HEAL YOURSELF

COMMENT: 

U.S.A.  Seven hundred thousand doctors,  ten thousand hospitals,  a million nurses, one hundred and fifty thousand dentists, 56,000 chemists, 35,000 clinics, 8000 operations weekly, ten percent of children and adolescents suffering from serious emotional and mental disorders.

Signs of progressive medicine and civilisation? Actually, they demonstrate failure in medical systems and wrong guidance of the public in nutrition and life style. The 8000 operations performed weekly with brilliant technique indicate the failure of previous treatment. 

The medical profession has discovered no cure for cancer, diabetes, AIDS, psoriasis, arthritis, dementia or the common cold. But the pharmaceutical companies make vast amounts of money, selling their carefully packaged products for these conditions. They suppress the symptoms or the patients' awareness of them. They are full of claims, disclaimers and mention of undesirable side effects. In order to get on the shelf, they are tested for safety by a million-dollar industry which specialises in the breeding, mutilation and disposal (death) of animals in vivisection laboratories. Most of the research into the undesirable effects of tobacco was performed on rats. But who has ever seen a rat smoking?

We are educated to look outside ourselves for healing. Cats and dogs and wild animals don't have sex education or antenatal care but they breed pretty successfully. They rarely get sick, if left to themselves. If they do, they don't rush off to a doctor to find out the name of what it is they've got. They don't buy and ingest pills and liquids.  What do they do? They find somewhere quiet and lie down. They stop eating. They drink when they are thirsty. They may go off and sniff and taste plants in their immediate vicinity (but they don't try to find out their names). Mostly, they just lie down until they feel better. Or they die comfortably. That is, unless they have an "owner" who decides to "put them to sleep" (kill them).

"Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

"The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment."

Why cannot you therefore HEAL YOURSELF. Maybe you can! Why not try? Start by looking in rather than out.

NEW PROJECT: 
THE LONGER THE JOURNEY, THE MORE BAGGAGE YOU NEED TO TAKE.
THE MORE BAGGAGE YOU CHOOSE TO TAKE, THE LONGER THE JOURNEY.

TRUTH CANNOT BE AN ADD-ON FOR THE EGO

If you adjust the Truth to suit yourself, you veer away from the Truth. 

Compare the fabulous wealth of the Vatican with Jesus' invitation,

"If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me."  

If you adjust yourself to fit the Truth, you become perfect and perfectly happy.

NEW PROJECT: HEAL YOURSELF

NOT WANTING

All conflicts between individuals or groups stem from conflicting wants. All our problems at bottom come from wanting. Even one kind of not wanting is actually negative wanting.

Consider: I don't want a cat (but if that one stays, I don't object) and

                   I don't want a cat (and if you don't get rid of it I'll call the vet!).

All our problems come from wanting: If we don't get what we want, we are, at the least, dissatisfied. If we do get what we want, we are satisfied for a while but then we want more of it or we want something else. Wanting is never satisfied. The only cure is to be free of wanting.

But how?

There are two ways:

1. Put your mind on something else. You can't want something you are not conscious of because wanting is always accompanied by consciousness. But if the want is very strong, you may not have the will power and concentration to do this.

2. Look to see if it is actually desirable. All wanting depends on seeing that something is desirable. If you can see that actually it isn't, the wanting will evaporate.

Consider a small boy looking at a bowl of fruit. The more he looks, the more saliva and impatience is generated. (How can he get at it without being caught?) But if he were to sink his teeth into the most luscious looking and discover that it's made of wax, you couldn't force him to have another bite. (Unless he likes wax fruit).

NEW PROJECT: TRUTH CANNOT BE AN ADD-ON FOR THE EGO!

ENOUGH OR TOO MUCH

 Walk up one side of the seesaw (called "not enough"). You reach the point of balance (called "enough"). Another step and you're off down the other side (called "too much").

The streets are full of walking "eating too much".

The ears are full of hearing "talking too much".

The shops are full of people "spending too much".

Why?

"Wanting too much."

Whenever wanting reaches enough, it wants more; or it wants something else. Wanting is never satisfied.

The only solution to "wanting" is "not wanting".

Either by concentrating on the undesirable features of what you want rather than the desirable features.

Or by just letting go of the feeling of wanting (not the object of wanting). Like all feelings, it will pass.

It also helps to be happy. The happier you are, the less you want. When the happiest  you are, you don't want anything.

NEW PROJECT: NOT WANTING

"BE STILL..."

The whole universe together with the minds and bodies of its human beings is in constant movement: pursuing and avoiding, planning and remembering, day dreaming and night dreaming.

"Be still... and know that I am." Don't stir it up with the spoon of desire and it will settle of its own accord. The shining consciousness that remains contains all its secrets buried deep within you.

STILLNESS is

the space between movements

the crack in the universe

the gloved hand

with the art

to pull apart

two thin life stitches

and let a stab of nothing in.

An eye

with sky behind

for mind,

a face blind,

a sunflower petal falling

stamen to earth;

or bird-song-bird calling

either side of the path.

No eye to meet your eye.

NEW PROJECT: "ENOUGH OR TOO MUCH."

PLEASURE AND HAPPINESS ARE DIFFERENT

Pleasure is a feeling. When one of our six senses touches a sense object, the result is feeling. Feeling can be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

      It all comes down to the struggle to survive,
      the endlessly obstructed urge just to stay alive.
      All use just one rule as measure;
      avoidance of pain and pursuit of pleasure.

      Pain leaves an imprint which says, “Leave it be!”
      The sirens of pleasure leave a note, “Follow me!”

Happiness is different from pleasure. It's the natural state of mind, at peace in the absence of all desires. People seek happiness in their pursuit of pleasure. But pleasure can only provide the satisfaction of desire. And once a desire is satisfied and pleasure experienced, it soon fades and desire reappears to chase something else.

People think that the pleasure they get from sense objects makes them happy. This is not the case. When a desire is being satisfied or has been satisfied, happiness is often present. But it is not the pleasure that has causes the happiness. The satisfaction and subsidence of desire leave a temporary gap in the mind. Through this the ever-existing happiness can shine. Until it is obscured by new clouds of desire.

One needs to distinguish between pleasure and happiness. Pleasure is always temporary. It always needs a sense organ and a sense object. It always needs a body to provide sense organs. It needs birth to get a body. A birth always results in a death. If the desire carries over after death, it will produce another birth, but where and under what circumstances? And in any case, there will be another death. Moreover, no life produces an unending sequence of pleasures, of desires being satisfied. Quite the contrary. There are at least as many unpleasant experiences: sickness, old age, disappointment, loss (and still the inevitable deaths).

      The rattling of teeth within the jaw
      mocks the tongue murmuring:
      "Please some more!"
       
Happiness, on the other hand, does not need pleasure. It is always there and easily accessible when one gives up pursuing pleasure and obscuring happiness with the clouds of desire. If it needs anything, it is Ethics. Ethics means not causing pain to others. A bad conscience causes obscuring clouds, too.


NEW PROJECT: "BE STILL..."

SOWING SEEDS DELIBERATELY

Thinking, speaking, doing: - we are scattering karmic seeds all the time. These affect others for good or ill and, in due course, return to confront us too. Though by then we may have no idea that we are facing the results of things we have done - maybe long ago. 

It is easier to chop down
an acorn
than an oak.

(The branch you bang
your head on
was an acorn
that you missed.)

Most of the time, the harm we do may be unintentional. Many of our words and actions (and especially our thoughts) are haphazard.  

Becoming more conscious of the seeds as we actually sow them rather than just impulsively scattering them at random, helps us to realise what we are up to and gives us the opportunity to select and choose. 

We can then create a garden for ourselves (and others) and not just be the cause of a wilderness.

NEW PROJECT: PLEASURE AND HAPPINESS ARE DIFFERENT

THREE KINDS OF LAWS

The Laws of the Body are those which restrict the body's freedom: gravity, chemistry, ageing, temperature etc.

The Laws for the Mind are those which others attempt to impose on the mind and limit its freedom: legal penalties (pay your taxes), highway code (drive on the left here, on the right there,) moral prohibitions (don't lie, don't steal, you can eat a sheep's child but not your own). These are sometimes legal prohibitions as well. They involve the body in those areas where it is considered to be under the control of the mind. It is not yet illegal to grow old but you are not allowed to kill yourself (although you are allowed to change your sex).

The Laws of the Spirit are those fundamental laws which are inescapable and affect the very essence of a man. Do good, get good. Do bad, get bad. Do good, be happy, Do bad, suffer (inevitably, sometime).The basic one is that permanent total freedom and happiness is only possible by withdrawing from the limitations of mind and body and remaining in the pure realm of the Centre.

NEW PROJECT: SOW SEEDS DELIBERATELY