How Do we Deal with the Jealousy that haunts our lives and what does it take to make us happy?
"It is OK for You" is a taunt that has become quite natural for us to say to successful happy people. No matter where we are in this world we can see life as a positive or a negative. If it only took money to make us happy most of the rich families of past generations would not have ended in tragic circumstances. History is littered with the tales of woe's of the Rich & Famous.
In contrast there are millions of people in the world who live in poverty but still are able to enjoy life. They may not have the creature comforts we are accustomed, however they see life through different eyes. If people around us are suffering what is more beneficial? To moan & groan along side them, pity them, or show them our love and Joy and encourage the wisdom that just being alive is miracle enough?
We breath, we see the sky, moon, stars. We feel the warmth of the sun. The chill of a winter wind. The birth of spring. The colors of autumn. We see the trees, the flowers, the birds and animals all enjoy life. Only man wants to go through life with his Ego image in an artificial man made world Many people Including myself have come from humble beginning. To wallow in self-pity leads to despair and a wasted existence.
The simple things in life have the deepest meaning. Learning to be at ease with ourselves is not easy for we have been trained to think by an army of conditioned humans.
THE DRILL SERGEANT
The Drill Sergeant calls parade and all the troops line up. The main command are attention, present arms, quick march, halt, at ease. What a wondrous world to arrive into.
When we come into this world we are at ease with life, we enter as an innocent baby and have no preconceived ideas of what we want to do or what type of personality we will adopt. We do have a DNA which will shape our lives and mold our character to a certain extent. We have joy and love and free will to embrace the world with happy innocence. We have the power to observe and learn, our mind is taking notes of the actions of the people around. We have started our preliminary training.
When we get to seven years of age it is time to en-role. Time to start playing our roles of ego. Up to this point most of us were allowed the freedom of childhood, but it was within an indoctrination of a great multitude of negative thoughts. All these thoughts are attaching themselves to the personality we are building. We now have enlisted in society's doctrines and have to go on parade and learn the drill.
We have many Sergeant's to teach us how to obey the command of the Generals. Our parents, relations, friends, teachers and religious doctrines put us in training. They were taught by their Sergeant's when they were children so they have learned the commands well. The roles we are to play out in our lives are beginning to take shape. Boss or worker. Friend or Foe. Which religious group to follow? Non are real, just man made images. But we must learn the drill until we conform and they become reality.
We first learn to form a line. To line up with all the other recruits. We must all conform to the rules and regulations. The first command is Attention. We have to become ridged on command, "At tension." Our first lesson is to learn how to become tense. We soon learn that if we don't obey this command we will suffer the consequences and be punished by the rule makers. Smiling and laughing too much will not be tolerated.
Our At tension must be programmed to hold tension. This becomes natural after just a few drills. The few people that don't comply have many sergeants chasing after them shouting for them to fall in line with everybody else. Most peoples smiles diminish for this training is thorough.
Once we learn the tension bit we are then taught to present arms. To show we have weapons to fight with and kill if necessary. We must take care of our weapons and make sure they are in working order. Revenge, hatred, jealousy fear begin to manifest in our mind. All are silent killers and one day will backfire on the holder
The next command is "quick march" we are learning to march off to war and fight other humans for whatever reason is around at that time. All the reasons will connect to holding on to or obtaining a possession of some kind. Even if the possession is our own self image it will be worth fighting over.
We have now learned to march through life at tension. We can look around and occasionally glance at the beauty but we must quick march through and hold tension. When we have marched long enough the command "to halt" is shouted. We were not allowed to stop until this instruction was given. We are now told to form a line and then the command "at ease" is given. We are now allowed to ease this tension but we are still in line.
By following our society and culture we have learned all the negative ways of thinking that bring tension into our lives. Our attention is focused on obtain materialist wants, to enhance our lifestyle. Marching off to work each day to fight with the competition or with he boss, climbing the mountains of worries involved with modern day living. We have all these people around instructing us that this is the proper way to live. They give us the thoughts to be able to battle with others, to achieve our goals.
Grasping and grabbing our slice of the action and being driven on by our own internal Drill Sergeant within our conditioned mind. More and more tense feelings build, then one day a voice shouts "Halt ." A devastation has occurred. We realize life is passing us by and although we may have achieved our goal of wealth our march was in vain for we have no joy. We become sick and frail and die without knowing how to be at Real Ease.
If the "halt" command comes soon enough then we can follow a new route to find the ease without having to be commanded to ease. Having to be ordered by the at ease command still means adhering to the whims of other MIS-conditioned human beings. This is a false "at ease" because we can relax but only in the confines of negative conditioned mind. The ease is only temporary and in fact it is not "real ease."
"Real ease" releases us from the constrictions of a negative mind. Just seeing ourselves as only flesh and blood will never allow us to be "at ease" in this World. The physical seems real enough but it does not last and we worry when it does not perform as we think it should. If we have to wait for a doctor to tell us to slow down then we have already missed out on a large chunk of our lives.
We do not need society to drill us on the way to live our lives, it does not work and only leads to a life of tensions. There is a better way. Don't enlist in the thinking that has contributed to an early grave or an unfulfilled life. I Leave you with the thoughts of a lady whose only possessions were a Mop, Bucket and a Robe.
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.
- Mother Teresa
© Copyright 1999 by Michael Levy. All rights reserved.
Michael Levy lives in Fort Lauderdale is the Author of Three books:
What is the Point , Minds of Blue Souls of Gold , and the new Enjoy Yourself, It's Later Than You Think .
For more information visit: http://www.pointoflife.com
Email: mikmikl@aol.com |
