I'm sure it's been a long while since I've written on my blog. I finally broke a year long streak. I seem to have taken a side path from picking up. I was in and out of a relationship with Ami last Fall and then we reunited again recently after I finished the Landmark Forum. She's someone that I've been strongly emotionally connected to, but I'm not sure she's the one and I'm not inclined to get married to her. For whatever reason, I'm not sure and I want to be sure. She's pushing the marriage card so hard, that I couldn't commit. So it's time to move on. I've since hooked up with one of my tenants who's fresh out of a marriage. She's now divorced and seems nice, but also seems quite serious. Pursuing a life that's joyful and lighthearted seems more and more difficult as we make our lives more and more complex. I'm not necessarily arguing for making life any simpler, just simply arguing that if we alleviate many of the loose ends in our life, we'll be happier and more joyful. How do we strive to lower our negative energies and increase our positive joyful energies? I think that we need to clear space in our mind and strive for connectedness within our communities and frienships. How many deep long lasting relationships do we truly have? How do we strive for continuing to develop deep and meaningful relationships. What is our life's purpose? How do we strive to live a life that's truly meaningful with acceptance, energy, or enthusiasm in everyhing we do?
What is this life about? I would argue that the Budhist's five hindrances have something to do with living an authentic and meaningful life. Doubt, clinging and wanting / neediness definitely have something to do with prevening us from living an authentic and lighthearted life. More than preventing / not doing what we want, we should stive for a life with open-mindedness, joy, and peace.
What should we strive for to find ultimate happiness? Ultimate happiness is found from being completely present without dwelling on the past / worrying about the future. When you can surrender your ego, you can allow yourself to drop your pain-body. When you can eliminate your wanting and simply be you can find ultimate joy in being. Some would argue that you might stive for wanting what you have vs. wanting what you don't have, but why not simply drop your wanting all together as what we have is all temporary / impermanent?
How can you find comfort and happiness in life? I think by simply being present to each moment and keeping your journey purposeful so you can find that life's growth is organic and purpose will come. It's like the butterfly that evolves or the butterflies that know which flowers to approach to protect their offspring. They find the flower that allows their offspring to survive and protect.
As we enjoy the day, what are we thankful for? I am thankful for this moment, access to warmth, family, and a call today from a great friend of mine. I am thankful for the great education that I have and the opportunity to apply that education to achieve financial independence. I am thankful for the freedom and freewill that I have to explore the mind and body. I am thankful for introspection and the opportunity to care for others. I am thankful that I have the means to provide for others and explore religions. I am thankful for the challenges and breakdowns that occur in life and the lessons that we learn from them. I am thankful for the amazing people that have touched my life. I would have never imagined the possibilities of learning from multiple relationships and careers. I am thankful for the opportunity to have loved and lost. I am thankful for the opportunity to self-actualize having met most of the basic needs in life. I am thankful for the realization that life is about experiences and not any material wealth. The wealthiest are those that know that each moment is their present happiness and that the lighter we live life, the happier we are. I am thankful for the cultures that exist within my life. There's a lot to be thankful for. I appreciate the world we live in. I feel lucky to have been born in a safe and loving world and family.
So what is left? The opportunity to be intimately connected to one's own family goes beyond our nuclear walls. The undevotional love that we can have for humanity can have a lifetime's impact on those that we come in contact with. How do we increase the joy in others that we interact with? How do we find random acts of kindness? Within the walls of Asset-based thinking, ego elimination, and presence, we can find the diamonds in the rough, the greatness in each momemt and present opportunities for love and kindness within our communities and the world. Why limit this loving kindess to our specieis? How can we increase our karmic joy and kindess to spread to all others? I would argue that surrounding yourself with life and compassion can increase your joy and the joy of others.
On to self-compassion. A funny movie I watched recently was The Love Guru. One of the funny lessons was on Intimacy or In To Me I See - very true, right? The first step towards intimacy is within ourselves. Are we comfortable within our own skin? If you cannot find comfort and love within yourself, you cannot find it with someone else / within your family / community. What are the dimensions of self-compassion? These include mindfulness, kindness, and common humanity. Mindfulness in terms of being present, kindness in terms of being kind to others and to yourself, and common humanity in terms of realizing that what happens to you is not unique, but a part of the human condition.
In Loving Kindness,
RMS for GSW
