In one line: Wow, this is so so good; bring awareness and understanding to yourself and your life to start releasing your programming & attachments and realize that you have everything you need right now, in this moment to be the happiest you’ve ever been.
PROFIT & LOSS:
QUOTE: “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life?” — Matthew 16:26
Feelings from praise are self glorification and promotion — “worldly feelings”; feelings from reading, learning, art are fulfilling — “soul feelings” // the feeling of success, winning a bet, an argument vs enjoying life and what you’re doing (worldly vs soul) // being the boss, popular, people look up to you vs intimacy and companionship (worldly vs soul)
Worldly feelings are not natural, they were invented by society & culture to make us productive and controllable—they don’t produce the joy or happiness one gets when contemplating nature or enjoying time w a close friend—they were meant to produce thrills, entertainment, and emptiness.
Most people are engaged in activities all day long pursuing these worldly feeling consciously or unconsciously, addicted. When you observe this you will see how we attempt to gain the world and in the process lose our soul.
DISCIPLESHIP:
The main source of unhappiness is the false beliefs we hold which are so widespread we don’t even question them
We have been programmed to trust the assumptions put into us from our traditions, culture, society and if we’re not happy, we’re trained to blame ourselves instead of our programming
Most people are like the person in a dream who has no idea they’re dreaming—so unhappy don’t even know they’re unhappy
There is not a single moment in your life when you do not have everything you need to be happy. You are unhappy because you’re focused on what you do not have rather than on what you have right now
Happiness is not in the future, it’s today; if we see through the games and the programming, we can be happy now.
We squander so much energy trying to rearrange the world; the world and people around you don’t determine happiness, your thinking does; you cannot find happiness in the world outside of you
Your desires and attachments make you tense, frustrated, nervous, insecure and fearful—make a list of all your desires and say to yourself “deep down in my heart I know that even after I got you I will not get happiness.” Don’t mistake pleasure and excitement for happiness.
If you wish to have lasting happiness you must be ready to hate your father, mother, even your life and leave all your possessions…not by renouncing them because what you give up violently you are forever blind to….but by seeing them for the nightmare they are and then even if you keep them, they will have lost their power to hurt you and you will be out of your dream, the darkness, your fear, your unhappiness
THE EXTRA MILE:
We have programming for everything in our lives that we had little to no say in and we carry that computer around with us everywhere we go and when life, people, or our ourselves don’t meet expectations, negative emotions are generated that cause suffering, so we then try to rearrange the world and control things to our liking to meet the demands of our “computer”.
Only after you have rid your negative emotions can your actions come from peace and love vs the neurotic desire to appease your computer to get rid of the negative emotions it generates
QUOTE: “If a man wants to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. If a man in authority makes you to one mile, go with him two.” — Matthew 5:40-41 (the real oppression doesn’t come from those who want to fight you in court or authority that may want to control or denigrate you, but from your computer whose programming destroys your peace of mind the moment outside circumstances fail to conform to its demands.)
HE WENT AWAY SAD:
Society and culture taught us we cant be happy without certain things or people; once we belief this we develop attachments to things and people, convinced we can’t be happy without them, leading to emotional dependence; and once you have these attachments you have to maintain them which leaves little energy for enjoying life; these things create pleasure, not happiness
QUESTION: Each time you are anxious or afraid, is it because you may fail or lose something you’re attached to? When you’re jealous or you’re worried someone may make off with one of your attachments?
Almost every negative emotion you experience is the direct result of an attachment
In order to be genuinely happy there is only one thing you need to do: get deprogrammed and get rid of your attachments
An attachment isnt a fact. Its a belief acquired through programming and the fantasies you create in your head
To each of your attachments say: “I am not really attached to you at all. I am merely deluding myself into the belief that without you i will not be happy.”
THE EYE OF A NEEDLE:
Attachment is the core route of our unhappiness; it’s an emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing or person you cannot be happy; it makes you vulnerable to emotional turmoil and therefore threatens your peace
The tragedy of attachment is that when not attained it causes unhappiness, but if attained it doesn’t cause happiness–it causes a flash of pleasure followed by weariness and the anxiety you may lose the object
There is no way to win the battle of attachments other than dropping them
False belief: without this person or thing you will not be happy
Second truth: if you just enjoy things refusing to attach, you are spared the emotional strain or protecting them. You can enjoy people and things without attaching to them
Third truth: if you learn to enjoy the scent of 1000 flowers, you will not cling to one or suffer when you cannot get it; attachment prevents us from developing a wider and more varied taste for things and people
Attachments can only thrive in the darkness of illusion; the rich man cannot enter the kingdom of joy not because he wants to be bad but because he chooses to be blind
NOWHERE TO GO:
Would you rather have company in prison or walk the earth alone?
It’s only when we let those who are special be free to think their thoughts and completely be themselves and be free that we can truly love; it’s at that point that they become lovely like a symphony or the trees or all things beautiful. There’s no more clinging or attachment.
BRING IN THE POOR:
Negative emotions and feelings toward others tells us more about ourselves than it does others; by engaging with those who really bother us, we can learn about ourselves and open up our heart to all beings without judgment or negativity
Are you in charge of the situation or is it in charge of you? The way to be in charge is to be in charge of yourself
BLIND CAN SEE:
QUOTE: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” — John 9:39
Love is not blind, attachment is
Love does not exclude anyone or anything
Our attachments, fears, and glass beliefs serve as a filter between life’s symphony and our conscious mind; we pick and choose what serves them and discard the rest; it’s only once we’ve dropped those that we will no longer be deaf and blind to reality
HEAVEN AT HAND:
Why do we assume the wild vibrations of our heart and emotions are normal and standard?
If you want to reform your heart, recognize four truths:
- You must choose between your attachment and happiness
- Where did your attachment come from? You weren’t born with it
- If you want to be fully alive you must develop a sense of perspective — you will live long enough to see that whatever it is upsetting you, you will not remember
- Nothing outside of you has the power to make you happy or unhappy
WHAT MUST I DO?
Think about life as a symphony; the moment we can hear all The instruments is the moment we have let go of attachment and are truly focused on the present
“when you and I met, happiness arose.” — don’t manipulate people by saying they make you happy bc that is attachment; the symphony of life plays in all your encounters when there is no attachment
What you need is not renunciation but understanding and awareness; that your attachments cause suffering and sorrow
QUOTE: “Master, what is it that I must do to get eternal life.?” – Matthew 19:16 (by letting go of attachments we can live in the eternal now)
NO STONE WILL BE LEFT:
Our brains can become covered in layers of fat–dull, lazy, unable to think clear, we just go to sleep
We should have been taught to scrape away these layers growing up but instead were taught not to notice
- First layer: beliefs (ie: capitalist, religious, liberal, etc.)
- Second layer: ideas (our ideas of who people are and how they should act and the labels)
- Third layer: Habits (limit to things mechanical, not to love or sight; “a fisherman looks at the ocean daily and does not notice it’s grandeur. why? The dulling of a layer of fat called habit)
- Fourth layer: attachments and fears
How can we break out:
- Realize the prison walls encapsulating us, our mind has gone to sleep
- Contemplate the walls — spend hours observing your ideas, habits, attachments and fears without any judgment or condemnation — they will crumble
- Observe the things and people around you — see them without your ideas and beliefs about them
- Sit down quietly and observe how your mind functions — the steady flow of thoughts, feelings and reactions — the unaware life is not living, it’s robotic
HOW TO GIVE:
Two sources of change: the cunningness of your ego that pushes you into making efforts to become something different to glorify itself and the wisdom of nature
The only way to change is through awareness and understanding; understanding of your fears, attachments, unhappiness will cause them to melt away
Happiness only exists in the realm of unself-consciousness; everything else is a thrill, entertainment, etc.
Effort can change behavior but not you
Holiness cannot be desired or consciously pursued
QUOTE: “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” – Matthew 6:3
SERPENTS AND DOVES:
QUOTE: “So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” – Matthew 10:16
Simplicity is wisdom — primitive people and nature, like the dove are simple and wise
Our challenge is to recapture the simplicity and wisdom of the dove without losing the cunningness of the serpentine brain
When you try to go against nature, you damage yourself because it is your very being; most people attempting to improve themselves by going against what their nature demands
So how do we achieve harmony?
- Think of changes in your life and your personality — instead of trying to force it, study, observe, bring awareness and understanding without pushing or forcing things your ego desires (ie: using punishment and reward, discipline and control, sermonizing and guilt, greed and pride, ambition and motivation)
- Think of your body and compare it with an animal in its natural habitat — it’s never overweight, tense except before fight or flight, doesn’t drink or eat what’s bad for it, rests and exercises as needed — all because the animal listens to it’s body and is guided by the body’s wisdom; if your body could speak, what would it say to you?
- Ask yourself how in touch you are with nature — trees, sky, wind, earth, grass, wind, rain, sun, flowers, birds and animals — do you contemplate her in wonder and identify? When you are too long separated from nature your spirit withers because it has been wrenched from it’s roots.
MEN OF VIOLENCE:
Rather than seeking to constantly change ourselves and be self critical, seek self understanding through observation and study, and in that process change will happen naturally. Your awareness will grow and the laws of nature will effectuate change in you without you forcing it.
SHOW NO PARTIALITY:
We are slaves to people; we let them control us because we want to please them and be appraised; we fill the emptiness of our lives by collecting people
How many activities can you count in your life that you engage in simply because they delight and grip your soul? Find them, cultivate them, for they are your passport to freedom and love
The royal road to mysticism and to reality doesn’t pass through people. It passes through the world of actions that are engaged in for themselves without an eye toward profit, success, or gain.
Contrary to popular belief, the cure to lovelessness and loneliness is not company but contact with reality
ONE TEACHER:
“But you are not to be called Rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren.” — Matthew 20:8
Abandon all formulas and teachers and gurus — they create a filter through which you live your life
Once you abandon your formulas, the things you see and experience are not able to be put into words, it is then you will truly start to experience reality
BECOME LIKE CHILDREN:
QUOTE: “Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 18:3
When adults punish kids for speaking the truth and saying feelings we destroy their innocence and the child learns to dissemble
The moment you choose to be like someone else you are no longer yourself
We destroy our innocence by competing, comparing, and conforming to try and be accepted by society — we must break this dependence if we want to truly be ourselves
LOVE ONE ANOTHER:
Think of love as the rose, the lamp or the tree
Stop seeing people aa good and bad and labeling; more unaware and ignorant
The qualities of true love are its indiscriminate, its unconscious, its gratuitous and its freedom
NO LOOKING BACK:
QUOTE: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of god.” – Luke 9:62
Love means to be sensitive to everything and to exclude nothing; think about when you’re in a poor village in a 3rd world country and the feeling you have, love often comes to the surface
Do good without expecting anything in return or anyone to know
Our beliefs and our attachments are what block out sensitivity, harden us; we have preset views and labels we put on everyone and everything; our labels are like a pilot who operates with last weeks weather report
We drop attachment by observing the rottenness, the corrupt nature of an attachment. We generally concentrate on the thrill, the flash of pleasure it brings. But contemplate the anxiety, the pain, the unfreedom; simultaneously contemplate the joy, peace and freedom that they are yours each time an attachment drops.
Our society is built on praise, acquisition, status, attachments, greed, anxiety — let go of it all
Philoso-Feed 