Be Yourself
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JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
We try to be such good parents. We try to be such good people. Yet, in this process we can sure seem to make a mess of things. Doing the right thing is always a tricky issue. The right thing, how measured? Unless we take a completely dogmatic and rigid view, and maintain a synchronous behavior with that view, we are open to our children (and others) pointing the hypocrite finger at us.
Yet, authentic and intelligent living demands we grapple with what no longer feels comfortable. Nothing is, as the black and white thinkers believe, "cut and dried." Such struggle is, I believe, the Infinite's Way of waking us up, yet others might see it as the Devil's hand stirring the cauldron.
Its great to take our children to church or synagogue or a Zen center, but what if while there, our own authenticity is challenged?
I repeat the prayers or the sutras and don't believe a word, then what?
My sense is that its not the prayer that is the issue, but more a question of how we understand the prayer. A prayer without understanding is a false god. Therefore, it is essential that we get some realization of ourselves, the prayer, and the process. It is this that creates much messiness.
Our children and the child-like fundamentalist, true believers around us approach religious practice as if it were a formula. The bible or sutra book becomes a cookbook for successful entry into heaven or Nirvana. Big problem here as it has the practitioner relying on the words.
Sutras and bibles point, they are not the things themselves. It is our practice of what is being taught that is essential and transformative. yet this is such a challenge for everyone. We are all at so very different places on the authenticity spectrum. Some of us are open, some eschew that very same openness., Some need a stick on the shoulders, others a gentle nudge. Some should throw away their bibles and go off into the wilderness, just as sages of our entire human history have done. What we all need to do, is understand what we are doing and the aim of the practice itself.
There is no recipe. There is no cookbook. Children do not have to go with us, nor we with them. But if we do walk together, each must understand there are levels of awareness; levels of appreciation; and levels of authenticity. The struggle to bring things together is the path itself.
So, let me be clear. If you think God is in that bible, burn it. It you think God is in that ark, open it and realize the truth. And if you meet the Buddha on the highway, please kill him.
Begin with practice, not ideals or beliefs. Practice is the rock, the foundation, as what we know is always subject to our experience and is thus constantly evolving.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
We try to be such good parents. We try to be such good people. Yet, in this process we can sure seem to make a mess of things. Doing the right thing is always a tricky issue. The right thing, how measured? Unless we take a completely dogmatic and rigid view, and maintain a synchronous behavior with that view, we are open to our children (and others) pointing the hypocrite finger at us.
Yet, authentic and intelligent living demands we grapple with what no longer feels comfortable. Nothing is, as the black and white thinkers believe, "cut and dried." Such struggle is, I believe, the Infinite's Way of waking us up, yet others might see it as the Devil's hand stirring the cauldron.
Its great to take our children to church or synagogue or a Zen center, but what if while there, our own authenticity is challenged?
I repeat the prayers or the sutras and don't believe a word, then what?
My sense is that its not the prayer that is the issue, but more a question of how we understand the prayer. A prayer without understanding is a false god. Therefore, it is essential that we get some realization of ourselves, the prayer, and the process. It is this that creates much messiness.
Our children and the child-like fundamentalist, true believers around us approach religious practice as if it were a formula. The bible or sutra book becomes a cookbook for successful entry into heaven or Nirvana. Big problem here as it has the practitioner relying on the words.
Sutras and bibles point, they are not the things themselves. It is our practice of what is being taught that is essential and transformative. yet this is such a challenge for everyone. We are all at so very different places on the authenticity spectrum. Some of us are open, some eschew that very same openness., Some need a stick on the shoulders, others a gentle nudge. Some should throw away their bibles and go off into the wilderness, just as sages of our entire human history have done. What we all need to do, is understand what we are doing and the aim of the practice itself.
There is no recipe. There is no cookbook. Children do not have to go with us, nor we with them. But if we do walk together, each must understand there are levels of awareness; levels of appreciation; and levels of authenticity. The struggle to bring things together is the path itself.
So, let me be clear. If you think God is in that bible, burn it. It you think God is in that ark, open it and realize the truth. And if you meet the Buddha on the highway, please kill him.
Begin with practice, not ideals or beliefs. Practice is the rock, the foundation, as what we know is always subject to our experience and is thus constantly evolving.
Be well.
