Everyone has experiences, thoughts, frustrations, desires, fears, reactions that are accepted to be ‘just part of who I am’, and we build entire relationships, friendships, families, societies, laws, rules, governments based on compromise, control, punishment, manipulation, fear – finding a way to get by, to live, to have some measure of stability within the acceptance that ‘nobody is perfect’, and ‘it’s all part of being Human’.
We create tv shows, movies, books, magazines, that showcase the way we respond with emotions, feelings, thoughts, desires, fears, judgments, reactions of all kinds – to the behavior of each other, and we relish entertainment that enables us to identify and relate to certain characters and groups and ‘live through them’:
The ‘wronged’ character
The ‘vengeful’ character
The ‘beautiful’ character
The ‘sexy’ character
The ‘successful’ character
The ‘leader’ character
The ‘rich’ character
The ‘holy’ character
The ‘righteous’ character
The ‘hero’ character
The ‘moral’ character
The ‘spiritual’ character
The ‘scientific’ character
The ‘underdog’ character
The ‘misunderstood’ character
The ‘redemptive’ character
The ‘loved’ character
The ‘caring’ character
The ‘brave’ character
The ‘intelligent’ character
The ‘logical’ character
The ‘messed up’ character
(insert more characters here)
We judge each other in small ways every single day – whether real people in our lives or characters in our entertainment, we feel judged, we feel offended, we feel wronged, we feel mistreated, we feel entitled, we feel righteous, we feel right, we feel defensive, we feel angry, we feel wrathful, we feel annoyed, we feel frustrated.
We find something to believe in which we then defend, protect, and dedicate our lives to pursuing and fulfilling:
god
science
love
light
bliss
happiness
heaven
success
entertainment
family
legacy
pleasure
luxury
sex
We are billions of people that share the same physical substance, the same life essence, the same physical and educational needs.
Some of us exist within cultures, relationships, education systems, family systems, in which there are those who are willing to die and kill for their beliefs, for their feelings, for their thoughts, for their interests, for their desires, for their idea of what is right and wrong.
We see these people as evil, as terrorists, as the worst people on Earth. We struggle to understand how it will ever stop.
We also see rapists, murderers, thieves, criminals, drug lords, politicians, as bad, dishonest — the ‘problem’ with our world.
But, isn’t all this evil behavior the product of thoughts, feelings, emotions, beliefs, ideas, judgments, opinions?
And, don’t we all actually participate in the same things?
When we’re watching the movie and we want to get revenge for what has been done to the character we identify with…
When we’re reading the magazine and judging the way all the people look as either positive or negative / good / bad
When we’re talking about politics or religion, or science, or philosophy, or spirituality, and we get defensive, frustrated, annoyed, irritated, angry, argumentative…
When we think about hurting someone, yelling at someone, how someone else is so wrong, and we are so right…
When we react to someone in blame, annoyance, frustration, judgments — we we get angry and yell at someone when they do something that was not according to our expectation, preference, upbringing, education…
When we believe in a heaven and want to go there – and would willingly leave the entire world behind, with all the suffering that exists…
When we see and experience and care about only that which makes us happy, or that which we believe in, and are willing to dedicate our entire life to the sole pursuit of that one thing — even as millions around us, in the same world we are in – suffer without the means to live in dignity…
When we yell at our children and judge them as inferior, and repeat our beliefs and values to them until they say ‘yes mom’, or ‘yes dad’ and prove to us that they have been successfully programmed to follow us as their authority figure?
When we laugh at a politician or someone else which we don’t like, and would gladly see them suffer, or humiliated, or even killed?
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This is the reality of ourselves. We are all contributing every day to the current reality of Human Nature. We are keeping our nature alive, through acceptance and allowance.
Blame is not a solution, war is not a solution, punishment is not a solution, hopelessness is not a solution, turning a blind eye is not a solution, happiness is not a solution, sex is not a solution, dying and going to heaven is not a solution, depression is not a solution, escaping is not a solution, coping is not a solution, waiting is not a solution.
And, obviously – participating in the same patterns that some of us in this world take to violent extremes — is not a solution.
Can terrorism ever end as long as the majority of Human Beings participate in judgment, reactions, blame, emotional behavior? If we continue as such – we simply perpetuate further generations of individuals and groups who will inevitably take those patterns to the extreme.
I forgive myself that I have not accepted and allowed myself to realize that the solution to this world is not ‘saving the world’, or ‘killing our enemies’, but in taking responsibility for my individual mind / behavior / patterns, and to demonstrate how it’s possible to change myself in the day to day, moment to moment reality – including the reality of the space inside my head where I’m ‘alone’ – which is where the actual truth of me is shown.
I forgive myself that I have not accepted and allowed myself to realize how it’s not about being ‘positive’ and spreading ‘nice words and feelings’ — because those nice words and feelings are simply existing within the polarity design of ‘positive / negative’ ‘high / low’, ‘happiness / fear’ — in the mind, which is the same design that every human is participating in right now according to their individual self interest – even the terrorists.
I forgive myself that I have not accepted and allowed myself to realize that changing myself is not impossible, but that I have simply not realized and seen the tool of Self Honesty and Self Forgiveness, which I can use to deconstruct and release myself from patterns, so that I can then investigate what is the actual practical, effective way of living in relation to friends, family, money, career, culture, entertainment, interests, etc — instead of being directed by programming as thoughts, feelings, and emotions based on judgments, desires, fears, fantasies coping mechanisms – that I didn’t even remember how I created.
I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to be scared by the long and wordy blog above, instead of seeing and realizing that, just like anything where you develop a skill / learn something new – you don’t start at the end – you start at the beginning and take it one step, one day at a time.
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And, for you readers – I commit myself to share more examples from my own process of changing myself in the ‘day to day’ reality of myself.