Love: Emotion or State of Being?

So I've been reading Eckhart Tolle's A new Earth and so far it has been amazing - just what I needed to be reading at this point of my journey. It completely breaks down the aspects of the EGO so that you can have a greater understanding of it. It has help me to understand the WHY? of Don Miguel Ruiz's Agreement of not taking things personal and the WHERE? the compassion Buddha spoke so much stems from. I had mentioned before that the EGO is the unobserved/untrained mind and how it is a bundle of misconceptions.

Eckhart Tolle continues to explain that it is not only your unobserved/untrained mind; which are the thoughts in your head pretending to be you, but it is also your unobserved emotions, which are the body's reaction to those thoughts. So, a person that has negative emotions its simply reacting to his/her dysfunctional thoughts on a daily basis. Negative emotions, are toxic to your body and prevents it from functioning with harmony and balance. Simply put, negative emotions = unhappiness. On the other hand, positive emotions strengthen and invigorate the body, which is why we must think happy thoughts so that the body can have positive reactions to them. BUT, yes there is a but, are those emotions ego-generated or do they come from deep with in your Being?

Ego emotions are created in your mind, they are unstable and can change at any moment. More importantly, they contain within themselves their opposite.  For example, love quickly turns into hate the moment its no longer satisfying "you". Expectations turn into disappointment, praise/recognition turns into rejection, etc, etc. Understand this: Emotions only exist within the realm of opposites - you cant have one without the other - it's their nature. Where you want to get to, are those deeper emotions that come from within you; which are not emotions at all but states of Being and have no opposite.

Love as an emotion, is more like possession, addiction, want, control, fear. Love as a state of being, is patient, is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud...SOUND FAMILIAR???...its accepting, respectful and is not dependent on anyone else to love you first. States of being emanate from deep within you as the love, joy, peace that is you - your true nature.

Human[BEING]

In life, we get stuck in the roles given to us by our parents, society or the roles we give ourselves. We try so hard to be the best mom, dad, wife, husband, son, daughter, etc, and the list goes on and on; so much so that life is no longer about the relationships you could be building with any given person but whether or not you are measuring up to the role you think you are playing at that moment so much so that authenticity goes out the window. When you live this way, all that matters at any given moment with any given interaction is who you think you are, who you think they are and who you think they think you are. You end up doing whatever is required to achieve that role, that you miss the essential lesson[s] in the art of living. We are here to learn, grow and evolve as human beings, but the key to that is to find the balance between human and being. You see, all those roles belong to the Human part of you and they are important, but its not enough to fulfill you and live a meaningful life - no matter how hard you try. To be fulfilled, one can't forget about the Being part - the light within you, your divine spiritual nature which just is and doesn't play any roles. Human & Being are not separate, they are interwoven. If all you think you are is what you see in the mirror, Human, then you will always be looking to fulfill any role you think you need to be to get a sense of self - to exist. Those roles are so dangerous because as you identify with them, they may lead you to believe you are bigger, better, stronger, know more or can do more that you your fellow humans which are actually your equal in every level except in your mind - we are all one. You will feel superior; thus, you make others feel inferior. You see, only from the state of Being - your divine spiritual nature - can you treat others with love in your relationships. To love is to recognize yourself in another; and that's the love that unites us all. -- Inspired by Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth.

Pairs of Opposite

Carl Gustav Jung (26 July 1875 - 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology (also known as Jungian psychology). Jung's approach to psychology has been influential in the field of depth psychology and in countercultural movements across the globe. Jung is considered as the first modern psychologist to state that the human psyche is "by nature religious" and to explore it in depth. C.G. Jung says that in the world we live in, there are certain qualities that are absolute truths. These qualities come in pairs of opposites and you can't have one without the other. Such as - Fullness and Emptiness, Living and Dead, Light and Darkness, Hot and Cold, Time and Space, Love and Fear, Good and Evil, Beauty and Ugliness, to mention a few. These qualities exist outside of ourselves and inside of us. Therefore, when one is not in tune with their true nature - the true self [not the false self which is the EGO] one is constantly striving to define and attach oneself with these qualities in order to feel like we exist. The danger with that is that when one strives towards the attainment of the good and the beautiful - for example - and is not in tune with ones true nature, we then fall pray to the effects of the opposite qualities - evil and ugly, since these are one with the good and the beautiful. When, however, we remain true to our own nature, we distinguish ourselves from the good and the beautiful, therefore, at the same time, from the evil and ugly. According to Jung, he emphasized the importance of balance and harmony in ones life. He cautioned that modern people rely too heavily on natural science and logical positivism and that we would benefit greatly from integrating spirituality and appreciation of unconscious realms. He considered this process of individuation necessary for a person to become whole. In summary, Jung asks us to strive not after any of these external qualities which ultimately will always leave you empty, but after YOUR OWN BEING. Bottom line, there is only one striving, the striving after your own being. Once this is clear to you, you would not need anything else, thus you would come to your right goal by virtue of your own being.

A bit of Meditation

The practice of meditation or sitting in silence, its not something that you are just going to flow on your first try. In fact, its probably not going to make sense to you at all. You are going to be fidgety, anxious, confused and not sure of what you are doing or what its suppose to happen. You are probably not going to like it and for most, you are going to quit, because you are going to lead your self to belief that you are no good at it; its simply too difficult. The truth is; we have 5 senses that need stimuli and you have been facilitating that stimulus with external things all your life. How could you possibly be any good at just sitting there with nothing to do? The first few times you try, you are going to be bored out of your mind with the intense need to fixate on something. Come on, nothing truly worthwhile is ever easy. You can't fear failure so much to the point that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have and as Sherman Finesilver said,

"You’ve failed many times, although you don’t remember. You fell down the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim. . . . Don’t worry about failure. My suggestion to each of you: Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try." "The greatest failure of all is the failure to try." -William Ward

For some, meditation will be a struggle but don't deny yourself that struggle because if you never experience struggle in life, you never experience growth. One thing I've have learned about meditation, is that is a direct reflection of how you deal with life. Mediation makes you honest with yourself; honest with who you really are and whats on your mind - there is no one else there but you. So, give yourself that opportunity to feel who you are.

We were born ready...

We'll it's been a while since I posted anything, but, like my original post says, I've been on the road of looking within and finding out who I truly am. This past year sure did that to me! My first step was learning to let go of who I thought I was - as you can see in my recent post and the rest was my journey. So are we born ready to begin that journey that takes us down our own personal rabbit hole of questions and answers or no answers? I believe we are. Here is my reasoning: We are not what we think we are. As my friend Moises would say:

Your are NOT what you see in the mirror
You are NOT what others see in you
You are NOT what you think you are
You ARE that self that lies dormant in you
You HAVE only a life time to discover it and wake it up.

What do I mean, yes thoughts/consciousness creates reality, so essentially we are what we think, but what I mean is that we are not just this body and this mind that "controls" it. We are divine spiritual beings living a temporary human experience. If we are created in the image of God and God is everywhere, then that means that God is in us. Which has led me to understand that if there's a presence of God in me then that means I am a distinct portion of his essence which means I too have inside me that divine spark that makes things happen. So if God is everywhere and there is no place God is not then this includes you - What an awareness when you know that you carry God in you. So, once we connect to this understanding we regain the power of our source and we stop seeing ourselves as a separate entity from the miraculous power of God and begin to feel that oneness with everything. Affirm: I am a divine, precious soul. Once you believe in yourself and see your soul as divine and precious, you will automatically become a being who can create a miracle. (Daily Affirmations - Dr. Wayne Dyer)

So are born ready? Yes! It is only through the illusion that is life and the thoughts and opinions of others that we believe we are not. Ready for what? Ready to continue with a journey that was paused by ego and limiting believes given to us by society; family and friends.

"Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by the opinions of the things that happen" - Epictetus (55-135)

Everything we think we are is largely credited to the experiences and testimonies of other people, from a source outside of ourselves. How often do we truly experience things for ourselves, instead we blindly follow what is being said simply because it is easier to do that than to question it and go out there and see if it's true or not. Funny thing about that is that we do that with the small things, for example, if a friend asks you to try a certain type of food that you believe you don't like but have never tried it - How do you know you don't like it? Probably because someone important in your upbringing led you to believe that it wasn't good or just heard from enough people that it wasn't good. Only if after you try it and you don't like it does it become your reality.

"Do not believe what you have heard. Do not believe in tradition because it is handed down many generations. Do not believe in anything that has been spoken of many times. Do not believe because the written statements come from some old sage. Do not believe in conjecture. Do not believe in authority or teachers or elders. But after careful observation an analysis, when it agrees with reason and it will benefit one and all, then accept it and live by it. - Buddha (563 B.C. - 483 B.C)

Conduct your own experiments; experience life through your eyes and no one else's and if after you've experimented for yourself you get to the same conclusions as what was being said, then great, believe it then and if you don't, that's great also, believe and live by your findings. So if we are born with a spark of divine power in us and is only by domestication and programming from others that we are led to believe otherwise, then is just a matter of reclaiming what we once intuitively knew. So are we ready? Yes, we were born ready. Ones journey to a better life full of positivity and awareness of self, without limits and blockages can start at any moment. One can say that someone may not be ready on the basis that due to their lack of ability to truly understand themselves because they have been raised to look externally for their answers instead of internally and maybe nothing life changing has happened to them yet so they can't change, then yes that is true - but that is still a belief that came from an outside source and a belief is just a thought that we have agreed to believe and live by; It can be changed by creating a new thought. Change comes from within and what can be more life changing than saying I want to change, no need to wait for pain and suffering to come your way. YES, that's how most change occurs, but only as a last resort because we weren't aware enough to listen and trust in our internal knowing because we had a really loud voice yelling in our heads called EGO telling you how to live and who you are. Which brings me to my last point:

"I think therefore I am not, only when the mind is silent I am" - unknown

Do you remember the old cartoons that showed a character talking to a little angel version of them and a little devil version of them on his shoulders? We'll thats the internal battle of good vs evil we all have - the EGO(lil devil) vs true self(lil angel, God). There is an old Cherokee legend of an old Cherokee elder teaching his grandson about life. He said a fight is going on inside me,it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. He continued, The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too. The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, Which wolf will win? The old Cherokee simply replied, The one you feed. If you remember that in the cartoon, the lil devil is always yelling and is very loud compared to the lil angel who is always wispering into your ear. How could we possibly hear that voice of reason and wisdom - the lil angel, your spirit, God - if we haven't learned to quite down the ego, the lil devil, the mind. The answer to that is meditation my friends.

Learn to be silent. Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.
- Pythagoras [580 B.C. - 500 B.C.]

All man's miseries derived from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.
- Blaise Pascal [1623-1662]

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer says in his book Wisdom of the Ages: 60 Days to Enlightenment, that if you want to shed miseries, learn to sit quietly in a room alone and meditate. We have, on avg, about 60,000 thoughts per day, the problem is that, more than likely, those are the same 60,000 thoughts you had yesterday and that you will have tomorrow. Learning to meditate is figuring out a way to enter the spaces between your thoughts, the gap - the silence. In this silence is where you find peace. Is like in music; it is the spaces between the notes that makes the music. Without that gap, that silence in between there is no music only noise. We too can create music with our lives instead of just a bunch of noise.

Quick lesson about meditation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA_AFwZDJsw&feature=related
We can all fly and become the supermans of ourselves!

Become the Real You - Meditation is a tool to help us return to our essential, original nature. We are training ourselves in how to respond to everything in life from that basic core of essential goodness. Relinquishin the illusions, fantasies, and distractions that confuse our lives; we are learning to Let Go of the conditioned responses and habits that keep us stuck. Meditation helps you find The Real You. This is how we reclaim what we once knew as babies and as toddlers before our EGO was formed. When you silence the mind and look with in you are connecting with the wisdom of that which created you and that my friends can happen at anytime. I believe that we are all standing in front of that door waiting to open it but we are so clouded with false beliefs that gives us limited vision and we can't even see it. Sometimes all it takes that one person to connect with you with love, kindness, compassion and joy and can help you feel that freedom to be who you truly are and then you can open that door to discover you have always been - and your journey begins.