Thursday, April 28, 2011

Life Is On Our Side

When I think back to any difficult time in my life, the single most affecting factor was my attitude. The truth is that all throughout life in general has been on my side. There have always been people who have loved me dearly, always been people who supported me warmly, there have also been people who have believed and trusted in me all the way.

The only stubborn, rebellious and incredulous one was me. Of course there were people who were stubborn, rebellious and incredulous when it came to me, and of course I was influenced by their negativity, but all I really needed to do was to check and see that it wasn't a big deal that I had jerks around, that the bigger deal was how much power I was giving them. For some reason, it seems like most of us prefer giving power to the fewer negative forces in life than giving the power to were it really is: the loving, encouraging and supportive forces of life.

God is way more powerful than the devil, in fact, at a certain point in our spiritual development the devil has absolutely no power whatsoever, the devil doesn't even exist anymore.

I think it's funny that now that my attitude isn't a stubborn, rebellious and negative one, most of the people and experiences I bump into are pleasant. Traffic jams aren't nearly as annoying, and my complaints are mostly for entertainment of myself and others. I laugh at my anger nowadays. Now that my attitude is aligned with the benevolence of life I make $600 dollars in 5 hours of work, I get more students to help and I feel more empowered to accomplish my goal of moving out.

I personally choose not to believe in the whole "I have no control" thing. Maybe I don't, but if I'm going to believe that, I believe that whatever it is that has control is on my side and is benevolent. Now that my attitude is corrected I no longer experience guilt, shame, rage, fury and internal turmoil. It's amazing when we see for ourselves that the main thing that was against us was our own attitude. It's even more shocking to see how long we have refused to notice this for ourselves.

It's really not the "negative" people around us, it's really not our "inferior" condition, it's really not the government, it's really not society, it's not the cops, it's not the bank, it's not the system, it's really not our boss, it's really our own attitude. It's not the gas prices, it's not our parents, it's not our neighbors, it's not our friends, it's not our lovers. It really is our stubbornness, our ingratitude, how bratty we are. It's really our own egos.

I don't pretend to say that I have overcome my ego, but I sure as hell know now that if I get in trouble the first place to check is inside myself. If I am in a crappy place in my life, I don't blame others and I don't even blame myself, but I immediately check my attitude. Am I in a victim position? Am I being impatient? Am I being a lazy brat? Am I whining and complaining too much? Am I being an asshole to those around me because things aren't going my way? Am I lying to myself and seeing that "others" are the ones being jerks.

I notice I have friends and family members who treat me like shit when things aren't going their way. I notice I do that sometimes too. That's just so unfair and irresponsible - and what happens to us when we do this is that we start to grind unpleasantly against life. I was about to write that life goes against us, but that wouldn't be true, it's that we go against life ourselves.

Life is so on our side and so loving that it doesn't hold a single grudge and it's always forgiving. Life doesn't get "mad" and it doesn't "punish" us. We do it to ourselves.

God have I been hurt by other people's egos! God have other people been hurt by my ego! But God has life been generally kind and loving towards me! Yes, in life I have experienced pain and grief... but all the ones that were generated by a divine grace taught me something wonderful and made me a better man. When I am hurt by the ego of others or when I hurt others with my ego there is so little to be learned and so much inconvenience. It's just amazing. Life is wise, fruitful, kind and generous while an unhealthy ego is usually just unwise, unfruitful, unkind and greedy.

It's nice to know though that other egos are only as powerful as we make them. I do not believe that even the president has any more power than the people give him... and even that power isn't his. I don't believe that any single human being has more power than any other! That power is something we give them or it's a delusion. I used to get so (really) angry at certain individuals in the media or even in my life... now I see that individuals are only as powerful as I make them in my mind and I still can get (kind of) angry at them. The difference is now I know that no individual is powerful enough to remove the fact that LIFE IS ON OUR SIDE.

:-) Let's realize this more and more everyday... if we don't... well... we might just destroy our race!

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