Taking the good with the bad....

Do you say, “You have to take the good with the bad”? or “You have to take the bad with the good”?  I caught myself saying, “You have to take the good with the bad” this morning and realized that’s the way I usually say it. 

Saying it that way means the bad is what’s normal and expected and the good is the exception that I have to make an effort to ‘take’ and accept.  I don’t want to think that way - that the ‘bad’ is what’s normal and the ‘good’ is the exception, but I realize that I do. 

I prefer thinking of myself as an optimist, not a pessimist, but apparently, given how often I catch myself saying, “You have to take the good with the bad,” I am a pessimist and my default attitude is that good is the exception and bad, the norm.

Where does that attitude, that pessimism, come from?  Do I apply it uniformly, to everything I experience, or to just somethings?  I think it comes from the political media culture; that the more I watch, listen and read about politics, the less hopeful and more pessimistic I become.  Optimism, on the other hand, seems to be present when I think of us, humanity, as spiritual beings having earthly experiences. 

When I think of humanity’s spiritual reality and earthly potential, I’m both optimistic and pessimistic. Optimistic about what we can accomplish and are already accomplishing in some areas, and pessimistic about what we’re not accomplishing but could; about the gap between our spiritual reality and our earthly performance. So, I’m working at being more mindful and more aware of where I’m coming from and what I’m saying and choosing my reality and optimism over pessimism more often.

If blacksmiths had the power Exon does......

More on Beliefs

“When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Abraham Maslow.

This is about beliefs too, isn’t it?  If I believe I’m the righteous hammer of God, for example, that I’m doing God’s will and following God’s word when I hammer other people—criticize, attack, and worse, then that’s too bad for those other people, but it’s ‘just the way it is.’   After all, who am I to doubt and challenge God’s will?  Indeed, who am I, and who are you?

What if my mental equivalent—my belief about both myself and God’s will, is wrong?  What if it’s not even ‘wrong,’ but just a mistake?  Who has to correct the mistake, me or God?  What’s my ‘free will’ for, anyhow?  And what is God’s will?

Hard to know because many among us do not believe in one God, but in two, God and the Devil. 

Are we created in God’s image and likeness or the Devil’s?  What is our nature as human beings; is it always ‘bad;’ what’s our default, God or the Devil? What does it mean to be created in God’s image and likeness?  Does it mean God thinks, acts and looks like a human being; and if God is like a human being, why is It male and not female?

To me, ‘image and likeness’ means that we partake of God’s creative power, love and compassion; that there is no ‘Devil’, no power in opposition to God; that seeming ‘evil’ is what we experience when we forget our oneness with spirit, mistaking the ego’s nightmare for reality. 

Reality is our oneness with God, and if this is so, then God’s will is for us to manifest that oneness, Its creative power, love and compassion, realizing that seeming evil is only, ‘seeming’, and manifests when we forget who, and what we are. God’s will for us is to make loving, unique contributions to a world that works for everyone and everything, not righteous hammering.

Opinion v Fact

Everyone has a right to their own opinions.  But not their own facts.  Can’t we at least agree on the facts?  That’s what the sign I carry at demonstrations says.  Facts are neutral, not Democratic or Republican; just facts.  Their neutrality provides the glue that holds society together; the common frame of reference we need to communicate and dialogue.  Without facts communication and dialogue are not possible. Corrupting, twisting, shading or straight forward lying about facts makes communication and dialogue impossible.

That’s why it’s so important to be aware of and question our beliefs.  Beliefs always bend and bias facts.  Beliefs make people selective about facts, make us pay attention to only the facts that support our beliefs and discard the rest.  The more invested in our beliefs we are, the more subjective and less objective we are, and the more impossible it becomes to dialogue and communicate with those whose beliefs differ from ours. 

If dialogue and communication are important, then facts are important.  If one does not wish to dialogue or communicate, but simply wants to impose his beliefs on the world, then facts are unnecessary.

In fact, people who simply want to impose their beliefs on the world, dislike, even hate facts.  Such people give lip service to the importance of facts, but really think facts, Science and critical thinking are dangerous. Such people, groups and organizations seek to corrupt facts, muddy the waters, lie, shade and distort facts.  Such people think ignorance is good.  Just be still and go along.  You don’t know what the President knows.  He has the facts.  Trust him. The way we did with Johnson in Nam and Bush with his WMD. Just watch your sports, play your video games and watch the so-called news that isn’t news but opinion. Do anything but get the facts and think about them!

If dialogue and communication are important, then facts are important.  Facts make communication and dialogue possible, without them communication and dialogue are impossible.

Opinion v Fact

Everyone has a right to their own opinions.  But not their own facts.  Can’t we at least agree on the facts?  That’s what the sign I carry at demonstrations says.  Facts are neutral, not Democratic or Republican; just facts.  Their neutrality provides the glue that holds society together; the common frame of reference we need to communicate and dialogue.  Without facts communication and dialogue are not possible. Corrupting, twisting, shading or straight forward lying about facts makes communication and dialogue impossible.

That’s why it’s so important to be aware of and question our beliefs.  Beliefs always bend and bias facts.  Beliefs make people selective about facts, make us pay attention to only the facts that support our beliefs and discard the rest.  The more invested in our beliefs we are, the more subjective and less objective we are, and the more impossible it becomes to dialogue and communicate with those whose beliefs differ from ours. 

If dialogue and communication are important, then facts are important.  If one does not wish to dialogue or communicate, but simply wants to impose his beliefs on the world, then facts are unnecessary.

In fact, people who simply want to impose their beliefs on the world, dislike, even hate facts.  Such people give lip service to the importance of facts, but really think facts, Science and critical thinking are dangerous. Such people, groups and organizations seek to corrupt facts, muddy the waters, lie, shade and distort facts.  Such people think ignorance is good.  Just be still and go along.  You don’t know what the President knows.  He has the facts.  Trust him. The way we did with Johnson in Nam and Bush with his WMD. Just watch your sports, play your video games and watch the so-called news that isn’t news but opinion. Do anything but get the facts and think about them!

If dialogue and communication are important, then facts are important.  Facts make communication and dialogue possible, without them communication and dialogue are impossible.

Beliefs

Idol Worshippers?

A few days ago, I posted about the metaphysics of the Ten Commandments; that there are two levels: the literal, legalistic physical level, where the words mean exactly what they say and the deeper, more philosophical metaphysical level where the words suggest concepts deeper and vaguer than the exact, literal meaning of the physical words themselves.  To me, the concept of one God has similar metaphysics.

On the physical, literal and legalistic level, “one God” means only one God and no others, that we do not worship graven images nor idols made of stone and wood.  But are all idols made of stone and wood? Is it possible that many of us, especially so-called conservatives, who believe they are honoring the concept of one God are really worshipping idols?

A less literal and more metaphysical interpretation of the one God/no idols concept is that anything that might come between God and Its people is forbidden; that things we yearn for, worship and sacrifice for like career, winning, success, fame and fortune may be perceived as idols.  Anything without the attributes of God—love, inclusion, compassion and peace, or that causes us to forget the attributes of God, or to sacrifice the attributes of God, is an idol. Idol worship is forbidden.

On a still deeper metaphysical level, the concept of one God, may be perceived as Oneness itself, that God is all there is, that there is no place that God is not. In this interpretation, nothing is ‘forbidden,’ and the ego nightmare becomes a classroom, with all things being lessons God would have us learn.  As Steinbeck said in East of Eden, the real Commandment is Thou mayest, not, thou shalt not. This is the deepest metaphysical interpretation of the one God concept. 

This is not permission to murder, rob, hurt and abuse other people and things; that would be interpreting Thou mayest and the one God concept at the physical, ego level.  Thou mayest, is not at the physical level. Thou mayest is at the deepest metaphysical level, the level at which we perceive that we, you and I, and everything and everyone, are one, created of the same substance and by the same Creator. The metaphysical level is acting as if we knew that our oneness with God was true and therefore whatever we do to someone or something else, we realize that not only do we do it to ourselves, but we do it to God as well.  All things are lessons God would have us learn means there is only one lesson to learn – God is One, God is all there is, so forgive and be kind as It at the metaphysical level, forgives and is kind.

We exist at both the metaphysical and physical levels simultaneously. We can choose to worship the one God at the deepest metaphysical level, manifesting all Its attributes: love, inclusion, creativity, compassion and peace, or we can choose to worship the one God at the most surfacey physical level, believing that because we go to church and no longer worship graven images and idols of stone and wood that we are not idol worshippers, even as we sacrifice God’s attributes in pursuit of career, winning, success, fame and fortune. 

We all fall into idol worship; that is part of the ego nightmare we call reality.  The thing to do is catch ourselves at it and stop, without blame, guilt, or judgment. When I awake and realize I’m worshipping an idol and begin worshipping God at the deepest metaphysical level instead, without guilt, judgment or blame, seeking to manifest all Its attributes: love, inclusion, creativity, compassion and peace, I make it possible for you to do the same. Try it. Wake up. What would the world be like if we all understood the one God/no idols concept at its deepest metaphysical level…?