3 Presents For You

      Another stormy day. Perhaps stormier weather politically. It can be hard to keep your cool when the world seems to be falling apart. When society seems to be deteriorating and so much stupidity is rampant. For me my mind's go to when I get scared by the socio-political climate is to say, "Oh shit, what am I going to do about this, I have to do something about this, I am not doing enough." It's difficult to recognize that, for myself, I am reacting fearfully and losing my center. Losing myself in this fearful reaction to my environment. I think it is difficult for many of us to recognize the difference between fearful compulsive reacting and heartfelt response. I think for many of us, we shut down entirely, remain passive, or get engaged compulsively. I think our hearts are overwhelmed and we lack the processing power and emotional strength and wisdom to engage in a positive way. I think in general we are overstimulated and overtaxed personally which makes being wise nearly impossible. We are to some moderate extent in reactive compulsive survival mode, unbalanced. We sense there is a better way to act, but it seems frequently out of reach. In establishing an overall strategy for treating the multi-dimensional issues of our times, we are at a loss. We don't even know where to begin. We lose the opportunity to act on our feelings of a need to act when we are sucked back into our stressful life cycles. I think often, the way forward is not to do more, but to do less. By doing less, we end up doing more.
     If we are overstimulated and overworked, doing more from a stressful place will increase the burden, not diminish it. We have to take care of our feelings and our bodies so our minds can be balanced enough to see clearly. So we can act on our best impulses and have the capacity to think things through. I think much of what we do is superfluous. Much of our habit is depleting rather than enriching, largely because we come from a society that is often disconnected from the heart of being. We are bombarded with advertisement that seeks to manipulate our senses so we consume not which is necessary or good, but is profitable for a few. This has become generally accepted as our way of life. And I am in complete opposition to it. It promotes selfishness and dangerous competitiveness at a time when we need to come together to deal with the upheavals of the world. It is hypnotizing, putting us to sleep in fanciful lollipop dreams that only cover up the nightmare of our world if we continue to pursue them down there maddening rabbit hole. For myself it has seemed like the choice I have had is between poverty and madness. I have had to make compromises with both as I am sure you all have as well. 
     The solution is quite simple actually. Do good. Learn how to do good and recognize the difference right and wrong, being present and being ignorant, acting wisely and acting from delusion, conditioning and dreamy disconnect. If you cannot see the way, perhaps too much is obscuring your vision. Perhaps you don't have enough support, or the right environment. Perhaps you need to let go of something that is inauthentic and debilitating. Perhaps you need to engage in something that will wake you up. Perhaps you just need to breathe, relax, and let things come into a fuller picture. What are your feelings telling you? What is your conscience telling you? It's surprisingly vital to listen to your conscience, your feelings, intuitions if you want to be awake, be yourself, and do good in this world. Be free, be alive. And so much of what we do is unnecessary while so much else is necessary to take care of ourselves and the world. I think we can live much simpler and much less stressful lives if we can learn to be in harmony with ourselves and with life in general. If we do good, we do good, if we create suffering, then we create suffering. It's that simple. 
     If we are really doing good then we are making the world a better place, it doesn't matter what we are doing, we are adding positivity to the world. If we are negative, it doesn't matter what we are doing, we are adding negativity to the world. It's obviously not this black and white, but through practice we can learn to see very clearly what is true and what is false within ourselves and what we do in life. Feelings can take us to strange and distant places from the comforts of what we may have considered our normal and ordinary lives. They challenge our perspectives, asking us to look again at our preconceived notions of the world. We may find that we are extraordinarily naive. Our intuition will tell us when what we do is enough, right, and true. Then we can let go of much of our worries and allow much more of our attention to dwell in the present. 
     When we have passed through considerable interior garbage we may find ourselves in a place when we can begin expanding our hearts and minds to the world. We can open up to new possibilities and old dreams that we set aside while we delved into ourselves to find the truth and who we really are. We may begin thinking again about how to engage with the world consciously and effectively. We may take on more responsibility maturing in character. Our strength may grow, talents and activities expand. We may find ourselves standing in the sunlight while our destinies pull us across the day lit Earth into various occupations and circumstances. It is here that we see what we can give to the world and we can see what we want from the world. It is here that we find our place in the world. When our spirit is awakened and our heart is true, our bodies and our minds will be rejuvenated. We will be sound enough to engage the world with an awakened spirit. We will cut through vast resources of delusion clearing the way for others. We will stand apart even as we are thoroughly engaged in all levels of human activity.
     We are human, we are imperfect, we love, and we suffer. We may never stop making mistakes, unless mistakes stop being mistakes. We may always be foolish. We can forgive ourselves for being human. We can forgive ourselves for being imperfect. We can recognize how much we don't see and how little we know. And we can relish our impossible blindness as we realize how little we can do to change our situation. We simply are the way we are right now. I don't know if there is anything we absolutely need to do to, or some way that we absolutely need to be. I find that just recognizing how I am right now has a profoundly positive effect on the way I engage with myself and the world. Not doing anything about how I am, just seeing life and myself clearly. It's really letting go of the heaviness of judgment and overcoming the heaviness of fear. Both of which I seem to have as much control over as I don't have any control over. I just am the way I am. Seeing this deeply enough is profoundly liberating. It is also so wonderful to have the heart to be ok with this. To be ok with all of what I see as negative and terrible qualities. To love myself enough to be ok with it. I wish you all can love yourselves enough to feel this freedom. If not, then I love you enough for you. You are beautiful and free. Here and now. It is quite astonishing how much love there is at the bottom of everything. How much love exists between us. How much we love eachother when we can see clearly. How desperately we wish to serve eachother and accommodate for eachother. At this level it is so clear to me how I wish to treat people and what kind of world I want to build. Here, you are all my brothers and sisters and we are all family. I will do anything and everything to make sure you are ok. Everything within my power. And I know, here, that you will do the same for me. Here, love is so powerful. Who we are is so spiritual and inhabiting an environment of such loving kindness and infinite grace. To me, this is home, this is where I always will strive to be when I can see clearly enough, and where I will wish to take you if it feels right. It seems to be just as much your home as mine. From here, I unconditionally love the world and I unconditionally want to make it better for everyone. This place just seems like our home that we have forgotten about. And it's right here, and right now. This Is It. This. 

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