expressing pernicious dosages of beliefs and values that only creates more suffering for ourselves. And, unfortunately, we suffer each time we attack someone for doing something they desire to do.
No human being has ever been able to stop or prevent the suffering of others. We can only enlighten others with information and actions that have the potential to awaken their minds. They, however, must do the work to fully understand what was said years ago: "you must be born again."
For us to be reborn does not mean engaging in rituals and personal pronouncements; It means being born with the awareness that we are greater than what the world has taught us.
Similarly, if we desire to attain sufficient power to conquer the illusions of this world, we must first begin with our own minds. That is why some of us advocate for Powers of Mind. It is the source of our power to perceive ourselves and others outside of us with power.
Meanwhile, enlightened awareness is the recognition that we are born with the powers of liberation in us. So we don't have to search for another person to express this power, because it's a part of our divine birthright.
Many of us forget that it's our confusion about the Powers of Mind that tricks us into believing others have power to give us enlightenment. And with a little clarity, we can see that this power already exists in our minds.
So let's be clear here: enlightenment is not born of this world. What we are experiencing now is what others experienced before us. And unless we conquer this world of illusions, we will continue searching outside of ourselves for someone to liberate us.
It's important for us to be mindful that Stacey Dash's beliefs and values come from the same sources as our own. And when we attack her for expressing them, we are also attacking ourselves without realizing that we are doing so.
All power comes from "Powers of Mind."
Friday, October 5, 2012
Faith and Reason
Most of the confusion about ourselves and our relationship with the outside world comes from faith and reason.
This is most vividly expressed in our lives whenever we find ourselves in difficult situations. When we discover suffering in our lives, we treat it as if we don't know where it came from. It's as if we magically manufactured our suffering while being asleep.
Similarly, while we're half-awake, sleepwalking through our actions, we are unprepared to deal with the turbulent storm of stress coming from our unexpected problems. Some of us become paralyzed with fears and doubts. While others react by not having a clue about what to do.
Whenever we reach points in our lives when powerlessness overwhelm us, we seek solutions from powers outside of us. In these situations, many of us turn to our faith to rescue us.
Our faith is that invisible force existing inside of us, awaiting to help us overcome difficult problems. For many of us, faith is our belief in God, The Creator, or confirmation of the utility of our religious beliefs.
So what is faith and how does it compare to the reasons we use to place ourselves in difficult situations?
For our purposes here, let's say, "faith is our belief in an invisible power, who, when presented with the right approach -- prayer or meditation -- will empower us to overcome our problems."
Reason, on the other hand, is based on our knowledge of mathematics, science, language, philosophy, metaphysics, ethics, which include moral and spiritual principals, and so forth. And we typically use our faith to supplement our reasoning capabilities.
Similarly, we can imagine people who don't belief in traditional faith. In other words, they don't believe in the existence of God, or believe that God doesn't play any part in our lives. For them, faith is irrelevant. However, they too rely on reason, which means they are victims of their beliefs and values.
Meanwhile, there seems to be a natural conflict between faith and reason that transcends the spiritual and logical beliefs. The conflict arises when we attempt to communicate with our higher power while holding on to our core beliefs and values, which are the primary source of our actions.
Nevertheless, it's important for us to remember that the powers of minds mitigate faith whenever it's convenient for us to do so. This is not an egregious exculpation of our power. It's simply our recognition that we are powerless to overcome the beliefs and values acquired from our parents, society, and confirmed by our life experiences.
Unfortunately, for many us, faith is nothing more than an escape mechanism we use to escape personal responsibility from problems caused by our reasoning. And it means that the more we cling to our faith, at least in a public sense, the more we ignore our responsibility to change our beliefs and values.
Whenever we rely on our faith, we must be cognizant of it as being a part of our beliefs and values. At least, we should be aware that we are using it in the sense that's consistent with our core beliefs and values.
In other words, our interpretation of faith, or the lack thereof, is based on our current beliefs and values. This means that when we define God, our invisible power, we are using language and other information from our existing beliefs and values to do so.
We have become too accustomed to going along with the crowd, to get off the crowed road of life and search for the higher power in our minds. This intuitive power, our invisible power, is the God in us that we praying to.
It's what keeps us feeling that there is something greater in us than we are currently aware of being. We have this power in all of our minds because it's the source of our connection to the God that we are praying to, or meditating on, for assistance with our problems.
Now is the time for us to stop settling for less when we have within us the power to have more. The Christ, the Buddha, Mohammad, Krishna, and others found this great power in their minds and used it to overcome what they had been taught by others.
Meanwhile, for those of us who seek to become one with our intuitive consciousness, we must use our faith to inspire us to continue to do the work to remove everything from our minds that's distorting who we really are in this moment.
This is most vividly expressed in our lives whenever we find ourselves in difficult situations. When we discover suffering in our lives, we treat it as if we don't know where it came from. It's as if we magically manufactured our suffering while being asleep.
Similarly, while we're half-awake, sleepwalking through our actions, we are unprepared to deal with the turbulent storm of stress coming from our unexpected problems. Some of us become paralyzed with fears and doubts. While others react by not having a clue about what to do.
Whenever we reach points in our lives when powerlessness overwhelm us, we seek solutions from powers outside of us. In these situations, many of us turn to our faith to rescue us.
Our faith is that invisible force existing inside of us, awaiting to help us overcome difficult problems. For many of us, faith is our belief in God, The Creator, or confirmation of the utility of our religious beliefs.
So what is faith and how does it compare to the reasons we use to place ourselves in difficult situations?
For our purposes here, let's say, "faith is our belief in an invisible power, who, when presented with the right approach -- prayer or meditation -- will empower us to overcome our problems."
Reason, on the other hand, is based on our knowledge of mathematics, science, language, philosophy, metaphysics, ethics, which include moral and spiritual principals, and so forth. And we typically use our faith to supplement our reasoning capabilities.
Similarly, we can imagine people who don't belief in traditional faith. In other words, they don't believe in the existence of God, or believe that God doesn't play any part in our lives. For them, faith is irrelevant. However, they too rely on reason, which means they are victims of their beliefs and values.
Meanwhile, there seems to be a natural conflict between faith and reason that transcends the spiritual and logical beliefs. The conflict arises when we attempt to communicate with our higher power while holding on to our core beliefs and values, which are the primary source of our actions.
Nevertheless, it's important for us to remember that the powers of minds mitigate faith whenever it's convenient for us to do so. This is not an egregious exculpation of our power. It's simply our recognition that we are powerless to overcome the beliefs and values acquired from our parents, society, and confirmed by our life experiences.
Unfortunately, for many us, faith is nothing more than an escape mechanism we use to escape personal responsibility from problems caused by our reasoning. And it means that the more we cling to our faith, at least in a public sense, the more we ignore our responsibility to change our beliefs and values.
Whenever we rely on our faith, we must be cognizant of it as being a part of our beliefs and values. At least, we should be aware that we are using it in the sense that's consistent with our core beliefs and values.
In other words, our interpretation of faith, or the lack thereof, is based on our current beliefs and values. This means that when we define God, our invisible power, we are using language and other information from our existing beliefs and values to do so.
We have become too accustomed to going along with the crowd, to get off the crowed road of life and search for the higher power in our minds. This intuitive power, our invisible power, is the God in us that we praying to.
It's what keeps us feeling that there is something greater in us than we are currently aware of being. We have this power in all of our minds because it's the source of our connection to the God that we are praying to, or meditating on, for assistance with our problems.
Now is the time for us to stop settling for less when we have within us the power to have more. The Christ, the Buddha, Mohammad, Krishna, and others found this great power in their minds and used it to overcome what they had been taught by others.
Meanwhile, for those of us who seek to become one with our intuitive consciousness, we must use our faith to inspire us to continue to do the work to remove everything from our minds that's distorting who we really are in this moment.
Monday, October 1, 2012
We are Already Complete as we Are
We spend a lot of time looking for things to change in our lives. And it doesn't take much for us to panic at the thought of gaining weight, bulging stomachs, hanging wrinkles, and thinning hair.
Some of us try to change things based on what others tell us. We even react to friends, strangers, even passersby, who don't tell us we look great or fine.
The bottom line for most of us is we need one more thing to make us happy and complete. And then another, and another, and so on.
Basically, most of us cannot find enough things -- money, people, places, and power --to make us feel complete in this world.
We feel incomplete because our beliefs and values confirm it. They limit our perspective to embody our completeness as we are right now.
As long as we can remember, we have been adding things to make us better -- smarter, handsome, pretty, wealthier, important, and so forth -- without ever reaching a point of completeness.
So unbeknown to us, the turbulent beliefs of incompleteness keep us in a perpetual state of searching for things to make us feel better. And also unbeknown to us is that one of the side effects from our searching is self-condemnation.
By definition, our search for things confirm our self-condemnation. In other words, we condemn ourselves for being who we are. And the more we condemn ourselves, the more we crave for things to make us better.
Nevertheless, as difficult as it might be for many of us to admit, we condemn ourselves because of our beliefs and values: The ones taught us by parents, society, and life experiences.
We were taught to believe we were born incomplete, and they -- parents, society, and life experiences -- were responsible for teaching us how to become complete.
The challenges facing most of us are to learn how to unlearn what we have been taught. Or more succinctly, to stop relying on the information we have embodied as being sacrosanct.
Self-condemnation produces powerlessness. It weakens our resolve to discover the unconditioned power in our minds. It makes us dislike ourselves and believe that things outside of us are greater.
The key to enlightenment is the freedom from self-condemnation. In other words, we must like who we are now.
This doesn't mean we must like the actions caused by our beliefs and values. It means we must like the unconditioned consciousness in minds that holds our enlightenment. .
Regardless of how many roads we travel on our journey, we never escape from ourselves. We are always present in all of our activities. So if we travel down a road where we create intense suffering, we can condition our minds to travel down a different one.
Similarly, if we search for things to make us better, we can always stop and accept ourselves as we are now. Unfortunately, for some of us, this is difficult because of our reliance on our current beliefs and values, which tells us things -- people, places, status, and so forth -- will make us better.
Meanwhile, at some point in our lives, we must face the illusions causing us to condemn ourselves and question our completeness. And when we do, we will know that the real culprits for this type of thinking are our beliefs and values. They are totally responsible for how we perceive ourselves and the outside world.
Our minds are both the death and resurrection of our illusions. We use them to create both intense suffering and exhilarating enlightenment.
So when we stop searching for things outside our minds to make us feel complete, we will understand that all power, including the power to perceive and understand heaven and earth, exists only in our minds. This clarity will allow us to know that consciousness is the source of all of our power.
Nevertheless, even with this information on enlightenment, some of us still find it difficult to believe that this power exists in our minds. Yet if we stop and think for a moment, we will quickly realize that everything we know, or don't know, about ourselves and the world is caused by our clarity.
Clarity of mind allows us to know that we are born whole, perfect, and complete. And there's nothing wrong with us, except the toxic beliefs and values we use to perceive ourselves and the outside world.
Some of us try to change things based on what others tell us. We even react to friends, strangers, even passersby, who don't tell us we look great or fine.
The bottom line for most of us is we need one more thing to make us happy and complete. And then another, and another, and so on.
Basically, most of us cannot find enough things -- money, people, places, and power --to make us feel complete in this world.
We feel incomplete because our beliefs and values confirm it. They limit our perspective to embody our completeness as we are right now.
As long as we can remember, we have been adding things to make us better -- smarter, handsome, pretty, wealthier, important, and so forth -- without ever reaching a point of completeness.
So unbeknown to us, the turbulent beliefs of incompleteness keep us in a perpetual state of searching for things to make us feel better. And also unbeknown to us is that one of the side effects from our searching is self-condemnation.
By definition, our search for things confirm our self-condemnation. In other words, we condemn ourselves for being who we are. And the more we condemn ourselves, the more we crave for things to make us better.
Nevertheless, as difficult as it might be for many of us to admit, we condemn ourselves because of our beliefs and values: The ones taught us by parents, society, and life experiences.
We were taught to believe we were born incomplete, and they -- parents, society, and life experiences -- were responsible for teaching us how to become complete.
The challenges facing most of us are to learn how to unlearn what we have been taught. Or more succinctly, to stop relying on the information we have embodied as being sacrosanct.
Self-condemnation produces powerlessness. It weakens our resolve to discover the unconditioned power in our minds. It makes us dislike ourselves and believe that things outside of us are greater.
The key to enlightenment is the freedom from self-condemnation. In other words, we must like who we are now.
This doesn't mean we must like the actions caused by our beliefs and values. It means we must like the unconditioned consciousness in minds that holds our enlightenment. .
Regardless of how many roads we travel on our journey, we never escape from ourselves. We are always present in all of our activities. So if we travel down a road where we create intense suffering, we can condition our minds to travel down a different one.
Similarly, if we search for things to make us better, we can always stop and accept ourselves as we are now. Unfortunately, for some of us, this is difficult because of our reliance on our current beliefs and values, which tells us things -- people, places, status, and so forth -- will make us better.
Meanwhile, at some point in our lives, we must face the illusions causing us to condemn ourselves and question our completeness. And when we do, we will know that the real culprits for this type of thinking are our beliefs and values. They are totally responsible for how we perceive ourselves and the outside world.
Our minds are both the death and resurrection of our illusions. We use them to create both intense suffering and exhilarating enlightenment.
So when we stop searching for things outside our minds to make us feel complete, we will understand that all power, including the power to perceive and understand heaven and earth, exists only in our minds. This clarity will allow us to know that consciousness is the source of all of our power.
Nevertheless, even with this information on enlightenment, some of us still find it difficult to believe that this power exists in our minds. Yet if we stop and think for a moment, we will quickly realize that everything we know, or don't know, about ourselves and the world is caused by our clarity.
Clarity of mind allows us to know that we are born whole, perfect, and complete. And there's nothing wrong with us, except the toxic beliefs and values we use to perceive ourselves and the outside world.
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