How to Live

Ok let’s face it all forms of government have failed to perform. All organized religions have failed. Economics, the money system works bass-ackwards. The idea of survival of the fittest is not how the universe operates. The forms of organized religion and governments have damaged the planet and allowed the majority of the population to live in squalor and misery. The rich have been miserable too, because living prosperously when others are suffering will not ultimately lead to a fulfilled life.

So what principles can we establish by which to create an ever expanding life? How can we turn things around? If we were to “go back to the drawing board” and start over, what could we do?

This idea came to me many years ago when I thought about personal responsibility inside of corporations. Ultimately, there is no “passing the buck” in life, even though “chain of command” has created this preposterous idea: that if someone is my master or boss, and they tell me what to do, I have no responsibility for my actions. This is worse than a lemming mentality. For example: my boss gets an idea that it is a good idea to jump off a cliff, so he tests the idea by telling me to jump off the cliff. He’s my boss, so I have to do it. What happens, I die, or am severely crippled for the rest of my life. Now in truth both of these possibilities are not as bad as we think. In fact, at least in this world, they can lead to great demonstration. However, the point of argument here is, just because my boss made the decision, am I not responsible for the action?

What happens to my boss, maybe he doesn’t die, but in a way, hasn’t he suffered a worse consequence? Isn’t that how it really works? That if I benefit at the expense of another, whether it be another person, another life form, or the planet, I ultimately lose out much more – because like the law of giving is multiplicative, so is the Golden Law, the retributions for ignorance, especially intentional, will come back around, multiplied. Cosmically, or some would say karmically, I will pay a price, some day. But this too is “bass-ackwards”, for the reason “not” to do something is not about saving my own hide.

However, beyond the potential benefits gained from passing from this life, or the powerful demonstrations that can come from people who overcome physical and mental challenges, the question remains did we come here to Live or to Die?, at least in this physical form. If we could learn the lessons of Love, truly, I believe that we would have to answer that we are born to Live, period. This conclusion is what Albert Schwietzer referred to as “will to live”. His simple but profound realization, that all life forms are born and have the creative source’s inherent aim “to survive”, to live a full life, then led him to realize the fact that, to live in absolute harmony with other beings, and ultimately with himself, he needed to establish a foundation, or “ethic” for his existence. His epiphany he called “reverence for life” – and that means all life – including insects and plants.

"So what is the point here?", you ask - "I don't see the 'How to Live"'in this" and "where is this all coming from?" I don't know, but it feels like inspiration. I woke up this morning, after a wonderful Facebook chat last night with a high school friend Tom Dooley who has been on a similar life trek as I. It’s as if he and I ventured out walking from Ames, Iowa, as high school acquaintances, to experience the world and life in all its trials and tribulations, and through some set of serendipitous circumstances found that our wandering, weaving paths, ended meeting squarely head-on again after 30 years.

I found myself all last night dreaming, but also half-dreaming, about some of Tom’s experiences and insights that he has come to. That Everything is only One! Everything is a mirror! But also as I was dreaming, and half-dreaming, I was scripting a message to Tom about my admiration for his journey. Acknowledging his accomplishments and dedication in pursuit of “the Truth”. And I’m not talking about the Christian truth, or the Buddhist truth, or the American Indian truth, or the United States truth, etc. – I’m talking about the One Truth – the One Truth that I think Christ realized, that Siddhartha realized, and that Tom Dooley realizes. There is only One thing here.

I also told him at one point that I have now realized that I had profound epiphanies when I was young. He said "Like what?" And on the spot I didn't remember this one about "personal responsibility", but this morning I did, and I became inspired to write this.

But what does this mean - the idea that there is "only One thing here"? How can this Truth, which many call love, which isn’t what it really is, because love is only a word, that has been tremendously misunderstood, but it comes as close as any word, be realized. How does one go about day to day, to make decisions in a backwards world, to move toward a world that reflects the Love of the One? How do we move from the world of wars, of suffering, of disease, of disharmony and pain to the world of love and harmony and peace and understanding? How do we move away from the “status quo” where people are searching for the truth outside only, instead of inside and then reflecting the beauty that they discover to the outside and then have it reflected back? How do we move out of the existing world we live each day where the economic system seems to be designed to destroy the very thing where the bounty comes from? “Modern” economics kills the geese that lay the golden eggs. And we blame it all on “greed”. The basic premise of Adam Smith’s economic model of scarcity, is the catalyst for greed which feeds “fear of lack”, that puts us in the modality of “get what you can for yourself and your loved ones”, but damn the rest of them. Who is responsible for all this stuff – these ideas, these theories, these beliefs, these excuses? We are! Each one of us. As individuals, we collectively contribute to the continuation of all the things we say or believe are bad. So that is where the solutions to these “apparent dilemmas” must begin. At the individual level. One person at a time. And the amazing thing is, that if I change my mind about these things that something magical happens: I will see the world differently, and subsequently the world will change!

These ideas of what is wrong or who is to blame are all based on a cop-out. If we say these things are “reality” we’ve given up: given up some of our greatest attributes and capabilities such as, imagination, agility, and adaptation. It’s not even about corporate greed or government’s incompetence or political corruption. Because in the end corporations, governments and political systems are composed of people, supposedly created and designed to serve the people. I think it comes down, basically, to personal responsibility. That I need to take responsibility, to the best of my ability, for every thought, action and deed. I would say simply that the world would change significantly if we guided our thoughts and actions by Love. At some level that should be enough. The seven "virtues of the heart" (ps): admiration, compassion, forgiveness, humility, gratitude, understanding and valor provide a wonderful “acid test” of our thoughts, actions and behavior. But how does that convert to practical methods? How do we convert the wonderful “ideas” of the seven virtues into a “practical technique” – maybe just by asking ourselves a few questions.

I suggest this list as a starting point:
- am I being asked to do something that I would do if I had to take personal responsibility for the action – or if I were to receive the negative repercussions?
- have I given some thought to how others might or might not benefit? – and this means as comprehensive a list as possible.
- am I keeping secrets?
- am I telling lies?
- do I think I can pull the wool over someone’s eyes and gain personal benefit at their expense?
- of all possible choices of action, is my action the best choice for other people, to nature, the planet, and myself?
- am I constantly challenging myself to do better? This includes helping others raise their awareness of this level of personal responsibility?
- if I were being watched by a sort of “quality overseer” would I feel ashamed of my efforts, or would I feel that I have done my best?
- am I trying to justify my actions or explain with excuses?
- am I expecting someone else to clean up my mess (this means in every aspect of my life)?
- am I willing to consider the application of “Reverence for Life” in my life?
- am I willing to take time to measure my thoughts and actions against the seven virtues of the heart: admiration, compassion, forgiveness, humility, gratitude, understanding and valor

And finally, do I realize that there is One infinite Loving presence that is overseeing all of this? So really there are not big deals. And all that I have written here doesn’t matter much at all, in the whole scheme of things, but at least I did my best.

Of course all of these things roll into the “Golden Rule”, which I believe is really The “Golden Law”, but this short list of questions provides a practical way to evaluate any given action. The fact of the matter is, that inside each one of us, is the mechanism or guidance program that will answer each of these questions – perfectly – that is if we are clear with our feelings. It’s been called “our conscience”, but it speaks to us through feelings – anxious, angry, painful or fearful (bad) feelings mean we’re making a mistake. Smooth calm, happy, comfortable feelings mean it’s a pretty good decision. The program associated with our heart feelings will guide us with absolute clarity, if we take the time to notice what they are saying to us. The questions provided here are intended to establish a means by which to measure the viability of each decision.

(ps) James of the Wingmakers (www.wingmakers.com) six virtues of the heart - I added gratitude to make it seven

How do we simplify the model?

When one looks at all of the world´s situations they look so complex. So many complexities in our lives, in the world, and if taken as a complete seems overwhelming. The key is to take it one step at a time. The best analogy is that of a mountain climber. He doesn´t take the whole trip in his head before he starts, otherwise he wouldn´t do it. He makes up his mind to go, takes the right tools, adapts, makes adjustments, in process, and step by step, one foothold and handhold at a time makes his way to the peak.

But what is our guide for our metaphorical journey to some desired destination. We have gotten so far off track, or down a dead-end road, that it is difficult to know what tools we have at our disposal to guide us toward a more harmonious world. Even our thinking is skewed. The knowledge, or what we know that we are, and what All That Is is, is quite skewed. So how do we get out of this culdesac, this dead-end situation?

I think it is a matter of finding a principle by which we can guide our thinking and actions and move toward improvement of our situation on a day by day basis. As we look at the various systems that we have created, they do not work. The evidence is all around us.

Now we may envision a new reality, one that we might call perfect, but we are so far away from that reality that we lose all hope which we have seen is another obstacle for progress. We must not work against ourselves, we must not allow ourselves to create barriers for us to achieve what our desired outcomes are. So how we accomplish this is to develop ways by which we can move progressively out of our collective conundrum, but this only happens on an individual basis! So, by what principle can we guide ourselves? I believe it is the Golden Rule – but what I believe is actually the most important universal law of the Universe.

A digression might be to talk about how just using the Word “rule”, (very likely it was supposed to be law) has made us forget, or not comprehend the true importance of this. The ten commandments were described as “rules” to live by. But as Emmet Fox wrote about in his book 10 commandments is the fact that they are actually laws. People have been inclined to break rules, because they really don´t understand that by doing things against rules they are really mostly hurting themselves. ¨Rules are meant to be broken” is a tongue in cheek saying, but who of us does not secretly believe this to be true. This may be a case where all of the things that we aren´t supposed to do, actually become very attractive and we secretly do these things but pretend that we are not. We then begin to hide from ourselves, dishonesty sets in, and then we are down the slippery slope of how can a person base a life on lying to oneself. We can see the results of this erroneous thinking by what we see in the world.

So, back to the Golden Law. It is a law. If I hurt you, I hurt me and you. But likely more me, because in the end, since the universe cannot operate on “fuzzy”, happenstance, fickle, occasional, or non-solid principles, or “laws”. For every action there will be a reaction. So if I steal something from you, at some time in the future I will pay that price (if not in this life, then in a future life). Most of us do not really understand the Golden Law. And it is not the point to follow this principle for selfish purposes, because if I am being nice just to serve myself, not concerned about the impacts on others, that is another trap.
To move out of this “far from the desired situation” in the world, I believe the Golden Law is the foundation.

Let us continue with our analogy, and imagine that our collective being has truly taken a trip down a street and we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a culdesac, or dead-end. And for several milennia we have been circling around in the cul-de-sac.

How do we get out?

The only way to get out of a dead end is to turn around and walk back out. We start to walk step by step out. But we need some sort of guide. How will we know if we have turned back around, and started to go back to the dead-end?

It is the Golden Law.

Albert Schweitzer called it reverence for life. This idea is that we do not harm any form of life. This includes other people, insects, plants, animals, the planet. This also very much relates to Free Will. If we impose our Will, on anothers Free Will, in the end, we are going to have to rectify, or deal with the repercussions.

But as one looks at the world, most of what we do ends up damaging something. This is the evidence of how far off track we have gotten. It seems that all of our “systems” hurt something. As we observe this situation we could become totally discouraged and not even want to start the journey back. But this is the wrong perspective. We must be like the mountain climber. Take the tools, how to think, common sense and the Golden Law and begin the journey step by step.

In essence the Golden Rule becomes our measuring stick, our guide in the process. We can measure each of our steps, thoughts, actions against this Universal principle which was given to us by Jesus, and step by step, day by day begin the journey back to create the new world. All that is required is the honest and sincere desire to take the journey. As we go along we can know, that in fact we are being guided by the perfect “program” – our feelings. Also circumstance, or repercussions are a guide. They have always been here, but this is evidence of how misinformed we have been. We have not even known that God had installed an operating system that guides us perfectly, constantly providing feedback in the form of “good” or “bad” feelings, or vibrational reactions showing us whether or not we are moving in the direction of what is in our best interest.

Self reflection is another key tool We have to be able to look back on what we do and evaluate whether or not we are making progress. This should be a continual, on going process.

Also, we need to be aware that our “knowledge base” and what we have to work with will be continually improving as we go along in this process. We will gain new insights, better understanding, better skills as we continually seek improvement and progress. We essentially tap into the Divine power of Love that will continually endow more of what we need to continue on our journey toward the perfect expression of the Golden Law. This is Law. And we cannot attempt to do something, with an honest and sincere desire to do good, and not be given, directly from Source the tools, education, resources, motivation, etc. to move toward our goal.

One of the most difficult issues is the principle of measuring, or judging our progress based upon the existing thinking and dualistic system that currently operates in our world, in our “human” thinking system. We have to be astute to watch ourselves from not beating ourselves up for not learning the lessons “we think” we should have learned. Feeling guilty, getting angry at ourselves, or others, again, is a huge sign that we are heading in the wrong direction. The key to the success of this process is to be gentle with ourselves and others as almost all of us have been battered by our own judgment of ourselves. We have become masters with a whip, constantly beating our own backs, having the mistaken belief that this might be an effective way to motívate ourselves, pushing ourselves along our journey in constant oppressive judgment of our progress. We are not pack animals (in fact this is not how we should treat animals either). This is the same method that was used to submit the slaves. If we are to become loving and kind to others, we must practice it first and foremost with ourselves. Of course, we must always practice this with others, the planet, and animals as well. For all really is just One. This is the great truth contained in the Golden Law. What we do to others we do to ourselves, the others, to the One, or to God.

But we need not become discouraged when we see how far off the track we have gotten. This, apparently, is the whole point of the journey. This is what God wanted. Rome was not built in a day. A 1000 mile journey starts with one step. And with the powerful, and all present One, guiding us, and loving us while we utilize the Golden Law as our guide, we will find ourselves on a joyous journey, day by day to our visión. Our destination. But the point is not about getting somewhere, but the journey.