Head to a better place

8/7/2019 Head to a better place

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/head-to-a-better-place 1/5

Life is like a snowball which gains momentum no matter what direction it goes in. Life is

like the ripple effect, a giant rock thrown into the water creating a splash with movement

all around it. Life is like a pair of wings; a movement of air starts from the tiny flutter of a delicate butterfly. Life is like a seed, it needs to grow to express itself fully.

Every day, one wakes up, eats, pees, poops, works, rests, thinks, acts, talks, dreams,sleeps, etc. with a million variations in between, what keeps us moving? What is the

purpose of it all? What meaning do you attribute to it? And what upholds your life?

Every day the peoples of the world get wrapped up in the intricacies and complicatedstructures of our minds. These mental projections are often tied to the trivial worries of

the past or our hallucinatory anticipations of the future. We can either operate from a

position of condition-based memory or from a position of freshly renewed inspiration. It

is the latter that comes from divine intelligence. The spirit of life is made up of qualitiessuch as love, beauty, peace, and universal consciousness. The nature of God is to bridge

divisions and separations among the human family. Humanity is meant to be of one heart.

We do not live separately; this is an illusion of the ego which blinds our hearts and

minds. We must become accustomed to viewing our human brothers and sisters from a position of non-duality. People should never be against people, but rather against the

false infection of hatred, greed, anger, lust, and spitefulness that exists inside people'shearts. The true wars that need to be fought are personal wars against the false beliefs and

therefore infections or “demons” that invade our hearts.

Fate or Free Will?

However you define the answer, one thing remains true: you can't escape yourself. It

could be simply said that this question is impossible to answer in a scientific or objectiveway, and thus we should stop there. However, this is the least fun route to take. When

contemplating this question, it may be said that the answer is not strictly one or the other and that it is a combination of both fate and free will. For example, we make endlesschoices every day, starting with when and how to get out of bed and whether to grab milk

or juice out of the fridge. Of course, we have the freedom to choose our direction in life,

and write our piece of history. But to what extent? We have absolutely no control or sayin an unquantifiable number of events and decisions made daily by others, whether it be

the weather, the people who surround you closely, leaders in a part of the world you don't

even know about, or the planets that exist in some estranged galaxy. Wherever you are

now, reality consists of this present moment, and this very instant in time is the destiny of everything that came before it. There is a path you followed to get here from the

inception of your existence, and it could not have been any different, unless you were

able to rewind time and change things. That is not to say that this moment is your ultimate destiny, this moment will merely be transcended and included as part of a more

encompassing destiny that is yet to come. For example, the space of time between the

now and one year from now may be said to be an unwritten book. One year from nowthese pages will be filled, and your new destiny will in due time serve as a step in the

ladder that leads to an even more encompassing destiny, shall we say in two years from

now. We are co-creators of our destiny; though you have free will, you are always at least

equally bound by some external force outside your decision-making capability. We



needn't do more than look at the unpredictability of natural disasters, astronomical forces,

or phenomenological behaviors in the universe to know this is true.

Life as we know it in this world is a journey not a destination. Though I'm not here to

define the ultimate destiny, which cannot be known conceptually to me, I am simply

attempting to generate awareness that we ought not to become attached to the state thingsare at in at this moment. If we are experiencing lack, suffering, or pain at this time, let us

remember that it is not eternal. Life has many seasons, and our moods often swing as we

get caught up in the tidal waves of thoughts, emotions, and circumstances. Whatever emotion you are experiencing right now, it probably won't last forever.

Let's suppose for a moment that reality as a whole consists of bits of information. For

every million bits of information out there, our human eyes and mind can probably only perceive a tiny fraction of that.

The source of life is permanent, it is ground zero, the place of zero limits from which we

come from and hence our home where we are to return. The only true power is love itself,a life-giving power that can be said to be the truth of permanence. When we drift from

the very source of life we mistakenly begin embracing the “truth of impermanence”which is really just a lie; a cycle which includes birth and death. In ultimate reality (the

place of our ultimate destiny) impermanence does not exist because ultimate reality is

eternal, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. I believe we are on a

journey to the center of eternity. On a journey back to God.

Happiness is to be found first of all from a position of gratefulness.

The key to fulfillment

Do we just need another temporary fill of some impermanent fleshy thrill?

Rebuilding the foundation

People "start over" every day to improve the way in which they are living. Starting over

is not easy because it implies that we have hope and faith in something greater than what

we know and who we think we are. It means that we have the motivation to leave the past behind and wake up by jumping out of bed singing and dancing in gratefulness for the

opportunity to live a new day instead of hitting the snooze button 15 times while

grumbling and complaining that we have to go through the same boring old routine wewent through yesterday. So how can we motivate ourselves to overcome the obstacles

that get in the way? Let's start by looking at this diagram. It illustrates the difference

between a vicious cycle, a virtuous cycle, and monotony (getting frozen in time).

The majority of people seem to spend time fluctuating somewhere in the middle. With a

little progress and a content heart achieved, the temptation is always to head back on the

road to self-destruction and return to lascivious living. Once again, your life starts



drifting down hill, perhaps with an excess of thrills and rushes that eventually leave you

feeling unsatisfied, empty, or even guilty. This is because we have become entangled

with a short-lived, temporary pleasure which in turn weakens us spiritually. This dramaequals mediocrity. Then, eventually, back up hill you go in an effort to restore your life

and make it back up to where you were initially, at a state of healthy, contented,

wholesomeness in your heart. Part of the problem is that we often expect happiness to besome kind of explosive joyride, where we take a quick and easy rocket into oblivion.

This, my friends, is not true happiness, and that is why we continuously backslide from

being in a virtuous cycle back into going down a vicious cycle. Back and forth we go, butthere is another way; there are those who continually keep climbing up that virtuous cycle

and maximize the true happiness of those around them and of themselves. Their heart is

growing with love, excitement, well-being, and peace. Greed, on the other hand, is a

never-ending state of dissatisfaction that leads to a hardening of the heart. When youopen your heart you are truly happy, and consistently in a state of never-ending

improvement. The challenge is to embrace your lasting fulfillment and not merely your

“self” desires. True wealth starts with gratefulness inside you, an appreciation for the air

you breathe, and awe-filled wonderment at this precious gift of life. Wisdom is not aboutage but about knowing your own heart. Knowledge on the other hand is just acquiring

information mentally and may or may not contribute to happiness. We must constantlyexamine our internal state, our thoughts, and our reasons for taking action. It is through

grinding introspection that we can reestablish the meaning of life and understand our

purpose; we must know why we do what we do, what we ought to do, and what we ought

not to do. You can choose to be a seeker of truth, light, and justice. In order for you toknow that this is the best way to live, you must first experience the priceless peace of

mind, fullness of heart, and comfort of soul that Love can bring you. I am not talking of

love as an overly misused and often meaningless word used carelessly in advertising andthe media, but rather as a state of being that is not limited to the context of sexual

affection. In this sense, we are not viewing Love as a fickle emotion from superficial

sentimentality. We must reignite the passion and relentless drive within us that keeps usmotivated, inspired, and full of juice. Life must spark you up from within in order for you

to spread Love like a wildfire, invincible from the inside out like the heart of the lion. OR

rather, the heart of Jesus.

Balance,

Pleasure

duality

taking more than what we need often leads to taking more than we truly like, thereby

becoming a vice, which clouds our window of reality. Excess easily leads to pain andsuffering. Becoming accustomed to excess (vices and addictions) imprisons us spiritually

as a blind man is chained inside Plato's cave until we forget who we really are, where we

came from, and even the fact that we are trying to escape. Pretty soon the illusion arises



that we belong here and we start thinking we are at home with these chains, like a rat in a

cage does not know it belongs in the field. Let us live life without chains!

The key here is to recognize that we must always do our best in life and trust that the

things we cannot personally control will all work themselves out. You cannot alwayscontrol what happens, but you can always choose to control your interpretation of what

happens. You can look at the mistake as a lesson, view the poison as an antidote, or see

the tragedy as simply a path to the light at the end of the tunnel. Choose to attribute ahelpful and empowering meaning to that which you cannot control. If you are on a

wheelchair, use that as the perfect reason to build the strongest arms you have ever had. If

you are stuck to a hospital bed, use that as free time you would have never had to write a

life-changing story. If you screw up, which at some point we all will, use that as awarning to prevent somebody else from taking that wrong path. And when everything is

going great, use that as an example to others by sharing the right path with those who are

misled by limiting thoughts and self-destructive habits. Ultimately, we must use pain and

mistakes as fuel for enlightenment.

If one is able to strike the right balance between feeling overly self-powerful, on oneside, and totally helpless, on the other, then I believe true confidence will be found. This

is legitimate empowerment because neither inferiority complexes, nor delusions of

grandeur can take us over once we realize genuine confidence. Either one of the

aforementioned extremes is focused on a false identity, and creates a concept of separateentity between oneself and ‘other.’ It is in trusting the goodness of our nature and placing

our faith in something higher, beyond ourselves, that we are free to write our own destiny

as a beautiful story that, when closed, can be a book titled ‘Fate.’ My intention is not toget lost in theoretical arguments about defining fate and freedom, but rather to point out

that we are free and yet, no matter what we do, we cannot escape the choices we will

make. The most important thing to realize is that this moment is the beginning of your ultimate destiny. The present moment, or the ‘now,’ is the new beginning to your

ultimate destiny. Because the substance of your past has been transcended and included

as part of the state of the universe at this moment, any prior states of the universe (andtherefore past events and experiences) do not exist now as anything more than mental

constructs (concepts, images, and memories). Because in turn this present moment will

be transcended and included as part of a greater and more encompassing destiny, we must

not become attached to our present situations and circumstances, but rather evolve withthe ‘now,’ as a hot knife runs through butter, embracing change fully, whatever it may

bring. For this reason, we must view change as an opportunity to grow, rather than as a

threat. We can achieve this by looking through the eyes of the genuine confidence insideof us instead of through the egoist lens of self-consumed aversion, self-centerdness, and

hunger for control.

Getting versus becoming -- what most people tend to focus on is success in

secondary terms such as money, fame, or status. These characteristics cannot

constitute success in and of themselves because they should be merely a reflection of

contribution to society. It is in giving that we truly receive. When you do something



good for somebody else, it is you who grows. It is you who receives fulfillment and

inner spiritual wealth. It is in giving and sharing good things with other people that

you feel full of warmth, energy, satisfaction, and love.

Convenience versus character -- the most important thing when taking action is to

do what you objectively think is right, not whatever you feel like doing wheneveryou feel like it. It is easy to fall in the trap of taking the path of least resistance, but

doing what makes us the most comfortable instead of what is best will eventually

lead to the pain of regret. There are only two kinds of pain when making decisions.

The other kind of pain is the pain of discipline that comes with choosing the most

amazing choices you can make. These are the most profitable choices in terms of

contributing and giving or sharing something good for yourself and others. These

choices are not easy and generally have the highest cost.

Warning versus example -

To Persevere means to continue on a course of action without regard to past failure,opposition, or discouragement. It means to believe, against all odds. Faith is the key to

becoming unstoppable. The difference is choice. Choosing the right attitude iseverything. When we have negative thoughts it is important to remember that thoughts do

not create reality, but rather influence reality. When we think negatively we attract

negativity into our lives. It is in believing our thoughts that we make them real to us. The

moment we stop believing our negative thoughts, our false reality dissipates and we seethe truth for what it is. Hold on to truth for the truth will set you free.

“Emptiness,” in Buddhist terms, is not “nothing.” Emptiness is that from which the worldof manifestation comes forth. This unseen “emptiness” is what you find when you let go

of ALL that is unnecessary to sustain the human soul. Emtiness is Spirit.

Pain Discipline or Regret?

Whatever problem you have, the first step to solving it is accepting it and seeing it

for what is. This does not mean giving up, settling nor conforming to it. Rather

acceptance means facing it and then taking steps immediately towards solving the

problem. It requires that you must commit to constant and never-ending

improvement and you must DO SOMETHING that leads in the direction to

overcoming the problem!

Documents

Head to a better place