#31: Choices

Hi Everyone,

What choices can you make today that will give you a different tomorrow?

The French Existentialist Simone De Beauvoir wrote: “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”

For me, this is important because it is too easy during this pandemic to put everything on hold and binge watch a series of shows. But this does not help us very much.

What can you do today that will benefit you in the future?

How can you help your mind? Can you read more? Can you watch a documentary?

How can you help your emotions? Can you journal more? Can you practice gratitude? Can you be helpful to someone in some way?

How can you help your body? Can you drink more water? Can you go out and take a walk? Can you do some yoga or at least some stretching?

How can you help your spirit? Could you meditate or pray more? Can you read the scriptures of whatever religion you practice? If you are not religious, can you practice mindfulness activities, which means being present in your life?

Guilt comes from the past and anxiety comes from the future. These emotions are not helpful most of the time because they take us away from what is important — paying attention to the present moment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Life is a journey, not a destination.” Right now, amongst many other things, we are on a pandemic journey. It is important to realize that it is not where we will be forever. It is just the experience of now.

If we want a different future from the past, we have to work for it. Otherwise we are simply like a programmed robot, doing the same things over and over, especially the ones that don’t bring happiness.

For example, letting others control us by what they do or do not do is programmed into us. It is a program that only leads to misery because we cannot control other people. It is an illusion.

What choices can you make today that will give you a different tomorrow?

To Choices!

Apophat

#30: Mass Shootings

Hi Folks,

I am trying to think about what I can say about the two recent mass shootings. It is hard to wrap my mind around it. I kid with my wife that I am going to die in a mass shooting because a person got upset by a B instead of an A. I know such people trash me online and I worry about how this plays out in the future.

Why are so many young white guys doing these shootings? Why such rage?

One thing I believe is that someone stuck in their ego are slaves to whatever emotions come up. Many can’t reason or demonstrate self-control and thus act on impulse. My hope comes from the idea that we have egos, but we are not our egos.

Instead, we have a deeper self, often referred to as our True Selves. Finding your True Self requires effort to live in this very present moment. If you get quiet and stay present, this deeper, truer part of yourself emerges. When that happens you don’t have to identify with your ego.

Our True Self is always there, because it is who we were when we were born. Our "false self" or ego develops over time and is probably firmly in place by the time we are 6 or 7 years old. The ego, however, is not the real problem. We need an ego to operate in the world.

The dangerous part is that we forget our true self and become identified with our ego as who we are when it is only a vehicle.

So it is helpful if you can find other people that share in this interest of a true search for one’s Self and Reality. Some books I have found helpful are The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, Loving What Is by Byron Katie and The Way of Liberation by Adyashanti.

If you know these angry, young, white men try to mentor them into seeing the world through the eyes of love. Without love there is no hope. With love there is nothing that can stop us from doing the right thing.

I can’t remember where I found this quote, but it says: “Quiet reflection is often the mother of deep understanding. Maintain that peaceful nursery, enabling stillness to speak.” Stillness speaks to our true self. The ego is too loud to hear.

I encourage you to protest, write letters, and do whatever you can to put a stop to these mass shootings. But keep in mind that your greatest gift to the world is to allow your True Self to manifest and transform your consciousness so that it is full of compassion and wisdom, “the two wings of love” as the Persian poet Rumi said.

May we move past these horrible events,

Apophat

#29: Violence against Asian Americans

Hi Folks,

I want to address the violence against Asian-Americans. It is so important that we become anti-racists. We must take a stand. Abraham Joshua Heschel said that “we are not all guilty, but we are all responsible.”

One of favorite poets, Mary Oliver, wrote: “Tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Well it seems to me that fighting for justice is one way to spend “your one wild and precious life.” What does that mean? What can you do? As individuals we often feel powerless.

For me, first, comes always the need to grow and expand my consciousness because only that will end the racism that plagues are society. This is best accomplished through meditation and mindfulness practices.

Second, we could imitate South Africa, where 10% of the population that was White controlled 90% of the Blacks. One thing they had going for them was Nelson Mandela. He established the Truth and Reconciliation” committee. This was a place where Blacks could express their anger and outrage, and issues of compensation discussed.

We need to do this in the United States as well. We rebuilt Europe after World War II under what was called the Marshall Plan. If we can rebuild Europe and Japan too, then surely, we can have another “Marshall Plan” dealing with racism.

One example in our own country, was that soldiers benefited from the GI Bill. This allowed soldiers returning from their service to buy their first house with no down payment and low interest. They could also go to college and/or other programs of training. These actions created the greatest middle class in world history. We could do that simply because we have done it before.

Philosophy asks that we think for ourselves. We study issues and make up our own minds. We cannot do everything, but we can pick one thing. For example, I support financially Bryan Stevenson’s work with the Equal Justice Initiative. This is the battle against the Prison Industrial Complex, what many are calling The New Jim Crow, which is the name of a powerful book by Michelle Alexander.

What will you commit to? Define what you are for and not just what you are against.

So, “Tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

I send my best wishes to each of you and hope you will stay healthy and in touch!

Apophat