Living Spiritually - by upma

philosophy - Living Spiritually

Is It Worse or Just Bad?

Painting by James Hubble

It's about time we lightened up a bit around here, don't you think? For a lighter perspective of life, check this out. You'll get the message.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A mother, passing by her son's bedroom, was astonished to see the bed nicely made and everything picked up. Then she saw an envelope propped up on the pillow. It was addressed, "Mom." With a sinking feeling, she opened the envelope and read the letter, her hands trembling.

"Dear Mom,

It's with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to 'lope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with you and Dad. I have found real passion with Stacy, and she's so nice, but I knew that you would never approve of her because of her piercings, tattoos, her tight motorcycle clothes,and because she's so much older than I am. But it's not only passion, Mom: She's pregnant. Stacy said that we will be very happy.

She rents a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children. Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We will be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people in the commune for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She sure doesn't deserve it!

Don't worry, Mom. I am 15 and I know how to take care of myself.

Someday I'm sure we will be back to visit so you can get to know your grandchildren.

Love,
Your Son,
John

PS Mom, none of the above is true. I 'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my upper desk drawer. I love you! Call when it's safe for me to come home.".

Peace

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October 2nd 2006 @ 03:59

Posted By: Harmony Rocks - Category: philosophy

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Seven Steps to Success ~~ Part Seven

The last post of this series is a long one, so I'll let it finish out without my two cents.

Seven: No self-inquiry
"Life is complex. Yet we respond with simple reflexes to what ails us. Rare is the person who takes time to journal, to walk in nature, or to discuss with others at a deep level what can be done to improve the quality of life. When we don’t contemplate the conundrums that face us, we continue to tread ruts of self-defeat. Reflexive living means a dearth of proactive solutions, and the more wrong answers we accumulate on what to do about things, the worse they get. Quickly enough a lifetime will pass and regret will be the last emotion experienced. The unlived life arises from the non-reflected life. It is better to reflect on what is happening in our lives when we have a chance to correct our course than to do so when it is too late. Perhaps there is no greater philosophical statement than that made by Socrates when he said: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Conclusion
"It is a rare and wonderful thing to be born a human being. It is also the most difficult of undertakings. Unless we choose to heal these seven levels of failure in a consistently committed way, we will find ourselves impoverished by our own unwillingness to seek significance. Behind pain is pleasure, behind sorrow joy, and behind failure success…we have only to effort to turn things around for ourselves, and in the nobility of saving ourselves, we will look around and find that where we thought to find an abomination, we have discovered a god, and where we thought to have been cast alone, we have found ourselves one with all the world. All of us have a greatness and splendor that yearns with desperation to be liberated into the light of experience. It is my hope that by reading these lessons you will be inspired to overcome each of these seven levels of failure, flip them to their opposite, and live a life of wealth, health, and success." ~~ Saleem Rana

Peace

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October 1st 2006 @ 04:23

Posted By: Harmony Rocks - Category: philosophy

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Seven Steps to Success ~~ Part Six

Day after day you probably use the same car and, chances are you're the only person who drives it. You take it to get inspected (or whatever safety thing is done where you live). After the mechanic takes it for a spin, the only question is: "How the hell did you drive this thing with those brakes?" The moral here? We learn to compensate for what we see as bad breaks the same way we learn to compensate for bad brakes.

Six: The unhealed past
"All of us have been wounded by our interactions with the world, and as these psychic scars accumulate inside our emotional bodies, the more

How much baggage do you have?

disturbed we become. Neurotic tendencies originate from psychic wounds. Over time, they only get worse. Unless effort is made to heal the experiences of hurt, disappointment, rejection, and humiliation from the past, then their psychic force will continue to have a debilitating effect in our lives. So numbed out are we to our own pain that often it takes skilled professional intervention to uncover it. All examples of dysfunctional behavior and poor life conditions arise from some psychic wound making its silent impression. All acts of rampant evil arise from a psyche that has completely deteriorated into psychosis." ~~ Saleem Rana

Peace

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September 30th 2006 @ 01:24

Posted By: Harmony Rocks - Category: philosophy

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Seven Steps to Success ~~ Part Five

Whether we like it or not, all of at least sometimes stoop to the superficial. We can be especialy empty when it comes to the nicities of conversation. How many of us only mouth the words and don't really care about the answer when we ask, "Hi, how are you", or "How are the kids"? or "How's the job"? Oh, we ask pleasantly enough and sometimes feign interest, but why do we even bother? It's superficial; how can superficiality

Isn't this a neat depiction of yin and yang?

bring us together?

Five: Superficial relationships
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September 29th 2006 @ 01:07

Posted By: Harmony Rocks - Category: philosophy

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Seven Steps to Success ~~ Part Four

Normally, I don't have a 'favorite' anything. In any category, there are some I like more or less than others, but I've never been one to declare a favorite book, type of music, food, or anything else. Therefore, I'm surprising myself when I say that this step to success is, so far, my favorite. I say that because, while each of these seven steps is important and valid, I think this one can be considered the cornerstone.

Got A Way (courtesy ahmEd H)

Even though I definitely have a more spiritual than purely religious take on life, I don't see spirituality as a slam in the face of religious doctrine. Actually, I think they can co-exist quite nicely in the same heart.
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September 28th 2006 @ 02:19

Posted By: Harmony Rocks - Category: philosophy

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Seven Steps to Success ~~ Part Three

Happy day to you. I don't know about you, but I'm enjoying doing this series. Well, let's face it, about half of it was already written for me, so these seven days don't require full input on my part. But that's not the real reason I like it. See, I get to read and appreciate someone else's thoughts and the payoff is that I get to share those thoughts with you.

Part Three can be considered a stand-alone, but I think it builds nicely on Part Two in yesterday's post. However, regardless of how it fits for you, it's a good thing.
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September 27th 2006 @ 02:03

Posted By: Harmony Rocks - Category: philosophy

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Seven Steps to Success ~~ Part Two

Watched TV in bed last night and I liked it! For weeks, I've not let myself rest and enjoy a little mindless entertainment before I slept. So now I can compare and sleep was definitely better after a two-hour rest. And it's probably not my imagination that I had better energy today. I could even intelligently comment on the posts in Adrian's Philosophy Blog. No low ebb for me today.

With that, I'll re-introduce Saleem (The Irresistible Success System) Rana.
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September 26th 2006 @ 00:31

Posted By: Harmony Rocks - Category: philosophy

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