Disobey your expectations.
Throw away the list of things to do.
Live today as if there was no tomorrow. Or, better yet, as if Death will greet you sooner than you imagine.
That realization came to me today as part of a dream about reality. And how I can live my life with the dual expectations offered by Buddhism and Christianity. Both involve dying. And being “born again.”
You live your life with the expectation of an “afterlife.” Christianity calls it Heaven. Buddhism, Enlightenment. Both suggest that I live my life along two tracks of, let’s say “consciousness” for want of a better word. One life is for today — the daily experiences, hopes and dreams for a family, a career, as well as my community and the spirituality that blossoms from within and also from sacred teachings and a group of fellow travellers along my journey.
The other is for the next life.
Karma exists in both “worlds” of consciousness. What I do, has an effect either in this life or the next. Both the good and the bad. However, pleasure derived from a wrong motive or wrong action may have a major effect on where I arrive after Death. Right action and right motive could do likewise.
Revulsion from taking action or refraining to act in the face of unpleasantries, could force the same outcome. Unless I treat what I dislike with a sensitive viewpoint, and ask why am I repulsed, what causes me to take such an offense from another person, place or thing that appears harmful?
Jesus told me to “turn the other cheek” when confronted by an enemy who has struck me. I always believed that this lesson was more of a request to forgive that enemy and not to retaliate. To become meek. Passive.
Buddhism tells me to not only refrain from “acting out,” refrain from retaliating, but also to seek the possible hidden message in the harm I receive from an assault, from an aversion. Treat that harm as a “gem,” treasure it for the lesson I can learn from it.
The suffering being imposed might be caused by actions or ommisions I committed early in my life, my youth, my career, my search for Higher Understanding. Or, those from a previous life in one of the Six Realms that exists and will be my new home in an additional life or several lives, according to Buddhist teachings.
Either way, karma predicts that for every thing I “cause,” there is, or will be, an effect. Quantum physics holds me responsible for the reality I create in my “individual universe,” and must deal with my actions. I have also found in my present journey that most belief systems end with the same conclusion:
“. . . the Love you take
is equal to . . .
the Love you make . . .”
— The Beatles
I want to make more love today for a rebirth through death tomorrow. That’s how I plan to live from now on.
I hope!
At least, that is my new intention. How about you?
Contoveros 
My intent has always been to love.
I have never strayed from that path for as long as I can remember and even when faced with having to defend either myself or those whom I have accepted responsibility for and have placed under my protection – there is a love and understanding for whomever is trying to cause them harm.
People hurt others for their own reasons.
I have experienced evil – I know it exists…
I always want to know ‘why’.
‘Why’ would one willingly harm another – ‘Why’ would it ever be a choice for them (preferred or not) to look for when there are so many other choices from which to choose?
Do people who hurt others KNOW they have the choice not to?
And if they DO know – what motivates them to choose to harm rather than to heal?
Are they serving a greater purpose in causing harm so that others may then see suffering and choose to dedicate themselves to heal and repair it instead?
And if THAT is the case – does that mean there is a higher power who is balancing the experiences of those beneath themselves?
Love seems so much simpler than that.
It just ‘is’.
How complicated could it really be?
M.L.
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M.L.
I think most, if not all, harm is done through ignorance. Anyone who is moral will choose the path of love and harm no one. But, how does one become moral? Or, how does one fall away from being “moral?”
Maybe it all starts with a hurt, a misunderstanding, a mistaken belief imposed by another who says ‘good guys always finish last.” Or “There’s a sucker born every day,” and the old cowboy advise to “shoot first and ask questions later.”
Perhaps the next time I see such “harm” I will try to understand it more. Try to understand it better through a lens of compassion and love.
Something that a saint might try to achieve. Or, an enlightened one.
I’m neither, and need to move further away from my own ignorance.
michael j
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ML,
Went to a “Lovefest” where the topic of warm conversation was “love.” You would have loved it. I could see you opening yourself to the Circle that discussed poetry, the different forms of love, and how we can find the Love in God in the most mundane acts daily.
I suggested looking for Him in the shower stall, the litter box, the dishes you clean in the sink. Let the “you“ and your “I” go, and we can find God in the flow of our gifts in kind service to others and to our gentle Selfs.
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*smile*
Once it becomes who you are – you look for it, even when you are leaning towards ‘bitter’, there is usually somewhere you can find evidence of how ‘love’ can be applied as to a wound for healing.
Sharing it is just common sense.
L.
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M.L.
love can be of common sense.
Love can be from a Proper Sense.
I feel you and I would take love in any form, as long as we get our two sense worth in!
michael j
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