Let no man pull you low enough to despise him.
Wisdom
Categories
Silent Wisdom
Category: WISDOM
Being open-minded is critical for your growth. If you cannot exist open-minded, then you do not possess your ideas, your ideas possess you. Opening yourself to the possibility that you are wrong may make you feel vulnerable, but it is empowering because this is how we learn. When you are not willing to be challenged, disturbed or offended, you are not willing to explore your weaknesses or ever claim the potential of greater strengths. Challenge yourself. Be defiant; defy yourself. Challenge authority; the authority of your rational convictions! Think back to how many times you knew you were right about something or someone, only to find out later in life you had been wrong. This is a common pattern that repeats itself, and at the moment, it is nearly impossible to detect that it is happening. This is the problem with being short-sighted; it is hard to see. We all do this constantly! This is why it is so important to make a conscious and continual effort to be open-minded. Next time you are positively and sure, attempt the practice of releasing surety and opening yourself to the possibility that you are wrong, or that you do not understand the full picture. Open yourself to the possibility that you and your opponent are both right according to your own experiences and worldviews. Take a hard stance for broadness and understanding.
“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished”? – Rumi
Moments of challenge are the greatest blessings in your life; they are your chance for rapid expansion and deepening of your understanding. Whatever makes you uncomfortable is your biggest opportunity for growth. The greater the discomfort, the greater the learning potential. The more something upsets you, the more it is meant for you. When it no longer upsets you, it is no longer needed because the lesson is complete. When turmoil and upset transcend to clarity and resolve, your suffering and the suffering of others take on purpose beyond what seems like senseless pain. Every tragedy has a lesson equal in significance to its heartbreak. How you channel your justifiable upset – positively or negatively – determines the degree to which you waste your life force or mount your verve into the worthy endeavour. And then there is useless common drama, stubbornness, and ignorance. Most of the petty upset we experience is unnecessary reactivity that can and should be tamed. Petty upset is a sign of a crude and unrefined personality, intellect, and spirituality. Petty upset is a sloppy waste of emotional energy; it is toxic and is often an inner-obstacle to seeing reality. Most inner-obstacles are not overcome because they are seen as natural, ordinary and justifiable. You have to understand your inner obstacles for the inhibiting barriers they truly are to move beyond them. The time to evolve and question your emotions is when you are feeling challenged. You cannot practice being open in a moment of no challenge. Don’t be afraid of changing your mind.
“When you follow your bliss … doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else” – Joseph Campbell
Modifying your mind can move you into another dimension. Passages can materialize exposing a hidden world that was there all along. But there is no passage for a closed mind and heart. The expansion of your world, and, your reality – expands and contracts with the arch of your mind and heart. A broad mind and heart inherit a broad and wonderful world; a narrow mind and heart suffocate in the tiny cage of their making. Empowerment is often little more than noticing what was once unnoticed and finding what was always there!
Opening a Closed Connection
If you feel abandoned or cut off from Spirit, know that it is always there for you waiting for you to plug back in.
There may be times when we feel like our connection to the universe is closed. Maybe things don’t seem to be going well in our day, or our lives, or we may feel out of our element. The truth is, the universe is always there for us. We know that we create our experience with our thoughts, and this is another way we need to make a conscious decision about how we want to experience life. It is up to us to do the work of making the connection because nobody can do it for us, though sometimes the universe may send us wake-up calls.
You can think of it as getting some fresh air. We are always breathing and the air is always around us, surrounding us, moving through us. But we may need to step outside of where we are in the moment — physically, mentally, or emotionally — and make the conscious choice to take a deep breath to feel the air coming in and going out. Whether this means stepping outside physically or merely shifting our thoughts, it is only our perception that changes; the air remains the same.
It is just as easy to reconnect with the universe. Using the same technique as a breath of fresh air, a deep breath can bring us back to our centre. As we inhale, we fill our bodies with the oxygen needed to replenish our most basic physical needs, allowing the air to circulate within us. Exhaling, we release the stale, the used, the potentially toxic air, removing any blocks that may keep us from going deeper into the stillness that lies at our centre where we connect to the universe. Feeling closed off does not need to be a negative experience. When we become conscious of it, we can think of the wholeness of a closed circuit, which allows electricity to connect and flow properly. Our bodies work the same way, and when we make that connection in our minds, it can help bring us back to the connection we seek.
This is an open letter to Australian politicians who have allowed our country to become a place I no longer recognise. But you have lost my consent. In fact, I don’t remember you ever asking.
So let me be clear. You DO NOT have my consent to crush our way of life. To criminalise me for going further than 5 kilometres from my home. To set up police checkpoints on our roads – roads that I paid for, when I used to be allowed to work, when I used to be allowed to leave my home without explaining myself to someone in uniform.
You DO NOT have my consent to keep me from my family. To tell me “we are all in this together” while forcing us to stay apart. To lecture me about the morality of seeing people I love or checking in on a neighbour I pass at the shops. To make me “register” to see a friend. What sort of nightmare are you creating?
Who are you to tell me it is “good” to obey you, and “bad” to defy you? To come onto my screen daily and lecture me on my “behaviour”. To position a police officer behind you every time you speak. To hide behind public health officials. To threaten me with jail if I don’t listen. To fly police helicopters over my neighbourhood. To put the “riot” squad and the military on our streets (for our own good, of course). Who are you to decide what is “good” and “bad”, and to enforce your new world order with weapons?
The only type of “bad” I recognise is the powerful forcing the weak to do something against their will.
You DO NOT have my consent to confiscate my right to protest. To paint those who make their voices heard as bad people. To pretend they punch horses. To use the dark tools of propaganda. To tell us they are criminals. What are you really scared of?
This is a hostage situation, dressed in the language of public health. You have created a nasty police state, a dystopian nightmare, an ex-democracy, a petty dictatorship. You are frightened of your own people, and you don’t want them to be heard. You need the media to serve up its daily offering of fear porn. Who knew that you guys would work so well together?
None of you have lost a dollar, of course. None of you have volunteered to stop drawing a salary, to accept $320 disaster payment instead of making a living. You are the worst type of hypocrites, lecturing on the morality of a pain you do not share.
And now you encourage us to call the police on each other? To be a nation of dobbers. To distrust our neighbours. How deep are the scars you are creating?
You DO NOT have my consent to trap me in this country. To make me seek an “exemption” to leave. To decide where I must live my life. Is there any clearer sign that you have lost the consent of the governed than to force them to stay?
How dare you masquerade as our saviours. Our behavioural masters. Our moral enforcers. Our life extenders. I do not want your “protection”.
You have forgotten what you are. ‘Public servants’. Think about those words. Don’t twist them. Why don’t you let us be the judge of our own safety? Let those who wish to hide, hide? How dare you make these decisions on my behalf. You are destroying our lives in order to save them.
You are no longer ‘public servants’. Instead, you demand the public’s obedience down the barrel of a gun. How have you become convinced that using force to prevent people from moving freely is anything other than criminal?
You are destroying everything I love about this country: our bravery in the face of danger, solidarity between neighbours, the strength to muddle on, the freedom to come and go as we please.
Let’s be clear: there are many who despise you. These are the ones you are trying to silence. These are the ones you are afraid of. They are growing in number and they are enraged by your conduct.
You will never have our trust again. We don’t propose to “put all this behind us” when the pandemic is eventually over. You have broken something beautiful, and it will stay broken long after this is gone.
Categories
Finding Another Vantage Point
Seeing the world from another perspective can introduce you to all sorts of hidden treasures.
The ocean can look very different, depending on whether you are standing at the shore, soaring above in a plane, or swimming beneath its waves. Likewise, a mountain can look very different relative to where you are standing. Each living thing sees the world from its unique vantage point. While from your window you may be seeing what looks like a huge shrub, a bird in its nest is getting an intimate view of that tree’s leafy interior. Meanwhile, a beetle sees only a massive and never-ending tree trunk. Yet all three of you are looking at the same tree.
Just as a shadow that is concealed from one point of view is easily seen from another, it is possible to miss a fantastic view. That is, unless you are willing to see what’s in front of you through different eyes. Seeing the world from another perspective, whether spatially or mentally, can introduce you to all sorts of hidden treasures. The root of the discovery process often lies in finding another way of looking at the world. The common human reaction to insects is one example. Spinning its web in a dark corner, a spider may seem drab, frightening, and mysterious. But seen up close weaving silver snowflakes between the branches of a tree, they can look like colored jewels.
Sometimes, there are experiences in life that from your vantage point may seem confusing, alarming, or worrisome. Or there may be events that look insignificant from where you are standing right now. Try seeing them from another point of view. Bury your face in the grass and look at the world from a bug’s vantage point. Explore your home as if you were a small child. Take a ride in a small aircraft and experience the world from a bird’s eye view. Just as kneeling down sometimes helps you see more closely when you are looking for lost treasure, so can standing back help you appreciate the broader picture of what you are looking at. In doing so, you’ll experience very different worlds.
Proverbs says, “God’s word is like medicine”. When you meditate on it, it brings healing and wholeness. When thoughts whisper, “You’ll always struggle in your finances. This slow-down is going to ruin your business”. Don’t let that virus take root. Say, “Father, thank You that the economy is not my source; You are my source. You said I would prosper even in a desert”. You have the cure. Now make sure you’re taking your medicine!
Categories
The Universe ~
The universe is fully supportive of what you want, but it is up to you to go for it.
There are times in our lives when all the signs seem to be pointing us in a particular direction. Our thoughts and dreams are echoed in the songs and stories we hear and the media we see. Maybe the message we are getting from the universe doesn’t even make sense in the “real” world, but somewhere inside, these urges feel right. Maybe you feel you are being told to move to a new city although your life where you are is just fine. Or maybe you feel the desire to pursue a new direction in your career when it never really interested you before. When we spend time getting in touch with our higher selves, our intuition sends us directives to lead us to become our best and most fulfilled selves. And when we are open and listening, the next step is to take action and go for it.
Once we make the decision to pursue our inner urgings, the universe sets into motion the means for all sorts of details to fall into place. A sense of peace will come over us, because we know that any questions will no longer make us wonder if our dreams are possible, but how to make them happen. Instead of deterring us from our goal, these questions only serve to clarify our focus to move us forward. We need not throw caution to the wind to follow our dream. The positive shift in our energy affects everything around us. Like a rush of water, it goes ahead to clear debris from our path so that we can go forward. Our new attitude also attracts likeminded people. Sometimes even the most unlikely angels arrive to help us along our way with the information and support we need.
Wherever your dreams are pointing you today, take a step. Take action and manifest your inner urges and soul whisperings.
The way to make it good is to not make it bad in the first place!
For just as poets love their own works, and fathers their own children, in the same way those who have created a fortune value their money, not merely for its uses, like other persons
🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼, but because it is their own production. This makes them moreover disagreeable companions, because they will praise nothing but riches – Plato🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼
You must be logged in to post a comment.