On Suffering

Gautama Buddha has done humanity a great disservice. Of course, the same can be said of most ‘saviors’, great teachers, sometimes known as gurus. Not that it was ever their fault. They spoke the truth. Only later men, too lazy to dig into deeper understanding, or just plain dishonest, either twisted or perverted their teaching to benefit financially, or to gain control over the minds of other people.

So what else is new, you might well ask?

Well, I intend to set the record straight.

The great Avatars had but one, single, purpose in mind, and that was to teach us how to be happy. Aristippus of Cyrene, the student of Socrates was right. He and the Hedonists got it right, though hardly anyone else did.

Show me a single statue of Buddha, which is not replete and elated in smiles. The name Krishna, his predecessor, simply means “pleasure”. “All Pleasure”, to be exact. And Yeshûa, affirmed that: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” If you want to know how to put it into practice, look at Francis of Assisi. There are, of course, other ways.

Just where is the suffering? Where’s the blood, the scourging, fasting, the “giving up”, the sacrifice, the misery, the thousand and one dos and don’ts imposed on the poor, befuddled, muddled, bewildered, disoriented, fazed, stupefied, mixed up, discombobulated sheep of various religions? Poor “believers”. If only they took the trouble to find out the truth behind the purported clarifications, elucidations, interpretations and exegeses of the learned (ever miserable) doctors of theology, and listened to the Masters themselves. If only…

If only… they, too, would be happy.

I wrote a little story (I called it ‘essay’) on, “Spiritual Life”. You’ll find it in Beyond Religion II, on Amazon Kindle. Or in Smashwords. Try to enjoy it, even if it hurts… just a little. 

Visualizing Reality

To visualize well, simply means, to imprint on our subconscious. That’s how our life manifests. That’s how history is made. That’s how we became what we are, today. That is how ‘miracles’ happen.

There is a fundamental difference between being (vaguely) aware of something and actually knowing something. It is comparable to the biblical expression that even if our faith were as small as a grain of mustard seed, we would move mountains. That is a metaphor, of course, but the essence is there. It is only when we commit knowledge deep enough to become part of our subconscious that it becomes integrated into our ‘true’ reality. Once there, it will, sooner or later, become manifest in our physical reality as well.

Why you may ask?

Because thoughts are the force behind the creative process, and our conscious mind is but a tip of the iceberg. The real power lies beneath the turbulent waters of our physical reality. It lies within the memory stored in our subconscious over millions, perhaps billions, of years.

To repeat, we must never forget that the physical reality we experience is the product of our thoughts and emotions. Whatever we truly believe in is real, to us, though sometimes only to us. No two people see reality in an identical way. That is as it should be, since diversity of expression is how the universe operates. By the universe I mean the sum total of the manifested, or the visible, tangible, world. Needless to say, an infinite number of alternative realities wait to be discovered within the, as yet un-manifested, infinite potential of our unconscious.

Yes. It is all within us. All of it. In its potential form.

Isn’t it fun?

The day we discover that we, and we alone, are the creators of the universe we live in, we begin to understand the concept of “ye are gods”. Of course, from that day on we can never again blame anyone for the universe we’ve created. It is like coming of age; like reaching adulthood; or, as Buddha would say, “of coming truly awake”. The potential for this awakening lies dormant within all of us. [If you don’t believe me, ask Buddha].

We imprint new realities on your subconscious by the process of visualization. To heal oneself we do not visualize the process of healing, but the result of it^.[1] We must see ourselves completely healthy, in every sense of the word. Those who accept the existence of one’s “Higher Self”, one’s spiritual component, must simply attempt to visualize one’s perfect I AM, and finding It’s expression in the physical reality. After all, I AM is perfect.

There is more about this in my book, Visualization — Creating Your Own Universe. You might even become a conscious creator of your reality. Try it. 

[1]. Although some advocate visualizing the process of healing taking place. This seems to work only if one knows exactly what is wrong.

Green-eyed Monster

Money is not the root of evil. Love of money is. It seems that we, humans, never learn. We not only don’t improve, become more enlightened, but constantly search for more physical, sensual if not sexual satisfaction. We are descending from the heights of Edenic state of near-perfection to the animalistic expression of most primitive fauna. Why, you ask? Because of the Green-eyed Monster.

Because of greed.

CEO’s salaries come to mind. Thank god we are not all CEOs, or the average morality of the human race would descent to the abysmal depth of materialistic gutter.

Pease note the following.

In countries spanning from Japan, through Germany, France, Italy, Canada, South Africa, Britain, Mexico and Venezuela, the CEO’s salaries range from 11 times all the way to 50 times the wage of an average worker. 50 x average sounds like an incredibly greedy disparity until we look at a comparative ratio in the United States of America. There, believe it or not, the ratio is 325:1. In the good-old USA, the CEOs, on average, glut themselves with 325 times the salaries of the people they employ.

I thought I’ve heard the worst until on Tuesday Oct.2nd, 2012, the ABC News reported: “2,400 millionaires received unemployment insurance benefits during the economic downturn…”

I thought this was a misprint until I read on. The report continued to say that:

“In 2009, 2,362 millionaires received unemployment benefits, down from 2,840 the year prior, according to a study from the Congressional Research Service, a non-partisan arm of U.S. Congress that provides policy and legal analysis. Of the 2,362 more than 1,000 receiving unemployment benefits had a household adjusted gross income of $1.5 million in 2009.”

There is greed and there is greed. But some people are no longer human. They are green-eyed monsters.

What we must never forget, however, is that the vast majority of us are good, honest, working folk, contributing to not only our own wellbeing but that of the whole society.

If you want to read more on the subject, I recommend my essay “The Green Eyed Monster” from my collection Beyond Religion III. It reaches further into the insidious aspect of envy. You can also get the book for virtually any other electronic reader listed on my webpage http://stanlaw.ca

Enjoy! 

Black and White Magic or Love

The total Reality is ‘stored’ in our subconscious. It is a state of consciousness, made to measure, individualized by each one of us.

We create our heavens, our hells, our universes. We see the world as no one else can. Others can approximate our view, but never see it exactly as we do. That is why we are individuals—the inseparable components of the Whole. Love is the single most powerful force that enables us to do that. To be individuals.

If, within the universe of our creation, we are to be surrounded by people we love, than the time to start accumulating them is now. We don’t see people as they really are, only as we see them from a singular point of view.  If we want to rub shoulders with them, or with anybody, for countless eon in our ‘heavens’ (long periods between reincarnations), we’d better start thinking of them, of all people, as they really are. And that is, to see them as the embodiments of I AM.

Yes, every single one of us is an embodiment of the immortal, perfect, indestructible I AM, which, all too often, has as much of a problem showing Itself through the mask of the physical (mental and emotional) shroud as we have in perceiving It. But It is there—quiet, undemanding, loving unconditionally.

Sounds absurd, doesn’t it. The most powerful force in the universe sits back and watches us doing the best we can. Why? Because love does not impose. Let us never forget that love is the opposite of power. The more power you have, the lesser is your love.

I wrote in an essay on Power :

“Power first proposes, then imposes, finally forces us to obey. “For our own good”, of course. It takes away our freedom of choice, offers to do our thinking for us, lowers our resistance until we succumb to it. Power corrupts our minds, our ability to be individuals, to respect individuality; but mostly it corrupts the one exercising such power over others. You must be noble before you can be corrupted. Corruption is another word for compromise. Both jeopardize ethics. The greater the compromise the greater the corruption. As I mentioned before, power is the opposite of love. You can always compromise on power, never on love.”

There is more.

For now let us remember that thoughts are ‘things’. If you think yourself sick long enough, sick you will get. The same applied to our thoughts directed at people.  If we imagine someone in bad light such thought are paramount to Black Magic. To see them in good light—is White Magic. To see them as I AM—is to see them as they really are. Perfect. Friends for all eternity.

Wanton Destruction

 

Sometime ago, a very wise man by the name of Chris Hodges, reached some stunning conclusions. His sentiments ran thus:

“We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy.”

What can I say, when the man is right—he’s right.

Then I asked myself what, if any, other than the stupidity and greed of the perpetrators, might be the reason for all of the above. They say that every cause has an effect, and there no effects without underlying reasons.

Thus, what could have been, what is, the reason for the litany of devastation composed by Chris Hodges? I repeat, there must be a reason why all of the above, if true, is taking place.

I made a single all-inclusive suggestion in my book Delusions. Drawing on the vast compendium of knowledge amassed by H.P. Blavatsky, I concluded that, contrary to ‘evolutionist’, ecclesiastic or scientific theories, we are, in fact, in an accelerated process of devolution. Every item in Hodges’ list attests to that.

Is there a way out?

There is always a way out. First, we must remember that devolution concerns only the general direction that affects, and controls the masses. Individuals always have a choice. Quite simply, we must change the direction. Instead of becoming ever more materially minded, we must reverse direction and try to discover what is our true purpose. If we are concerned exclusively with our physical health, with justice without mercy or forgiveness, with control of people by extending the power of governing bodies, by lapping up all dehumanizing events reported by our news media, with supporting religions which have long forgotten the principles on which they have been built, and finally by using the services of organizations built exclusively on greed where material wealth is all that matters… then we are getting exactly what we are seeking.

Believe it or not, Peter and Paul (coming soon) had to face almost identical problems in their time. Has time stopped?

May I suggest that each one of us tries to make his or her own list of direct opposites of Hodges’ list. I did. My world is no longer devolving. To see alternate (dire?) possibilities, try my novel Headless World—The Vatican Incident.

 

A Singular Point of View

Sometime ago, I wrote an essay, Mirror of a Lesser God, which dealt with problems we all encounter in marriage. It has been inspired by a movie entitled Children of a Lesser God, although other than a partial title, it had nothing to do the film. Of course, in relation to the Source of Infinite Potential, we are all children, if for no other reason that we have infinity of growth in front of us. We’re immortal, remember?

Now after years of observations, I note that what is true of marital relationships holds true for the rest of humanity. We are only capable of seeing those errors in others, which we harbor, perhaps deep below the surface of our consciousness, in ourselves. I am reminded of the biblical saying that god’s eyes are too pure to see evil. Well, ours are not. We are rather good in perceiving evil in those we live with; also in governments, churches, teachers, perhaps co-workers. In all people other than in our own selves.

Of course, there is not such thing as evil. Ask any accused. There is only a difference of opinion. Yet the direct consequence of disagreement is that we invariably blame others for our own (hidden) inadequacies.

Those who have a-bombs shout the loudest to stop others from having them. “Keep the taxes down”, scream the richest amongst us. “We love peace”, shout the manufacturers and dealers in arms louder than anyone else in the world. The rest of us think of ourselves as being above such mundane weaknesses. To repeat, our eyes are not too pure to see inequities in others.

Love thy enemies? You must be kidding!

What is more, our recollection of events in interpersonal relations is NEVER objective, as we, all of us, are capable of looking at things from a single point of view. Even a child knows that things (events) look different from different sides, yet we, adults, tend to forget this self-evident limitation.

There is a way out.

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged: condemn not, and you shall not be condemned…”^[1]

Of course, we could say that this is an old, outdated, expression that belongs only to religious zealots.

Or… we could say that it has absolutely nothing to do with any religion, and see if it works in real life. National debt? Think of the trillions of dollars we’d save on armaments alone, if we did that!

But, you might ask, wouldn’t it be dangerous?

For whom? For the immortals?

[1] Luke 6:23

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