Guest guest Posted June 5, 2002 Report Share Posted June 5, 2002 Tue, 04 Jun 2002 09:29:29 -0700 Peggy Jentoft <skygreen Meditation of the week Meditation of the week The Truth Is In Here Wow Peggy, that was truly inspired...Thank you so very much. Walk in peace with love, Colleen > What we believe and the truth can be two different things. Sometimes we may believe things because they meet our emotional needs. If I am in the business of having an enemy, it serves me to believe all manner of uncomplimentary things about him. If I plan on bombing his cities, I had better believe that all of his people and their children are evil, stupid, worthless or bad in some other ways. How can I bomb a city if it contains innocent children, people with beautiful hearts and minds, genius artists and poets, and servants of goodness and compassion? I couldn’t think well of myself if I were to kill such people, whether the bomb was strapped to my body or delivered from miles away. Slaveholders had this problem too. If my prosperity depended on the enslavement of black people, I had better believe that they were inferior. It would’ve been best to believe that they couldn’t compete intellectually or morally and that they didn’t really want the things that I wanted. It would’ve been best to believe that the people I enslaved didn’t really feel the same kind of feelings I did. Maybe they didn’t smell nice also. Racism always has an agenda other than the truth. If you have a war to win, it helps to think your enemy is subhuman. For bonus points you believe they don’t value human life like you do. If you haven’t got much going for you in the sense of lifestyle, it helps to have somebody lower on the social scale you can point down to. It feels better to not be the bottom of the social barrel. It is amazing how when an employee goes on worker’s comp the employer can begin to believe that formerly excellent employee was always a bit of a secret slacker. When a marriage breaks up, the ex-husband or ex-wife, who was once hot stuff and the one true lover, becomes a no good, lying, avaricious and lazy evildoer. Circumstances change and people’s behavior does change with them, but some of the time, the unflattering belief about someone is formed out of the agenda it serves, rather then out of objective truth. While we may remember with intense detail when we were treated unkindly, we likely have no recollection of when we were mean or unkind to family or friends. Some victims plan for years what they will say to their abusers when the time is right, and then the perpetrator acts like nothing ever happened, perhaps because they don’t believe anything did. Nobody likes to think of themselves as evil wreckers of lives, so the objective truth and its memories may be jettisoned. Beliefs and perception are shaded by our emotional habits. We learn some beliefs and ways of viewing the world from parents and teachers and some we get from the moral giants who run the entertainment media conglomerates. Some beliefs we just pick up along the way in life, and some we may make up because they suit us. While a certain amount of denial may actually be helpful to us as we make our way in the dangerous endeavor of human life, we are usually best served by honest perception and belief in the truth. We can also take the position that most of what we know about ourselves and others is likely delusion anyway, so why be attached to our understanding of it? The worst evil and ignorance may come from people who are convinced that they have a monopoly on the truth. Perhaps the wise way is to seek truth with the reservation that we may not get it, speak truth as we understand it, and hold our beliefs with the relaxed hand that is able to grasp tightly or let go as events require. Practice: Think about what you believe. If you were to write a personal creed, a statement of belief, what would it include? How do you know the truth about your beliefs? Have you reasoned them out? Have you had personal experiences? Do you accept your beliefs based on the authority of church, scripture, or some other supposed to be correct source? What do you believe about yourself? Do those beliefs serve you well? Do they serve the truth? What beliefs do you hold that exist to support your emotional well-being? Do you have flattering or unflattering beliefs about yourself that may realistically be inaccurate, but that help your world make more sense if you believe them? Where is your belief system rigid? Practice trying on the perspectives of those who disagree with you. See life from the point of view of people you might consider enemies. Grow in understanding and compassion and you may find that you have no more enemies. -- http://solarraven.com/ Huna, Crystal healing, Reiki manuals, mandalas, Energy Work Classes http://home.attbi.com/~skygreen/index.html / Spirited emotion} http://members.tripod.com/~sunsparrow/index.html --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.362 / Virus Database: 199 - Release 5/7/02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 5, 2002 Report Share Posted June 5, 2002 Colleen Benson wrote: > Tue, 04 Jun 2002 09:29:29 -0700 > Peggy Jentoft <skygreen > Meditation of the week > > Meditation of the week > > The Truth Is In Here > > Wow Peggy, that was truly inspired...Thank you so very much. > > Walk in peace with love, I don't write these they come from another list and are written bya group called cybermonks Peggy -- http://solarraven.com/ Huna, Crystal healing, Reiki manuals, mandalas, Energy Work Classes http://home.attbi.com/~skygreen/index.html / Spirited emotion} http://members.tripod.com/~sunsparrow/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Meditation of the week Oneness Flowers have petals and each petal is an individual. Trees have leaves and each leaf is an individual. Humanity has people and each person is an individual. The petal and leaf separate from the rest of the flower or tree wither and die. We do not stand alone. We individuals are a part of the whole. The tree needs the sun and the rain and the earth. It responds to wind and fire. It gives shelter and food to other living things. It is not a tree alone, It is part of the ecosystem That is part of the world That is part of the universe. The sun and the tree are one. The tree and the squirrel are one. The tree and the boy carving his initials in its bark are one. We can go through life feeling separate. We build our ego defenses and protect our toys and territories. We make a name for ourselves. We expound our truths. And what we get for it is loneliness, alienation, conflict and disagreement. When I claim this toy as mine, I invite you to take it. When I stake out my territory, I invite you to step over the line. When I claim to be leader of the pack, I invite challengers to test me. Big ego invites conflict and disagreement. Little ego gives nothing to fight against. When we speak the truth, others listen. When we claim to own the truth, others observe the lie. Each of us is precious. Each of us is unique. Each has strengths and talents to develop. We have our gifts and our flaws, and we each contribute to the whole. We are individual and we are one. Seek awareness of your connections. Think about what makes you uniquely you And what makes you like others. Think of what makes your life possible. Consider what you contribute to the whole. Sit quietly and appreciate your oneness with all that is. Leave behind words, judgments, categories and boundaries. Be one. ________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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