What is Chaos?

Chaos is the product of our ego. It is that part of us that has to be in charge and has to be right. Does it sound like anyone you know? It is part of our overblown self-worth that tells us everyone is out to get us, that we can’t trust anyone, that they’re all out to get us.

It is the untruth trying to save our ass. It makes things up to reinforce our point of view.

Just imagine for a minute, if we examined those thoughts of distrust. Where would they lead? Probably back to beliefs that have unconsciously been injected into our psyche from external sources, like our family, our friends, politicians, and even the media. It probably started with our parents saying something like “don’t play with matches or you’ll get burned!”  That was true. And so we began to trust this ego, because it saved us, or could have from a worse fate.

Pretty soon, we’re beginning to believe more things our sources tell us, some not so true. We form a basis on which to build a philosophy, albeit a false one, based on others unchallenged beliefs. It was easy. We didn’t have to think about a thing, and we’ve written our book of life and how to blame it on others.

All we need to do is a little self-examination of these things we’ve allowed ourselves to be told, to begin to look at our thoughts critically, to reexamine what we have believed with the reality of what is actually going on around us, and we might find a whole new way to think and believe. We can walk our own path to freedom, to liberation from the fear of everything we thought we knew until we found out they weren’t even our thoughts.

That’s what happens when we begin to think for ourselves. When we decide to stop being sheep and walk upright, the view becomes less confused, less obstructed by  the sheep we are following. We begin to rise above the crowd and begin to see clearly.

~revjim

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1st Century Mystics  October 4th
https://spirit-edu.com/learn/1st-century-mystics

From our Week 2 study of The Grace in Aging

“Chaos is the experience of our own ignorance, the experience of the charged contents of an unexamined and untrained mind.”

Kathleen Dowling Singh, The Grace in Aging

~revjim

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Prison or Paradise?

q-markMy question today is, “do you believe that you create your life by the thoughts you have? Can you, knowing that there is strife in the world, that there is killing in the world, really believe that you exist in a world of your own creation?

Thinking about that for a moment, are you responsible for that killing or that strife? Heady thoughts, aren’t they? Chances are each of us may be to some degree by our thinking the general lower thoughts of humanity that says, “they deserved that” or “they are bad people not good like me” and other things of the same ilk.

Does that make us bad people? No, not really, it just means we’re human beings with human frailties and judgments. We have thoughts that are historically human thoughts based on our geography, ethnicity, spiritual or religious upbringing, and many other factors that cause us “unknowingly to act the way we do. It can be difficult to know that we are being unjustified in our thoughts and actions sometimes as we float through life, because we do “feel” fully justified in our actions.

Sometimes we get involved in situations that we don’t even realize may be callous or hurtful to a group or section of the population that has, in truth, done nothing to deserve it. One example of this is or was military veterans returning from the war in Vietnam. During this time of political upheaval in our country our boys were returning from the war ill prepared for the horrendous greetings they had to endure at the hands of the young idealistic protestors of that unwanted conflict.

They, in essence, were treated as the enemy, when, in fact, most were conscripts of a war that nobody wanted outside of the government and corporations. Sadly, they were the easiest and most visible group for protestors to attack and get press. So, these men who spent most of their time just trying to survive in an untenable situation were smeared by the protestors and became a focus of the press, while the “directors and suppliers” of the war continued in business as usual.

So, did we contribute to that? Many of us did. I was guilty of it by protesting the war on campus in college, and even though I never called anyone a baby killer or threw red paint at anyone, I was still responsible for that general condition. And it wasn’t until I was drafted in my senior year of college that got to know the people who were the cannon fodder of the war, and realize that damage that we did to another human being in our idealistic unknowing.

And, this is not an isolated incident. It has been going on since the beginning of time. Imagine if didn’t consider our way of doing things better than anyone else’s way. Imagine what the world might be like if there was universal respect for everybody as individuals without regard for religious beliefs, ethnic heritage, sexual proclivity, or geography. Imagine if we wanted the highest and the best for each and everyone. Imagine the world without labels, without judgment.

If we as individuals can begin to see the good in each other and let this good by our guiding theme in our life, we can indeed begin to see the world as a safe place, as a place where our children are safe, where we are safe. This is how we can begin to live stress free in this world of our own creation. We don’t have to change the entire world ourselves. We need only change the way we see the world and the way we see ourselves within this world. The future is as bright or and dim as our thoughts. It is heaven or hell right now. We sentence ourselves to prison or paradise.

Where do you choose to reside? How do you choose to see your life?

~revjim

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#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

We’re having a Zoominar September 28th
1st Century Mystics  October 4th
https://spirit-edu.com/learn/courses/zoominar/
https://spirit-edu.com/learn/1st-century-mystics