The Greatest of All

"We think too much and feel too little."

-Charlie Chaplin

-From the 1894 book "Brother of the 3rd Degree." 

A lot of people in their conquest of personality development and character building,  more often than not, manage to acquire a lot of information and knowledge about developing one's potential (business, academic excellence, organizational expansion, physical/ energetic prowess) but very seldom or close to even rare, very rare, do people are able to control their feelings.

Most people only pass the control of the body and mind part but even experienced individuals fails on the last part, the control of feelings.

Because 99% of people feelings are like that of a little dog always swinging from one extreme to the next (excitement to depressions).

Always irritated, always reacting, always on the defensive mode, because most teachers, schools and church only teach concepts and intellectual ideas but not how to handle or control feelings. These teaching gets stuck mostly on the logical side part and not on the feeling side.

If you are reading this and you are a person who seeks to elevate your powers to the next level towards character development take note of your self to learn to control your feelings. 

And also, take note of your teachers and gurus if they could consistently handle themselves.

The true student of the path is able to control her/his feelings under all circumstances no matter how irritating or disturbing the conditions might be.

For the seeker.

POPE FRANCIS DECLARES THAT “ALL RELIGIONS ARE TRUE”

“Through humility, soul searching, and prayerful contemplation we have gained a new understanding of certain dogmas. The church no longer believes in a literal hell where people suffer. This doctrine is incompatible with the infinite love of God. God is not a judge but a friend and a lover of humanity. God seeks not to condemn but only to embrace. Like the fable of Adam and Eve, we see hell as a literary device. Hell is merely a metaphor for the isolated soul, which like all souls ultimately will be united in love with God” Pope Francis declared.

In a speech that shocked many, the Pope claimed “All religions are true, because they are true in the hearts of all those who believe in them. What other kind of truth is there? In the past, the church has been harsh on those it deemed morally wrong or sinful. Today, we no longer judge. Like a loving father, we never condemn our children. Our church is big enough for heterosexuals and homosexuals, for the pro-life and the pro-choice! For conservatives and liberals, even communists are welcome and have joined us. We all love and worship the same God.”

Source: http://diversitychronicle.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/pope-francis-condemns-racism-and-declares-that-all-religions-are-true-at-historic-third-vatican-council/

The Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all."

"One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, lack and ego."

"The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, abundance and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Influence

Influence

ˈɪnflʊəns/


noun

1. the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself.

verb

1. have an influence on.

synonyms: affect, have an effect on, exert influence on; determine, guide, control, form, shape, govern, decide, regulate; change, alter, modify, transform, impact on

"bosses can influence the careers of subordinates" sway, bias, affect, prejudice, colour, predispose, suborn; bring pressure to bear on, pressurize, coerce, lean on;

informalpull strings with, twist someone's arm; informalnobble "an attempt to influence the jury" persuade, convince, talk round, talk into, win over, bring round, sway, coax, induce, inveigle, impel, incite, entice, tempt, lure, cajole, manipulate, prompt; coerce, dragoon, intimidate, browbeat, brainwash.

 

Everybody influences everybody.

Your parents, school, child, wife, husband, teachers, friends, lover, boyfriend, girlfriend, religion, government and media influences/manipulates/seduces you in one way or the other to buy into a product, service, idea or belief.

Think about the following.

Your parents unconsciously conditions you to act in a certain way long before you were able to think on your own.

Your friends influences you to go partying or go to the malls to hangout.

The guy that buys a girl flowers, makes her laugh, takes her to dates, spends time with her and her friends and family influences her to win her heart.

Your school and universities programs you to be proud of your school and subtly induces you to compete with the other school.

The company that gets its employees to go to Team Building influences them to have a strong bond with the company and their colleagues.

The government uses intimidation and authority to persuade people to follow the rules.

Same as the government, the church uses holy scriptures to by-pass people's critical factor to get them buy into their belief.


The media programs you hypnotically 24/7 with its commercials to buy that products even though sometimes its bad for your health.

Now, don't get paranoid. But its true, everybody influences everybody. It is all around you. You just have to find the people who you would allow to influence you.

Some are just better and more skilled than others.

So the question is, who is good and who is evil?

I can't answer that for you.

But here is a tip, any belief what makes you negative towards others and yourself  or a belief that ruins your health and good relations with other people then, maybe you would want to shy away from that.

People who are aware have a choice.

Remember, THINK FOR YOURSELF.

If you are aware you will understand.

What can we learn from Buddha?

watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM1W_TnIEik

Helping Others

"A generous person will prosper; 

whoever refreshes others will be refreshed."

-Proverbs 11:25

Effect of Energy Drinks

Ammonia in Mc Donald's Burgers

McDonald’s Burgers “Unfit for human consumption”

Hamburger chef Jamie Oliver has won his long-fought battle against one of the largest fast food chains in the world – McDonalds. After Oliver showed how McDonald’s hamburgers are made, the franchise finally announced that it will change its recipe, and yet there was barely a peep about this in the mainstream, corporate media.

Oliver repeatedly explained to the public, over several years – in documentaries, television shows and interviews – that the fatty parts of beef are “washed” in ammonium hydroxide and used in the filling of the burger. Before this process, according to the presenter, the food is deemed unfit for human consumption. According to the chef and hamburger enthusiast, Jamie Oliver, who has undertaken a war against the fast food industry, “Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest way for dogs, and after this process, is being given to human beings.”

Besides the low quality of the meat, the ammonium hydroxide is harmful to health. Oliver famously coined this the “the pink slime process.”

“Why would any sensible human being put meat filled with ammonia in the mouths of their children?” Oliver asked.

In one of his colorful demonstrations, Oliver demonstrates to children how nuggets are made. After selecting the best parts of the chicken, the remains (fat, skin and internal organs) are processed for these fried foods.

In the United States, however, Burger King and Taco Bell had already abandoned the use of ammonia in their products. The food industry uses ammonium hydroxide as an anti-microbial agent in meats, which has allowed McDonald’s to use otherwise “inedible meat.”

Most disturbing of all is the horrifying fact that because ammonium hydroxide is considered part of the “component in a production procedure” by the USDA, consumers may not know when the chemical is in their food.

Source: http://www.vaticancrimes.us/2013/08/red-alert-mcdonalds-poisons-children.html

The Story of the Chicken and Eagle

A man found an eagle’s egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.

All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air.

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.

The old eagle looked up in awe. “Who’s that?” he asked.

“That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” said his neighbor. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth—we’re chickens.” So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was.

Peace

“Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.” 

― George Carlin

Peace. 

It is not achieved through the intellect or thinking about it.

It is not achieved through talking or preaching about it.

It is not achieved through reading about it and agreeing with it.

Emotions/feelings are more powerful than logical thinking.

Peace is achieved through the feelings.

When you feel peaceful it will show through your actions, your choice of words, intellect, your choice of activities, entertainment and world.

"You can't talk peace and have a gun."-Francis M.

The Mind and its Associations

"A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other 
by association with smarter people."

-Will Rogers

Frame of Reference

As a hypnotist I have been always fascinated with the human mind and how people think. One of my major realizations is that every person is programmed or should I say socially and culturally conditioned by the society, surroundings, media, church and of course their parents.

Most people’s reference of reality or where they base their understanding is mostly associated with what they see in the media, church, or what they have heard from their parents.

Digging Within

From my collective studies of how the human mind thinks and also base from thousands field tested interactions, I’ve realized that whenever I give a talk it seems that people go inside, what I mean by this is that they look into their mind and look for a frame of reference for them to understand that I am talking about.

What I mean by this is, if my topic is about love most of them think about the person that they love and associate the word love with that person, for them to get a sense of meaning and understand it clearly.

Another is that, if I talk about the topic of food, most of the time they will immediately think about their favorite book and picture it clearly in their mind. Or maybe, if is start talking about a favorite animal, they will eventually associate it with their pet.

This is how the mind works. It needs to look inside and search then associate it to an image, a memory or into something that they could understand. Because, if they can’t find something to associate it with something in their minds, they would not understand it.

I think you get the idea. Now, let’s go a little deeper.

Into the Unknown




As a child growing up, I’ve always looked up to superheroes and most of the time, I have believed that they have Godlike abilities and power. Then when I matured. I realized that most people’s belief about the power of God is mostly associated with these superheroes. Why? It’s because they have to find meaning within them as to how God’s power operates.

Most people’s concept of power is driven from what they have seen or what they have been told. Since they haven’t had a direct experience of God’s power they tend to associate it most of the time to what they see in the movies and the things they have seen or read.

Maybe that is one of the reasons people fear God, because they have associated power with fear from the movies they have watched and what they see in the media how the powerful gangsters portray the image of power.

People need to understand the power of God so they have created an image and associated it into something that their mind could understand. That is why in most religious sects they use human stories to personify God thinking that somehow they would find meaning in it. They would like to put the whole universe into a box into something they could understand and relate to. But can you really put all the meaning of the universe into a 4 corner piece of book?

Maybe that’s why enlightened people are often silent, because they know that life has no meaning but the meaning you associated it with.

And these religions are a big thing these days, because people lack the courage to seek God on their own, so they just let other people do the thinking for them and more often than not, it just creates more confusion with other religions.

People need something to associate it into something they could understand. They don’t like dealing with the unknown, they fear it.

So to compensate their fear they have created religions, where there are speakers who could somehow talk in a way that relates to the level of thinking of the people.

Shifting the Paradigm

I find it funny at times whenever I talk to people about Love and how they relate it most of the time to the love of their parents or the love of their boyfriend or girlfriend.

Well, because none of them again has experience directly what God’s Love is so they tend to associate the word love into something that they could understand, which is human love.

Like for example people the verse in the bible about Love being patient and kind and never jealous, to some people it is just an intellectual concept because, most of the time what they understand is the part- being Patient and Kind BUT the word jealous they can’t.

For most people, or for the society they treat jealousy as something normal. Because, a lot of people can’t control their emotions they just accepted it as normal- into something that they could understand.

So, for most people the idea of love is mostly the type they see in the movies. The "I can't live without you" type of needy mushy love and from my experience its just gives people more suffering.

I believe God’s Love surpasses any love and none of us can never understand it ever. We could only somehow associate it closely into the love that we experience day by day, but still that is not enough. It could never be explained by any human being. Just like patience, you cannot explain it. Discipline, you cannot explain it. Self-esteem you can never explain it. That’s how God’s Love is, it is forever moving changing, evolving and it doesn't have a period it just is that way, unknowable.

Putting an End

I don't want to go too deep with this post this is just a quick random thought that I don't want to slip away that is why I blurted it out with my keyboard.

Basically, people need something within them to associate an idea. For them to be able to relate. That is why if you say that they could also live forever and create heaven on earth they could-not relate it within them, because they have been conditioned from childhood that its not possible we have only one life to live and at the end of this one we will go to heaven.

For most people they need something that they will understand. Something that for them is normal and that their mind could easily grasp it.

I think some of you might not be able to relate with this post but I leave it to you.

What if everything you have believed is wrong?

http://theridion.blogspot.com/2012/02/myth.html

Service

There is no higher purpose than service to others.

When you serve, you give and help freely.

It's like the unconditional love of a mother.

You cannot love people if you need people either in business, politics or in relationships. You got to manipulate or influence them in some way to get them to serve your own purpose.

In service, there are no demands of loyalty or expectations of anything in return. Just purely unadulterated giving value without guilt, jealousy or resentment.

When there is expectations, demands, jealousy, manipulation that is not love, it is fear.

To truly serve is to truly love.

Selfishness

Most people are not aware that the cause of distress distress, lack of money, depression, unhealthy body and unhappiness is simply, selfishness.

Perhaps, through laziness, lack of awareness and ignorance, they have unconsciously allowed themselves to become selfish even to their own selves. They have deprived their own selves of the happiness, education, abundance, relationship and health they so rightly deserve.

When you find yourself getting upset, angry, depressed, lonely, unhealthy, overweight or emotionally unstable, remember you are the one who decided to feel that way and be in that position you are in, by the choices you've made or have not made.

You are the driver of your car, unless you are a zombie, but you are not, you are a fully functional being capable of choosing your own choices.

Stop being selfish to yourself. Start taking full responsibility of your life. Instead of walking around feeling like a victim, having self-pity and feeling sorry for what has happened to you, wake up and start living the life that you want.

In the age of information ignorance is a choice. If you help yourself to be educated properly in the areas of your life that needs to be handled you will succeed definitely.

You have to realize that you are the creator of your world. You have created it and you could change it too. For things to change you have to change.

Rid Your Life of Negativity

If you want to live a positive, joyful life, you cannot be surrounded by negative people who don’t encourage your happiness.


As a negative person, I attracted negative people. When I decided to make the change to live a more positive life, I had to rid my life of the most negative influences in it. No one is perfect and perfection isn’t the goal when it comes to positivity but there were people in my life who were consistently negative, who constantly brought me down, and I had to stop spending so much time with them.

This, as you can imagine, wasn’t easy. It can hurt to distance yourself from people even when you know they aren’t good for you or your current lifestyle.

In addition to removing negative influences from me, I also had to get rid of some of my own negative behaviors, such as cursing and excessive drinking of alcohol during house parties and little 'soirees' I had going back then. I had to take a step back and examine which behaviors were good for me and which were not.

I learned to focus on the positive things I was doing such as working on my businesses and cultivating new, positive relationships and let go of the negative ones.

This process was not easy and, to be honest, is still ongoing, but I know this: It’s hard to live a positive life when negative people and behaviors continually pull you down. Like what one of my favorite fictional characters used to say.

"He's an anchor, Cut him loose." -Harvey Specter
-Ronz

Light and Darkness

Hating, bashing or criticizing what you do not like totally defeats the purpose of the principle of Loving your neighbor as you love thyself. 

Focus on what you want in thoughts, feelings, words and actions. Then everything you don't want falls away.

Don't Seek the Truth

Scotoma means, the mind sees what it wants to see.

We see what we have a mind to see. --Robert S Hartman

More then that, we see what makes us comfortable:

But once a negative bias begins, out lenses become clouded. We tend to seize on whatever seems to confirm the bias and ignore what does not. Prejudice, in this sense, is a hypothesis desperately trying to prove itself to us. And so when we encounter someone to whom the prejudice might apply, the bias skews our perception, making it impossible to test whether the stereotype actually fits. Openly hostile stereotypes about a group - to the extent they rest on untested assumptions - are mental categories gone awry. --Daniel Goleman

Because what you judge you cannot understand. --Anthony De Mello

We see what we want to see:

Some students begin by forming an opinion ... and it is not till afterward that they begin to read the texts. They run a great risk of not understanding them at all, or of understanding them wrongly. What happens is that a kind of tacit contest goes on between the text and the preconceived opinions of the reader; the mind refuses to grasp what is contrary to its idea, and the issue of the evidence of the text but that the text yields, bends, and accommodates itself to the preconceived opinion. --Fustel de Coulanges 

Are you listening, as most people do, in order to confirm what you already think? --Anthony De Mello

What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact. --Warren Buffett




And the truth? Were is it? What is it?

Don't seek the truth; just drop your opinions. --Anthony De Mello

I've read book by Anthony "Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality" couple of times, found it amazing but stayed puzzled. HVP test showed me a new direction of thinking towards values and valuation and finally, when I've realized that valuation is in other words judgment, I thought, is this what Anthony wanted to say?

My aim is to ponder our collective predicament: if we so easily full ourselves into subtle sleep, how can we awaken? The first step in that, it seems to me, is to notice how it is that we are asleep.

Contemporary researchers have adopted a rather radical premise: that much or most consequential activity in the mind goes on outside awareness.
--Daniel Goleman

Valuation or (pre)judgment gives objects, situation and people different values. In extreme case it allows for totally reverted valuation and choices. Painting remains to be a painting no matter if it's by Leonardo da Vinci or my little kid. It's our thinking that gives one or the other much greater value.

What Antony say is that we are programmed to value or judge in a certain way which changes the reality. We are not aware, we don't see things as they are but as we are because we look through our lenses of judgment. And our judgment is a coping strategy that prevent us from the pain of what causes or caused anxiety to us:

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.

Technically speaking, "coping" is the term for a range of cognitive maneuvers that relieve stress arousal by changing one's own reaction rather than altering the stressful situation itself.

That framework and data show, in modern terms, how the self-system protects us against anxiety by skewing attention.

For many serious sources of stress in life, there's little or nothing that can be done to change things. If so, you're better off if you do nothing except take care of your feelings ... healthy people use palliatives all the time, with no ill effect. Having a drink or taking tranquilizers are palliatives. So is denial, intellectualizing, and avoiding negative thoughts. When they don't prevent adaptive action, they help greatly.
--Daniel Goleman

So how much awareness is possible? There's just too much input information around us. How can we train our unconsciousness to filter "properly"? Isn't that "properly" just another appealing system?

I sometimes failed to persuade the court that I was right, but I never failed to persuade myself! --Roger Fisher

------
Don't Seek the Truth
By Jozef Kutej 

http://blog.kutej.net/quote/

Barries and Walls

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”- Rumi


"The walls we build around us to keep out the sadness also keep out the joy." - Jim Rohn

The Way the World Is

When you awaken, when you understand, when you see, the world becomes right. We're always bothered by the problem of evil.

There's a powerful story about a little boy walking along the bank of a river. He sees a crocodile who is trapped in a net.

The crocodile says, "Would you have pity on me and release me? I may look ugly, but it isn't my fault, you know. I was made this way. But whatever my external appearance, I have a mother's heart. I came this morning in search of food for my young ones and got caught in this trap!"

So the boy says, "Ah, if I were to help you out of that trap, you'd grab me and kill me."

The crocodile asks, "Do you think I would do that to my benefactor and liberator?"

So the boy is persuaded to take the net off and the crocodile grabs him.

As he is being forced between the jaws of the crocodile, he says, "So this is what I get for my good actions." And the crocodile says, "Well, don't take it personally, son, this is the way the world is, this is the law of life."

The boy disputes this, so the crocodile says, "Do you want to ask someone if it isn't so?"

The boy sees a bird sitting on a branch and says, "Bird, is what the crocodile says right?" The bird says, "The crocodile is right. Look at me. I was coming home one day with food for my fledglings. Imagine my horror to see a snake crawling up the tree, making straight for my nest. I was totally helpless. It kept devouring my young ones, one after the other. I kept screaming and shouting, but it was useless. The crocodile is right, this is the law of life, this is the way the world is."

"See," says the crocodile. But the boy says, "Let me ask someone else." So the crocodile says, "Well, all right, go ahead."

There was an old donkey passing by on the bank of the river. "Donkey," says the boy, "this is what the crocodile says. Is the crocodile right?"

The donkey says, "The crocodile is quite right. Look at me. I've worked and slaved for my master all my life and he barely gave me enough to eat. Now that I'm old and useless, he has turned me loose, and here I am wandering in the jungle, waiting for some wild beast to pounce on me and put an end to my life. The crocodile is right, this is the law of life, this is the way the world is."

"See," says the crocodile. "Let's go!"

The boy says, "Give me one more chance, one last chance. Let me ask one other being. Remember how good I was to you?" So the crocodile says, "All right, your last chance."

The boy sees a rabbit passing by, and he says, "Rabbit, is the crocodile right?"

The rabbit sits on his haunches and says to the crocodile, "Did you say that to that boy? The crocodile says, "Yes, I did." "Wait a minute," says the rabbit. "We've got to discuss this." "Yes," says the crocodile. But the rabbit says, "How can we discuss it when you've got that boy in your mouth? Release him; he's got to take part in the discussion, too." The crocodile says, "You're a clever one, you are. The moment I release him, he'll run away." The rabbit says, "I thought you had more sense than that. If he attempted to run away, one slash of your tail would kill him."

"Fair enough," says the crocodile, and he released the boy. The moment the boy is released, the rabbit says, "Run!" And the boy runs and escapes. Then the rabbit says to the boy, "Don't you enjoy crocodile flesh? Wouldn't the people in your village like a good meal? You didn't really release that crocodile; most of his body is still caught in that net. Why don't you go to the village and bring everybody and have a banquet."

That's exactly what the boy does. He goes to the village and calls all the men folk. They come with their axes and staves and spears and kill the crocodile. The boy's dog comes, too, and when the dog sees the rabbit, he gives chase, catches hold of the rabbit, and throttles him. The boy comes on the scene too late, and as he watches the rabbit die, he says, "The crocodile was right, this is the way the world is, this is the law of life."

There is no explanation you can give that would explain away all the sufferings and evil and torture and destruction and hunger in the world! You'll never explain it. You can try gamely with your formulas, religious and otherwise, but you'll never explain it. Because life is a mystery, which means your thinking mind cannot make sense out of it. For that you've got to wake up and then you'll suddenly realize that reality is not problematic, you are the problem.

http://www.demellospirituality.com/awareness/27.html

PROFIT AND LOSS

FOR WHAT WILL IT PROFIT A MAN, IF HE GAINS THE WHOLE WORLD AND FORFEITS HIS LIFE? —MATTHEW 16: 26




Recall the kind of feeling you have when someone praises you, when you are approved, accepted, applauded. And contrast that with the kind of feeling that arises within you when you look at the sunset or the sunrise or Nature in general, or when you read a book or watch a movie that you thoroughly enjoy. Get the taste of this feeling and contrast it with the first, namely, the one that was generated within you when you were praised. 

Understand that the first type of feeling comes from self-glorification, self-promotion. It is a worldly feeling. The second comes from self-fulfillment, a soul feeling.

Here is another contrast: Recall the kind of feeling you have when you succeed, when you have made it, when you get to the top, when you win a game or a bet or an argument. And contrast it with the kind of feeling you get when you really enjoy the job you are doing, you are absorbed in, the action that you are currently engaged in. And once again notice the qualitative difference between the worldly feeling and the soul feeling.

Yet another contrast: Remember what you felt like when you had power, you were the boss, people looked up to you, took orders from you; or when you were popular. And contrast that worldly feeling with the feeling of intimacy, companionship— the times you thoroughly enjoyed yourself in the company of a friend or with a group in which there was fun and laughter. 

Having done this, attempt to understand the true nature of worldly feelings, namely, the feelings of self-promotion, self-glorification. They are not natural, they were invented by your society and your culture to make you productive and to make you controllable. These feelings do not produce the nourishment and happiness that is produced when one contemplates Nature or enjoys the company of one’s friends or one’s work. They were meant to produce thrills, excitement— and emptiness.

Then observe yourself in the course of a day or a week and think how many actions of yours are performed, how many activities engaged in that are uncontaminated by the desire for these thrills, these excitements that only produce emptiness, the desire for attention, approval, fame, popularity, success or power.

And take a look at the people around you. Is there a single one of them who has not become addicted to these worldly feelings? A single one who is not controlled by them, hungers for them, spends every minute of his/ her waking life consciously or unconsciously seeking them? When you see this you will understand how people attempt to gain the world and, in the process, lose their soul. For they live empty, soul-less lives. 

And here is a parable of life for you to ponder on: A group of tourists sits in a bus that is passing through gorgeously beautiful country; lakes and mountains and green fields and rivers. But the shades of the bus are pulled down. They do not have the slightest idea of what lies beyond the windows of the bus. And all the time of their journey is spent in squabbling over who will have the seat of honor in the bus, who will be applauded, who will be well considered. And so they remain till the journey’s end.

-The Way to Love

Loyalty

“The scholar does not consider gold and jade to be precious treasures, but loyalty and good faith.”

― Confucius, The Ethics of Confucius

Awhile ago I had an interesting conversation with some friends about the subject of loyalty. I stated my reason why I don't ask for people to be loyal to me or to the organization. It's simple, it's actually due to negative social conditioning.

Let me tell you why.

To my readers... please, take caution in reading this post because it will naturally squeeze your mind for a bit because of the mind bending and enlightening ideas that is contained here. But after reading this you will feel better and automatically be released for any commitments that you've made that is against your will.

If you think you are ready, then let's proceed.

ENVIRONMENT

“Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking.”

― Steve Jobs

If you'll look closely and carefully study human behavior of our society, most people use "Loyalty" not because out of love but because of control. Don't you agree? I know you do.

I don't have to cite examples actually. You've felt it your entire life. Look around you. Every single person, teacher, guru, family,  school, religion, organization or group always demands loyalty. Most people's definition of loyalty that you see around you stems not from love but from fear, hate, jealousy, control and insecurity.

Also in the media, it is portrayed that if you are not loyal you are banished and people will look at you and label you negatively. It's very obvious that loyalty is mostly abused in religion, relationships and the business world to gain control and that is not love.

Don't get me wrong. It's okay to be loyal it helps organizations like, school, army, government or small groups to be organized. Be loyal all you want, but make sure you are loyal because you want to, not because you felt guilty or indebted to a person or a group. Because, once you feel uncomfortable committing or being loyal that means you are acting out of fear and not of God's love. Think about it.

Remember, the ego wants control. It demands loyalty to people. Because the ego is afraid to be alone. It needs to validate and prove something. Control comes from fear. As Yoda put it, Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to the dark side.   

“If you wish to control others you must first control yourself” 

― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

HISTORY

“In the 17th chapter of Saint Luke it is written the Kingdom of God is within man, not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men, in you, you the people have the power!”

-Charlie Chaplin

In my years of research and study of thousands of spiritual literature, I've learned that in ancient times, people were trained to give oaths and promises to be loyal Only to God's principles and virtues- such as love, forgiveness, compassion, oneness and all those high ideals.

And with this kind of mindset, people are able to maintain harmonious relationships. Because they need only to be loyal to God's ideals.

In the bible Colossians 3:11, it said that "Christ is all, and is in all." that means God is loyal to everyone of us not just one person or group. Because God is in everything and in everyone.

Which means, they become even more connected to each other because, they only have to be loyal to God and everything of God's creation this in turn unites them all, they become one.

On the other hand.. What happened as the years, decades and centuries passed by, people started to drift away from a higher to a lower form of consciousness from the divine perspective they shifted to the human perspective and started personalizing it and totally forgot the principles and high ideals.

It means that, instead of being loyal to God and it's principles, people started being loyal to external things like persons, groups, organizations and this created all the isms, creeds, religions in our world and that lead to separation- The 'us' against them mentality.

“I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations...I don't think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren't there, but only one person. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?” 

― Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana

LOYALTY IS IMPERSONAL

"It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. 

It is like a stone wasted in the field without becoming part of an edifice."

-Jose Rizal

If you'll be loyal to a group, person or God be loyal to it's ideals. People and Organizations will fade but ideals will stand and live on forever. Within the minds, hearts and lives of the people.

A Leader or an Idol should not be placed on a pedestal or be worshiped. An Idol should be an ideal state of being. Most people forgets the ideal and starts to idolized, objectify a person or organization than to idealized and personify the ideal and embody the vision.

Loyalty is about service and service is about unconditional love. Service to others leads to greatness. That means, when you serve, you love without expecting or demanding anything in return.

Inside of You

All the things that makes you angry and irritated exist only in you.




Nothing in the world can make you feel bad, angry, depressed, irritated, emotional or lonely unless you have trained yourself to be angry and irritated by certain words, conditions and people.


10% is what happens to you 90% is your reaction to it.

When you are not busy actively making yourself miserable, by reacting negatively to people, situations and circumstances, you will be happy.

What makes you unhappy is the programming you got from other people. The beliefs you got with the people or group you associate, the Media, your parents, your neighborhood.

What makes you feel bad is your social conditioning.

We live in a world where the society promotes getting angry, depressed, irritated, criticism, gossiping, judging competition, fear, jealousy, emotional, upset as something normal. How unfortunate.

We can't do anything about other people's belief, but we can do something about our beliefs. We can choose to live in the light or in the dark.

We are all okay. We just allowed other people to put wrong ideas in our heads that's why some of us are suffering.

Maturity

Maturity means nobody is to blame.




You don't blame other people for the irritation, anger, hate, depression, loneliness you feel.


You don't even blame yourself.

Just let it go, focus on what you want and you will be free.

It's all in your head

All the things that makes you angry and irritated exist only in you. 

Nothing in the world can make you feel bad, angry, depressed, irritated, emotional or lonely unless you have trained yourself to be angry and irritated by certain words, conditions and people.

10% is what happens to you 90% is your reaction to it.

When you are not busy actively making yourself miserable, by reacting negatively to people, situations and circumstances, you will be happy.

What makes you unhappy is the programming you got from other people. The beliefs you got with the people or group you associate, the Media, your parents, your neighborhood.

Competition

"I don't create some loser alter-ego just to make myself feel better."
-Angelo

Competition has brought more misery than victory. Instead of everybody succeeding only one makes it. Being the best at the expense of another does not benefit the world but yourself.

Companies, institutions and teachers insist on this kind of limiting belief that somehow in some hokus-pokus way they will be able to bring out 'the best' in people, It simply cannot. It just brings out more of their Ego for their benefit. Not because everybody is doing it, it is right.

A true Leader does not instill competition in people only a Boss does that. A true Leader teaches Unity, Teamwork, Cooperation.

Cooperation creates more winners than losers. Through unity there is speed of progress.

Anomalies

"We routinely look for patterns in the world that confirm the paradigms we already believe in. The things that do not fit our paradigms- the anomalies- tend to be ignored or explained away. In truth, anomalies themselves contain the richest information. They often reveal to us the flaws in our paradigms and open up new ways of looking at the world."




"They (anomalies) often represent the future, but to our eyes they seem strange. By studying them, you can illuminate this future before anyone else does."




- Robert Greene

Be Happy

"If you want to know what it means to be happy, look at a flower, a bird, a child; they are perfect images of the kingdom. For they live from moment to moment in the eternal now with no past and no future. So they are spared the guilt and anxiety that so torment human beings and they are full of the sheer joy of living, taking delight not so much in persons or things as in life itself. As long as your happiness is caused or sustained by something or someone outside of you, you are still in the land of the dead. The day you are happy for no reason whatsoever, the day you find yourself taking delight in everything and in nothing, you will know that you have found the land of unending joy called the kingdom."- Anthony de Mello

De Mello

Here are some of my favorites from Anthony De Mello.





“Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture. To acquire happiness you don't have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does anybody know why? Because we have it already. How can you acquire what you already have? Then why don't you experience it? Because you've got to drop something. You've got to drop illusions. You don't have to add anything in order to be happy; you've got to drop something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It's only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From having identified with all kinds of labels!”




“As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. … That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life… Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.”




“"I have no fear of losing u, for you aren't an object of my property, or anyone else's. I love you as you are, without attachment, without fears, without conditions, without egoism, trying not to absorb you. I love you freely because I love your freedom, as well as mine.”




“People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.”




“If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.” “I know. An overwhelming passion for it.” “No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.”




“When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself.”




“When you come to see you are not as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you are wiser today.”




“the tragedy of an attachment is that if its object is not attained it causes unhappiness. But if it is attained, it does not cause happiness – it merely causes a flash of pleasure followed by weariness, and it is always accompanied, of course, by the anxiety that you may lose the object of your attachment.”




“Any time you are with anyone or think of anyone you must say to yourself: I am dying and this person too is dying, attempting the while to experience the truth of the words you are saying. If every one of you agrees to practice this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise.”




“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.”




“Perfect love casts out fear. Where there is love there are no demands, no expectations, no dependency. I do not demand that you make me happy; my happiness does not lie in you. If you were to leave me, I will not feel sorry for myself; I enjoy your company immensely, but I do not cling.”




― Anthony de Mello, Awareness




“You see persons and things not as they are but as you are. ”

― Anthony de Mello

The Cowboy's Lasso

“And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.”
― Libba Bray, The Sweet Far Thing




If you are in the process changing a certain area of your life, like a bad habit or a challenging situation, to something better than it used to and somehow it seems that instead of changing, to your surprise, the problem keeps on happening over and over again.

The reason is because, you keep on putting your attention into the bad habit or the problem. Maybe you have unconsciously allowed yourself to keep on talking about it, venting it our with other people,  sarcastically or in a joking manner or maybe secretly complaining about it in your mind.

Another is maybe, you have unconsciously drawn it to you by being self-righteous and seeing the problem in other people and giving them unsolicited advice. Or maybe, you have unconsciously drawn it to you by watching movies, joining organizations or group activities or trainings/seminars or shows that has the same theme as your problem or bad habit.

Remember, your thoughts and feelings have power. Where you place your thoughts, words and feelings you draw it back to you. 

Most people like to change for the better but they are like cowboys.

What I mean by this, is that cowboys uses a lasso for a purpose-> to 'pull something’ towards them.

And most people, most of the time have unconsciously allowed themselves to act like cowboys, who draws a lasso to pull an animal towards them.

That is what most people do whenever they put their attention to a problem or a bad habit, they pull it back to them. That's why they have a hard time changing. They want to change but they keep on pulling it back to them like a lasso.

Changing is easy. The best way for you to change is you say goodbye to the problem or the bad habit and leave it, forever and never look back. Like a love story that is not working out for you anymore, you have to say to it, "I am breaking up with you(problem/bad habit), this is not going to work anymore. I love you, Goodbye." And you move on and place your attention only on what you want in thoughts, feelings, words and actions-> and keep it there.

Keeping it there means not thinking, seeing, feeling or talking about it anymore with yourself, friends or colleagues. And to only think, see, feel and talk about the things you want to happen in your life.

Research has shown, that the mind do not recognize what is real from what is imagined. That means, whatever you think or feel the universe brings it into form and you attract it back to you.

The universe do not care if you are a good or bad person it is indifferent, just like gravity. the Law of Attraction and Vibration states that whatever you think and feel you draw it back to you just like a magnet.

We have to see people and the world the way  God sees it. Which is to only focus on the good and magnify it and let the negativity falls away.

We've all heard the sayings...

"Where you put your focus on you get more of that."

"Man becomes what he thinks about."

"As a man thinks in his heart so is he."

But how many people do really understand it?