Changing beliefs takes time

A favorite hard-rock song, "N.W.O" from Ministry has a sampled quote from George Bush Sr:
"What we are looking at is good and evil, right and wrong." 
I'd guess that this was an argument for why it's right to go to war. If the "enemy" is evil and wrong, and you are good and right, then there's nothing to question about it, is there?*

And a religious man once illustrated that psychiatry is evil by pointing out that part of their goals is to eradicate the ideas of Right and Wrong.

I'm more and more coming to believe, though, that everything in the world, including Right and Wrong, is solely based on beliefs. It's hard to believe this, since our feelings about what is right or wrong are very, very deep and very, very strong.

Some people say "God hates homos". Well, do you really know this? Have you had a personal audience with God where he told you this? Are you really sure it was the God?

They'll quote the old testament to prove it. But the old testament also say that you can sell your daughter into slavery and you must not touch pig-skin, and many such things. So do you believe all it says, or are you selecting what fits with your feelings about the matter?

Now, this post is not about homos. I'm just trying to illustrate what Jed McKenna says: apart from "I think, therefore I am", there is  not a single thing or belief in life we can really be totally sure about.

One should be willing to test any and all belief and ideas one has, including "facts" like one is a human on Earth.

It is not easy though, and takes a long time, because all the beliefs are packed together with old, hard-packed emotion, which tends to blow up in one's face when one challenges a belief. That's why it takes time.

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* Of course the opposing belief, that Bush (either of them) is wrong and evil, is also based solely on a belief then.

Opened by wonder

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.
-- Gerry Spence

Cold or warm?

Orson Scott Card had an interesting observation, I think it was in the sequel to his famous science fiction novel Ender's Game: one character talked about another person as being very cold. Another character replied: "then imagine how hot even the slightest warmth will seem to her."

I think that's important. I realized years ago that there is no such thing as coldness. There are only various degree of warmth.

And further, one should not be too impatient with a cold person, whether that person is another or oneself. Because too much warmth too fast simply is painful. Things take time. All that matters is willingness, and things will happen.

Oh, and related: Emma Thompson I think it was, in a DVD commentary, commented on a character that she was stone cold and "the kind of person who processes nothing, she will be the same at death as she was as child", or words to that effect.
I agree it will seem that way. But think of an ice cube. If it's close to zero degrees C, it melts when it warms up, and change is visible. But if the cube is markedly colder than that, it warms up, but no change is visible. Yet.

Mixed thoughts

"Look, the guy was angry. Ever been there?"
(By a friend explaining to others that they didn't have to rally behind for attack by another.)

I think it helps the ego to understand a "reason" for forgiveness, and thus can help progress, if you find a good explanation. In this example, remembering how you feel and act when really angry can help forgive the anger of others.


"Onward, ever onward."

Said by a teen girl who was brain-damaged by a violent rape, and could hardly talk or walk. Yet she progressed on with good courage.
Wherever you are, that's where you start.


The best way out is always through.
-- Robert Frost

Self-explanatory?
Face things. Takes courage, but it's how it works.


Even the best of friends need time apart.
-- Mark Heath

I got very sad and confused when I no longer was in contact with people who used to be close friends. But I'm starting to see the whole game as a big, complex progress which we can't overview from a human viewpoint, and if you're apart, it may be with good reason, and you'll always meet again in the end (though maybe not in this lifetime).


I began to have an idea of my life, not as the slow shaping of achievement to fit my preconceived purposes, but as the gradual discovery and growth of a purpose which I did not know.
-- Joanna Field

Couldn't have said it better.

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My own thoughts recently:

It all starts with the intention. It might take time to see the results though. 

Good to remember, so you don't get discouraged when it takes time. 

A few quotes

The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become.
-- Harold Taylor

Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader and fuller life.
-- W. E. B. Du Bois, last message to the world, 1957

If we can connect in some tiny way with a human that doesn't agree with us, then maybe we won't blow up the planet.
-- Nancy White

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Re: the first one, you can consider that as either "become the best you can and beat all the others," or progressing to higher levels of mind or such. I like that, works on many levels.

"Apres moi, le deluge"

"Apres moi, le deluge"
Loose translation: After I've left, chaos will reign.

Really? Wow, what power!       :-)

From this article:
"In my heart of hearts I consider that many pompous expressions, though execrable, pass for true among the human race and are frequently repeated by the people, as for example: “Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.”

Cindy Lora-Renard

The Disappearance Of The Universe author's Gary Renard's wife Cindy, interviewed.

Check out her song Summer And Smoke on iTunes (long preview!), it's dang good. For real.
Here are the full songs of some.

Reciprocity

I just heard that anthropologists are fond of reminding us that reciprocity is essential to gift-giving. You have to give something back, in other words.

You know, I don't think so.

In the ego's world, it's essential. In the free world, has no relevance at all.

A friend of mine (Hi Carsten) once said something very wise, on the subject of help, not gifts, but surely related:

"If you have to somebody back when they have helped you, then it's not help, then it's just business."

Exactly.
In the wonderful movie As Good As It Gets, the Helen Hunt character, who has gotten very big help from the Jack Nicholson character, asks him after he asks for a big favor: "are you saying accepting your help obligates me?" And he says: "I don't think there's any other way of seeing it."

I'm sure he doesn't. And the character, brilliantly played by Nicholson, is a highly neurotic person and deep in the ego's world, although he has love (and literary talent) which is clearly working its way out.

The Roads to God

They say there are thousands of roads to god. And I believe it.
I think though that a couple of the most important ones are:

• Observation
• Advanced forgiveness
• Communication
• Envisioning Oneness

Re Observation: the ego and the evils of life persist mainly because we can't face them. A major part of most good therapies and philosophies is look directly at things and see them as they are. Just observe them, and without judgment. (This can take a while to achieve though for many subjects.)

Advanced forgiveness is a big subject, but has much to do with Letting Go of things, especially negative emotions, and things one is attached to for better or worse.

Any communication, in the broadest sense of the word (including perception) is a gradual breaking of the belief in separation. Each little communication heals the separation a little bit. This is basically what the universe was made for, it's a big Communication Machine.

Especially when one is getting closer to Awakening, one might get perceptions of Oneness. Of Unity. Often associated with white light. These perceptions sometimes can be helped along by envisioning Oneness on purpose.
I believe this is a great accelerator of the awakening process, but it is also very disturbing to the Ego, which believes falsely that it (you) *is* separated from Oneness (God), and that it has to remain so, because daddy is soooo p***d off. The depth and intensity of the Fear that the idea of contact with Oneness engenders is incredible, it defies any description.
That's why it takes such a long time.

humble truth

Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing. 

-- Thomas Paine

No opinions

Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.
  -- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg


People tend to play a bit fast and loose with the "nothing is more ... than" expressions, but apart from that, he has a point.
Now the question is, is this apathy/ignorance, or enlightenment?
The bottom mirrors the top in many things.

You get what you want

Another favorite:

I will receive whatever I request.

No one desires pain. But he can think that pain is pleasure. No one would avoid his happiness. But he can think that joy is painful, threatening and dangerous. Everyone will receive what he requests. But he can be confused indeed about the things he wants...

A Course In Miracles, Lesson 339

How to make goals

A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory.
           -- Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

Now this is very true. But don't forget one thing: Almost all the goals are goals in the Ego's world. The dream world. And they won't make you happy.
And further, the ability to doubt is essential to rising above the beliefs which keeps us trapped in this material world. People who never doubt anything may become emperors, but they don't meet god/Source.

We all have impact

The first paragraph is from Gary Renard's newsletter:

HUGH PRATHER, 1938 - 2010
Over seven years ago I did my first radio interview. At that time The Disappearance of the Universe had only been out about six months, and I had just conducted my first Workshop in Boston two weeks before. The interview was on Wisdom Radio, and the guy interviewing me was Hugh Prather. Hugh had written a famous book called Notes to Myself in 1970, and it had sold millions. I managed to make it through the interview, with a big assist from the Holy Spirit, and then after that Hugh and I had a few moments to chat. I asked him if he could give me any helpful hints about going out and speaking to a crowd, which he had done thousands of times. He simply said, "Don't make it about you. Make it about them. You want them to have the information and experience that you have to offer. Forget you're even there. Make it about them getting the communication. If you forget about yourself and focus on the message then you'll be fine." That piece of advice proved to be very helpful to me at the time. I never got to meet Hugh in person, but I'm grateful to him for taking the time to be kind to me and give me advice. We all touch so many lives, and sometimes we have more of an effect on them than we realize. Hugh made his transition two weeks ago, but communication never passes away. Thanks, Hugh. 

Right. Think of how many people may think about something you said or did, without you being aware of them thinking about it. And then add to this, like the Course says, "Communication is not limited to the small range of channels the world recognizes" (M-25.2:2). In fact, personally I believe that by far most communication is outside human perception.

What it adds up to is, like Steve Jobs expressed it, "a ding in the Universe" which is far larger than we may know.

- Eolake

Power vs greatness

We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.
-- Stewart L. Udall

Celebrate!

This is funny, just received this joke:
===
"Just look at this body," boasted the fit old man to the group of young people. "Every morning I do fifty push-ups and thirty sit-ups and walk two miles. I'm fit as a fiddle! And you know why? Because I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't stay up late, AND I don't chase women!"
He smiled, his eye gleaming.
"And tomorrow, I celebrate my 95th birthday!"
"Oh, really?" said one sarcastic youngster. "How?”
===

It’s funny because Saturday I was feeling particularly good, and I remembered Pursah had said that J says when you have nothing to forgive, don’t chase it up, instead celebrate the fact… And I had the same problem: how!? I don’t drink or party.
How do you celebrate when earthly "pleasures" no longer are interesting to you?

I looked up celebrate, and found out one definition is "to make known publicly; proclaim”. So I wrote about thankfulness.

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Note that I don't think there is anything sinful or destructive about any of those things, it's just that they don't interest me very much, never did much, and do less and less.

(I used to say: "I don't smoke, drink, or chase cars".)

Meditation

I often have to say "I'm meditating", despite never have had a minute's study in formal meditation, I have no clue what it is.
But then when I look up the word:

meditation - 3 dictionary results
med·i·ta·tion   
[med-i-tey-shuhn]
–noun
1.
the act of meditating.
2.
continued or extended thought; reflection; contemplation.
3.
transcendental meditation.
4.
devout religious contemplation or spiritual introspection.

It really is a very, very wide field indeed. Especially definition two, which I find very useful indeed. Contemplation. Look at things. Observe things.

ACIM lesson 325

Lesson 325

All things I think I see reflect ideas.

This is salvation's keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want. From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find. These images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one's own. From insane wishes comes an insane world. From judgment comes a world condemned. And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth, with mercy for the holy Son of God, to offer him a kindly home where he can rest a while before he journeys on, and help his brothers walk ahead with him, and find the way to Heaven and to God.

(In audio by Gene Bogart.)

About patience

I never quite understood why A Course In Miracles and The Disappearance Of The Universe stress the need for Patience. Sometimes I have trouble being patient, and I realize I'd feel better if I had more, but I didn't see how it helped the process of waking up.

But today I realized that for many people, if they don't have the patience for a long task, they give up. Go and do something else.
Since I am driven, and driven hard, this was never an option for me, so I didn't see it.
But I really want want awakening, a trillion times more than I want anything else. It's so intense that it's normally suppressed for me.

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"When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere." -- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The end of logic

Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it. 
 - Spock, Star Trek 6


I think it's cool to put this line in the mouth of a character who is famous for basing everything on Logic. If one is a big believer in logic, it's not an easy thing to learn otherwise.

What is the last judgment?

Part of A Course In Miracles Workbook Instruction 10, What is the Last Judgment?

Christ's Second Coming gives the Son of God this gift: to hear the Voice for God proclaim that what is false is false, and what is true has never changed. And this the judgment is in which perception ends. At first you see a world that has accepted this as true, projected from a now corrected mind. And with this holy sight, perception gives a silent blessing and then disappears, its goal accomplished and its mission done.

The final judgment on the world contains no condemnation. For it sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless. Without a cause, and now without a function in Christ's sight, it merely slips away to nothingness. There it was born, and there it ends as well. And all the figures in the dream in which the world began go with it. Bodies now are useless, and will therefore fade away, because the Son of God is limitless.

You who believed that God's Last Judgment would condemn the world to hell along with you, accept this holy truth: God's Judgment is the gift of the Correction He bestowed on all your errors, freeing you from them, and all effects they ever seemed to have.

A tourist in your world

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own.
           -- Susan Sontag

Interesting.
I think she means this is a bad thing. But I don't think so.

Be passersby.
Or:
Be a tourist in your own reality. 

... I think those say just the same.

I've always loved photographing, and I suspect that one of the effects of it is just that it makes you an observer instead of a participant. Again, most people would feel this is bad, but this is just the ego and the dream protecting itself. You stay trapped in the dream so long as you're participating in the drama. When you start observing instead, you're on the way out.