My Thoughts on Life

Having read and studied various thought systems (philosophical, religious, political, scientific), I have somewhat formed an understanding of my own.

I am not refuting any of these other systems. They are valid for those who adhere to them faithfully. I accept certain things, based on my own experiences. These things are varied and don’t belong to one system exclusively.

Some of my insights might be my own creations, but I may only think so, because I have not yet come across them in any other system in the way I fathom them.

>. Something exists.

>. This “something” is a subtle energetic substance.

>. This “something” is the cause and support of all that can be perceived through the senses.

>. This “something” is behind the life force that is the cause of all the expressions of life.

>. Within this “something” there is the spark of life that finds its expressions in this phenomenal creation.

>. Time is the measurement of movement of objects in space.

>. The expressions of this life force develop over time in space.

>. Our universe is not the only “spacetime bubble” in existence.

>. Intelligence means to support what works most efficiently.

>. Wisdom/proficiency results from experiences gained over a prolonged period of time dealing with the same or very similar issues.

>. Whatever exists now has always existed in some form or another.

 >. Whatever exists has form.

The Reality of Things

The reality of things is that I am not in them. This makes them empty of me. Then, the things can reveal their true nature as they are.

In this freedom they express their true natures. A tree is simply a tree. The sun is simply the sun. No hidden agendas, no hidden motives, no hidden meanings.

Just the magnificence of the thing observed.

The call of a crow. The subtle breeze of air.

Perceptions as they are coming in through the senses, unobstructed by the meanderings of the mind, whether the conscious, subconscious, or unconscious mind. Simply clear perceptions, in whatever state the senses let them into the system.

From the Adhyatma Upanishad

In the cave of the body is eternally set the one unborn. The earth is His body. (Though) moving within the earth, the earth knows Him not. The water is His body. (Though) moving within the water, the water knows Him not. The fire is His body. (Though) moving within the fire, the fire knows Him not. The air is His body. (Though) moving within the air, the air knows Him not. The ether is His body. (Though) moving within the ether, the ether knows Him not. The mind is His body. (Though) moving within the mind, the mind knows Him not. The intellect is His body. (Though) moving within the intellect, the intellect knows Him not. The ego is His body. (Though) moving within the ego, the ego knows Him not. The mind-stuff is His body. (Though) moving within the mind-stuff, the mind-stuff knows Him not. The unmanifest is His body. (Though) moving within the unmanifest, the unmanifest knows Him not. The imperishable is His body. (Though) moving within the imperishable, the imperishable knows Him not. The Death is His body. (Though) moving within Death, Death knows Him not. He, then, is the inner-self of all beings, sinless, heaven-born, luminous, the sole Narayana.

What exists?

Beyond all your beliefs and insights about this universe, there lies the indisputable fact that you exist. You exist, whether you believe in a god or not. You exist, whether you believe in evolution or not. You are here, and so am I.

The mind, when confronted with an effect, tries to find a cause. For example, the sun moves across the sky. Is that truly the case? Humans found out that the rotation of the earth on its own axis is the cause of this apparent daily movement.

The human mind is very busy with finding causes. There is one cause, however, that we will never be able to uncover, and that is the fact that something exists now, and that it has existed before the Big Bang.

This “something” is a rudimentary lifeforce or life-energy that periodically bursts forth in the splendor of creation. It simply exists. And that is where the human mind comes to the end of its search for a cause, because it is the cause. Beyond this rudimentary lifeforce there is no other cause. This lifeforce is not the effect of something or someone. It is the cause of everything that flows from it.

It is also within everything that flows from it, sustaining it, molding it, transforming it. This lifeforce is the cause of you and me. It is the cause of all our beliefs and insights, our feelings, hopes, and dreams.

What is the Truth?

Question: What is the truth?

Answer: The truth about what? Life? Death? Dogs? Cats? Food? People? The planet?

Every aspect of life has its own truth. This truth exists independent of our thinking. We may see a certain truth, a certain value in things, but that does not mean that this is the complete truth.

For example: to some people, the milk is what they see as the most important truth about cows. To others, it is the meat they can bring to market and make a living from. Others like the leather and use it as the basis for their livelihoods.

But what is the ultimate, the highest truth of a cow? That is what we must find out. And we must do the same for all other aspects of life. In all our human endeavors, we must always find out what the highest truth is. This includes our jobs, our professions, our families, our aspirations, our dreams and ambitions.

What is the highest truth in all of them? And also, what is our deepest relationship with these aspects of life? How connected are we? How close are we to life? How much of life do we consider to be a part of us?

We must always inquire and never let up on the search.

About Meaning:

I read a short book, called “The Why Café.” Actually, I read the original in German, when the title was “Das Café am Rande der Welt.” This should have been translated as “The Café at the Edge of the World.”

In it, a diner is confronted with three question written on the back of his menu:

1. Why are you here?

2. Are you afraid of death?

3. Are you leading a fulfilled life?

As the author remarks, these are unusual questions and not found on every café’s menu.

To 1: this question refers to one’s purpose in life. Why are you here on earth? What is your mission? What is the plan for you?

To 2: as long as you have not yet found your purpose in life, you will probably fill your life with substitutes, with things that make you use up your time here on earth, but the nearer to death you come, the more you will experience a sense of desperation for not having found your purpose and for perhaps having wasted your life.

To 3: when you find your purpose in life, your higher mission, then you will lead a truly satisfied life. Without this higher purpose, this deeper meaning, your life will be hollow, and you cannot lead a truly fulfilled life. And you will not be able to contribute in a meaningful way to those around you that you love and that love you.

Consciousness wants to express itself:

It pushes to the fore. It wants to understand. It wants to know more about itself. Consciousness wants to know that it feels something. Consciousness wants to recognize itself in the mirror of the mind.

Without the mind, there is no hope of ever knowing anything. The mind is the mirror where the seer can see itself in the seen.

The seer, the act of seeing, and the seen. That seems to be the whole of existence. And yet, there is more, a bit more. And that is the conscious knowing of it all. It’s the knowing. There is no knower, and nothing known. Only knowing. In a state of suspension. A state of reality, of being, of existing, of ever-fulfilling bliss.

The Wind of Life

We all have the wind of life inside of us. We all can use this wind of life to protect the life that has formed on this planet in this vast universe. The potential for life is never not in existence. It exists, because a universal life force exists that is just dying to express itself in as many forms as possible. It jubilantly bursts forth when given the opportunity and the right environment.

We humans are the highest life form on this planet and are therefore the most capable of making sure life is supported as much as it is humanly possible. Within us blows the wind of life and the same wind of life blows through the other living expressions around us.

Reiki Principles

In the practice of Reiki, we follow principles prescribed by the Meiji Emperor.

We use five principles:
> no anger
> no worries
> be appreciative
> be diligent
> be kind

> No anger means to let go of the past and not to be emotionally attached to any of the situations that you have already encountered in your life.
> No worries means to stop worrying about the future and to take your mind out of the many situations that you might encounter in your future life.
> Being appreciative means to be present to your situation at this moment and to fully accept and cherish it right now.
> Being diligent means to honor every moment and everything that you do when you experience it.
> Being kind means to be non-hurtful and supportive in a mild way in order to further all of life’s expressions.

The first two of these principles deal with letting go of the past and the future respectively.

The other three principles deal with the moment in which you live your life. They give you pointers of how to interact with people and things that you come across on your daily journey.

From the Taittiriya Upanishad:

From the Taittiriya Upanishad:

Humans, in their ignorance, identify themselves with the material sheaths that encompass their true Selves. Transcending these, they become one with Brahman, who is pure bliss.

Comment:

The material sheath is the human body. Identification with the body is also called the ego. The ego is the notion of having had particular experiences relating to this body with its mind and senses. Living as the ego is living in a restricted way, only being concerned with the survival of this body. Ego-centric living is a miserable way of living, full of conflict and fear. It is also a never-ending fight for survival. It is a highly restrictive way of existing, where only the things that relate intimately to oneself are accepted, while everything not intimately connected will be discarded, perhaps in a highly degrading and demeaning way.

Life exists outside of the limits that we humans put on it. There are people who look, think, feel, and act differently from the way we look, think, feel, and act. As long as they are not attempting to force us to accept their way of existing as the “correct” way, we should accept their differences as the way life has evolved over time.

The essence of other people is connected to the same essence that makes us come alive. Water is used to nourish all kinds of fruit trees, whether they carry apples, oranges, or cherries. The same water quenches our thirst, the thirst of cows, and the thirst of birds.

In the same way, the essence within all people is the same. This essence, when experienced consciously, is experienced as the ultimate bliss. This essence has been given different names by different cultures, but it is still only one essence. Water is called many different names in different languages, but its essence remains the same.

"Who am I?"

“Who am I?” That is the question one has to ask oneself all the time. In every situation, there is an opportunity to define what one stands for, what one’s core principles are. One’s character gets revealed in one’s thoughts and actions. To look at the intentions behind one’s thoughts and actions is self-inquiry, self-investigation, the deep search into one’s innermost being.

Are one’s intentions towards self-protection, the protection that does not care what happens to others in the process? Or, are one’s intentions towards making other people’s lives better, helping them cope better with their lot in life?

Selfishness vs. selflessness. Self or other.

Where is the dividing line between the inner – the self, and the outer – the other? Is there even a definite demarcation? Don’t you feel some pain when you have wounded someone in some way? Don’t you feel compassion for someone, when they have come up against hardship in their life?

We are connected in some ways, maybe in more ways than we think. Are we all one, as some beliefs tell us?

The Face of God

Today I read something in the Koran that struck me. The words I read were “the face of God.” That struck a chord with me. I had experienced the face of god myself and I know what it means to look at the face of god. Besides looking at it, seeing it and knowing that it is the face of god, there is this almost overwhelming power “blasting” from it. It is the experience of absolute power.

So, those words in the Koran reminded me of this experience. And I thought to myself, why am I fooling around with experiences of other powers, when I had this absolute experience of the face of god? Absolute power. Raining down on me. Filling me. What else is there left in my life to find?

Liberation

The ego is that which identifies itself with this body, its circumstances, its history. Liberation occurs when awareness separates itself from identification with this ego. You no longer are “this” or “that,” but there is only the awareness of different aspects of life. There is the body, but it is no longer “your” body. There are feelings, but they are no longer “your” feelings. This is not a negation of the body or the feelings. It is just a decoupling of awareness from body, mind, and feelings. There is the experience of freedom from them.

You may ask, who is experiencing this freedom? The entirety of your being is experiencing this freedom and you are constantly amazed how beautiful life truly is. You do not have a “stake” in this life anymore. You are living it, but more in the sense of stepping into a river and being carried along by it. There is love of life and there is inner stillness.

The Four Goals of Life

Life needs to be celebrated, constantly, jubilantly, quietly, exorbitantly, masterfully; with dignity, highest respect, always upwards towards something higher, higher ambitions, purer, more essential, to the point, honestly, truthfully, non-hurtfully, sensitively, in an open and accepting way.

The goals life wants to achieve are fulfilling on so many levels of a person’s being. Happiness resides in these achievable goals. There is constant, uninterrupted striving towards these goals at every stage of one’s life.

The driving force behind these goals is curiosity about how things are and what they could be. What are the possibilities one an uncover? How many creations can one produce? How many paintings, novels, songs, etc. can flow from a person’s creative impulses?

These four goals are generally listed in order in which they appear on a Vedic Astrological Chart: Dharma – Artha – Kama – Moksha: Law – Wealth – Pleasure – Liberation.

Dharma is a kind of driving force behind a person’s individual choices and actions. These are the core drives, e.g., what environment one feels most comfortable in, what people one surround oneself with, the basic thoughts that go through one’s mind.

Artha is the material resources we need to exist in this life. How well do we live? How much material comfort do we surround ourselves with?

Kama is the enjoyment we experience while on this earth. What are the pleasures we enjoy and who do we enjoy them with?

Moksha is the end of things, the endings of our undertakings. How well are we able to renounce our attachments to the things we strove towards with our Dharma, that we accumulated through Artha, and that we enjoyed through Kama, because, ultimately, all our undertakings bring about an evolution in spirit, which exists beyond material things.

There is love for life, all of it, with its ups and downs, valleys and peaks, triumphs and defeats, successes and failures, tragedies and happy endings, highs and lows, and everything in between.

There is the celebration of life, with its heartbreaks and reunifications, empowerments and enslavements, material successes and spiritual enlightenments.

Religious Tenets

The tenets of every religion are declarations of war. Religious places are not meant to be places of peace. They are places where followers gather to get charged up in their ongoing struggles against the forces of darkness and materialism.

This is especially true with the Abrahamic faiths. In all of them, there is an endgame, where all souls will face a day of judgement, when it will be determined whether they end up – for eternity – in a pleasant place, or in a place of torment.

So, living out their earthly years is really a constant battle people face between the forces of life that promise to bring pleasure right now through indulging in material glitter, or heavenly bliss after having rejected the lure of earthly desires.

Peace can only be experienced when the soul has been completely freed from any material bond and finds itself in a state of eternal purity. A temporary excursion into this pure state can be achieved through deep meditation while one still inhabits this body.

However, the battle for one’s peaceful state of mind begins anew when one is faced again with the forces of life, once one opens one’s senses again to the whispering temptations of the material manifestations surrounding us.

We are all imprisoned

We are all imprisoned in this body. We must be liberated from the down-weighing influences of the body. Our minds must lead us towards the freedom of the higher, unlimited spirit.

Body has its qualities, and there is nothing wrong with those. The body acts on the level of all the other material bodies in existence. There are rules in that material world. There are birth, maintenance, decay, and death. All those rules and tendencies are quite natural.

But, we, the soul, are imprisoned in this body and are struggling to get free. This struggle has been going on since we were born. We want to express who we are, our inner truth of our being.

We search for this freedom everywhere. Some of us find it, most of us do not, in this life. But, regardless of whether we are aware of this search for freedom or not, it goes on in all of us, and even in spite of us. The spirit never rests. We may sleep during the night and become unaware of what is happening, but inside of us, there is constant evolution toward the freedom of the soul.

We humans are not the only living species on this planet that desires to find liberation. Other species have the same naturally inborn tendency. When we get the chance to assist others in finding liberation, we must step up and provide help and guidance.

Freedom is what we all seek. Or: freedom is all we seek.

Improving Life

We, and that truly means everyone of us, must make efforts to improve the conditions of life.

These efforts are really twofold: a) improve ourselves, and b) improve everything else.

Unless we completely understand our own position in life, we cannot truly have the conviction to go out and improve the conditions of the rest of life.

Often times, we feel inadequate and incomplete in some ways, and we immediately begin by attempting to change our surroundings, by moving the chess pieces around the board. That is not the best way to start. The first question always has to be: “How can I improve myself so that I can find my center again, and with that, my inner strength?” The immediate response should not be: “I am perfect; therefore, you need to change your ways.”

Yes, on some deeper level of existence you are perfect, but so am I. We all are perfect. This equality in perfectness has to be respected by everyone. And if someone acts in ways that cloud this perfectness in any way, then we, all of us, need to bring out this perfection in all of us once again.

Honor and own what you do

Honor every action and own every action. Honor every thought and own every thought. Honor every emotion and own every emotion.

Honor them, because they are your service to the All. Own them, because it is you who are bringing them into the ALL.