Wednesday, October 11, 2017

THE JOSTLING OF THE CROWD


It was frosty this Morning. There was a thin coating of ice on the sheep's water. There is a very bright Sun and it is warming up nicely. All in all a superb Morning.

I am just coming out of a bad patch. I know it isn't much compared to what many folks go through. How can we compare each other's hell and should we? I think not. As I said in my last blog my default position is happiness, for some reason I spent several days where I was vulnerable to negative thinking, even [I hate to say it] feeling sorry for myself. Good God! Me feeling sorry for myself! I think I am one of the most fortunate people on the planet. I live in paradise. I have a great home. Enough money. My wife is a marvelous human being and a great cook. I have a wonderful family and magnificent children. Good health; I might be older than dirt but I have no big complaints. I can fill a page, easily, with things I am thankful for.

I was just reading how we each have a different path, but what they have in common to successfully complete them is, we must learn to be loving in every moment. That doesn't mean that we like everything we experience. It does mean we can essentially hang on to a loving attitude throughout. Sure we can't stay detached, it is okay to have feelings. However, whenever the feelings are not loving we can access our well of forgiveness. We can stay detached from negative feelings.

It sounds easy, 'be loving in every moment', hmmmmm. I must not have been doing that. I think it started with feelings rather than thoughts. It is trickier when we have a negative feeling arise; it raises the groundwork to accept the next negative thought that arises, we feel it is justification for the feeling. When we have a negative thought float through our mind, it is fairly easy to dismiss it before a feeling gets attached. We notice them, “hey, why am I having that thought”, we can let it go.

When a feeling creeps up on us, we can let it get a firm hold without realizing it. Sometimes they can be dismissed like we dismiss an unwanted thought, but often they are stubborn, they keep coming back. We can enter into them without authenticating them. That is we can sink into them and explore what they are about, often a memory or person will emerge that needs our forgiveness. By not authenticating them, I mean by keeping in mind they are not real. Our reality is not negativity of any kind.

Regardless of our path, it is leading us to the reality, that we are love and love is the only reality. I am sitting here now in my piece of paradise and I can't understand how anybody could be nudged out of having nothing but loving thoughts. It is so easy, just remember to be 'loving every moment'. However, I know my loving wife could say something, I took exception to, and I could react defensively and so it is.

I think it was Nietzsche who wrote about the acolyte who spent years in an ashram meditating and studying with his guru. After many years he finally achieved nirvana and decided he was ready to rejoin the world. He came into the town on market day and someone jostled him in the crowd and he reacted with anger. We are all like that. It takes practice.

Perhaps it is not as easy as riding a bicycle, it is a similar process, every time we lose our loving attitude, instead of judging ourselves or the other we get back on our love bike. We are learning. We can't help but learn. The reward is so great. To be in a loving mind, nested in a body, looking out on paradise, wow, that is so much better than the alternative.

Sit down. Imagine yourself surrounded by unconditional love. Let your body marinate in it. Imagine that every time you breath in, the unconditional love binds with the oxygen molecules and is carried by your blood stream to every organ and part of your body. Feel your body relax, let peace fill your mind. Know you are love.

Have a Great Wednesday!

Love and Peace, Gregg

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