Think about it. Are you on this earth for more than self-gratification, or to be a consumer for the gratification of others?
The following article includes pertinent information that may cause you
to reconsider what you thought you understood. The most important thing
is to study with an open mind and be willing to revise your
understanding if necessary.
What Really Matters
We are here on this earth to learn acceptance. Acceptance of everything
that life can throw at us, the good and the bad. One still needs to
work at right livelihood and fight for truth and justice, but there
will always remain many things we simply have no control over, and we
must learn to accept this. We have no other choice but acceptance if we
want to progress. Acceptance leads to forgiveness which leads to
progression, but it is never easy. How does one accept the continued
support and popularity of war criminals masquerading as leaders or
child molesters.
To embrace acceptance is to become objective...about everything in this
life and on this planet. By becoming objective we are able to
disconnect from many of the attachments that bind us to servitude. In
the ultimate scheme of things our lifelong tribulations are
insignificant. We are here such a short time, and for most of us, our
influence and ability to change anything for the better is limited or
remote.
The path of least resistance for most unwary souls is to be caught up
in the obligations pertaining to cycles of birth, family, children, and
the roles we are taught or forced to assume. In this mode the freedom
of disconnection alludes us. But it is through the gradual
disconnection to our worldly attachments that allows us to realize how
trivial jealousy, deceit, anger and acquisition are in relation to the
big picture of existence which extends well beyond our occluded
perceptions. True freedom comes when one is free of these distracting
imperfections and can find forgiveness towards those who have wittingly
or not caused us harm or pain.
The most difficult part is to forgive yourself, but this becomes
available once you realize that most of the wrong decisions made, and
hurts caused to others, were made from the immature vantage point you
were in at the time. You didn’t have the tools or perspective you now
have to realize that bad things happen to good people, that what you
may have thought was important and worth the shortcuts, was in fact
just a blind alley of glitter or delusion. If you can reach this level
of awareness, to see that past decisions and actions were made by a
less complete and understanding self, you will then be able to find
compassion and eventually forgiveness of yourself for the harm you
caused to yourself and to others as a result of your shortcomings.
Nobody said it was easy. That is why, in my view, most people continue
to go round and round in their mental prisons, some eventually
spiraling downwards, most doomed to instant replay, and only a few who
find the doorway leading to salvation. Is deliverance available to
everyone? I don’t know, in fact, I doubt it. So many with besmirched
and sullied egos will inevitably follow their ill conceived prejudices
to the grave. Or perhaps we all have epiphanies at one time or another
and it is up to us whether this brief unanticipated opening into other
domains should be acknowledged and pursued, or simply dismissed as a
momentary slip of the gears as in a dream.
One thing that cannot be dismissed or ignored is the reality of life,
death, corruption and beauty. Also intelligence, as it is apparent that
this faculty, above all, has allowed our species the ability to
comprehend these very notions, and through freewill, choose to
manipulate them for better or worse. Most social manipulation via
political, monarchal or religious constitution, served some
evolutionary purpose but ultimately failed, because no man or demigod
can impart spiritual epiphanies on another. Each individual soul must
make a choice to see or not to see. On a collective scale, sooner or
later any Emperor in any guise is observed to have no clothes, in fact
never did, and becomes exposed.
We find ourselves at this time, in this hyped electro-techno modern
world, either intellectually adrift from the old paradigm of
institutional oppression and its attendant restraints and excesses,
living in our own delusions, or blindly and fanatically grasping its
slimy tentacles as evidenced in the Muslim world. Neither is
sustainable, and more likely than not, to clash inducing further
misery. Attachment to any belief, even if it’s a non belief, is sowing
the seeds of eventual self-destruction. Only through disconnection from
externally imposed belief or self-seeking illusion, and by acceptance
and the fostering of forgiveness, can we hope to find redemption.
Furthermore, this enlightenment can only be realized on an individual
basis. The only exception where group fervor is benign is in the
unfettered praise of the gift of life through gratitude and
thanksgiving, as evidenced by the enhanced aura of such gatherings. The
best we can do towards the edification of grace in this world is to
help others by encouraging them to follow their own insights, to
impartially lend a genuinely helping hand in practical and useful
areas, or to communicate love through art and beauty if we are so
gifted.
Sadly, scientific studies tell us that in the marketing world at least,
only 2 percent of any given population can think for itself. The
remaining overwhelming majority can only act when persuaded or cajoled
by an external entity, which usually means political, religious or
commercial coercion. And of course, foolishly allowing this majority to
lend control of our lives to any of these interest groups has resulted
in our collective consciousness being entangled in yet another fine
mess. The best we can hope for now, as thinking individuals, is to be
adept and agile enough to position ourselves as advantageously as we
can, in circumstance and place, without sacrificing our hard gained
spiritual insights to expediency especially at the expense of others.
We must continue to disconnect while at the same time investing in
pursuit of right livelihood, which usually means sharing the best of
what is in us, not an easy feat. Writing this article is my humble
attempt to add some clarity to the constant clamor of present day
unconscionable self-aggrandizement, and the inevitable pervading
disillusionment that will soon be swirling around us.
The day will come when you can use something you read about here for
beneficial impact. Then you'll be glad you took the time to learn more
about actualizing acceptance.
