A Word to the Wise

“The beginning of wisdom is to desire it.”
- Ibn Gabirol (c.1020 – 1070), Jewish poet & philosopher

What a simple, yet incredibly powerful tool in our toolbox for living. Passed down to us in myriad forms throughout history, this gem is truly one of life’s most priceless instructional artifacts – one that we’re clearly intended to uncover no matter from where we hail or from what religious or spiritual tradition we’re taught. The inherent promise that comes with this is that to truly desire wisdom is to have it, and having it is to know depths of peace and joy beyond description. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it?

Here’s a small sampling of versions from other places and other times:

• “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”
• “No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth.”
• “Everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. To him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

So what exactly is “wisdom”? The answer to that seems to depend on who is asked. There often appears to be conflicting viewpoints about what wisdom is because historically we insist on defining it from two distinct, contrasting thought systems – one intellectual, centered in the mind, and the other intuitive, centered in the human spirit. This conflict of perspectives is at the very root of why genuine wisdom seems so often to elude us and why we are repeatedly reminded of these instructions again and again and again throughout time.

Our intellect tells us that wisdom is an accumulation of knowledge acquired through sacrifice, extensive education and disciplined study. By this definition, wisdom becomes exclusive, available primarily to those with an aptitude for education, high enough IQs and who are willing to strive to achieve it. Our intuition on the other hand tells us that wisdom is a natural state of being, characterized by the demonstration of discernment and balanced judgment, guided by ever-deepening spiritual insight. By this definition wisdom is all-inclusive, available to everyone with a genuine desire to become aware of, and then practice, this natural state of being.

Furthering the perceptual divide, our intellect would have us be convinced that we come into this world as empty vessels, to become something by filling our minds with worldly or divine knowledge before we depart it in order to ensure we are among the winners and not the losers, the saints and not the sinners. By sharp contrast, our intuition gently reminds us that we both enter and depart this world entirely whole, that the experience of wisdom is the letting go of all beliefs we choose to make up and accumulate about ourselves while we appear to be here. It teaches us that wisdom is experienced in the practice of letting go of our “stories”… the letting go of everything that we are not.

What we cannot help but miss under the guidance of our intellectual thought system is that wisdom is always accompanied by humility, and humility is something our intellect is utterly incapable of grasping. Underneath all the vast layers of accumulated knowledge, human intellect would have us believe it makes us what we are, it differentiates us from all other life forms, even from our fellows, and it ultimately provides and decides our value as human beings. Humility, on the other hand, takes no issue whatsoever with simply saying, “I am as I was created, not as I have made myself to be.”

Intellect can certainly be a useful tool for navigating this world. It enables us to conjure up any destination we wish to travel to within our lives, be they physical, intellectual, emotional, philosophical or spiritual destinations. But, that’s just it… our intellect is a tool, and tools are intended to be of service, not to reign. It is our intuition that inspires to make the journey of our lives purposeful, joyful and peaceful – these are the attributes of wisdom. It’s in the conscious choice and regular practice of placing our intellectual mind under the guidance and service of our intuitive, spiritual self that the door to wisdom opens wide.

Even with all his intellectual knowledge, Albert Einstein in his wisdom and humility put it this way: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” This gift is knowing that we lack absolutely nothing in our lives but the awareness of our own intuitive spiritual guidance. Here lies true wisdom.

Love and Light friends,

Patrick

Surrendering Beliefs, Winning Vision

“A disciple said to him, “I am ready, in the quest for God, to give up anything: wealth, friends, family, country, life itself. What else can a person give up?” The Master calmly replied, “One’s beliefs about God.”
- Anthony de Mello (1931-1987), Catholic theologian & spiritual teacher

We’ve cultivated our beliefs about God over years, lifetimes, centuries, and millennia. We’re certain that our human intellect, through dedicated study, has enabled us to accumulate a vast wealth of knowledge about our Creator. Our religions are built on the very concept of carrying on the torch of God-knowledge to subsequent generations. So the question is… why on earth would we want to, or be willing to, surrender our beliefs about God?

For some, such a suggestion might seem like sheer nonsense; for others, too fearful to fathom; and still for others, utter blasphemy to even entertain the thought. Our answer, though, is not concerned with what makes sense to the human intellect. Nor is it concerned with mankind’s ancient belief in the ‘fear’ or retribution of a punishing God, or with religious doctrine of any kind. Our answer is one of spiritual experience, which leads us far beyond the limits of our human fears and intellectual pride. Our answer is simply this: to surrender our beliefs of God, to God, is one of the greatest acts of faith, humility and devotion that we can demonstrate in life. As the disciple above is guided to learn, surrendering our beliefs far exceeds any physical act of giving up material possessions, because the concept of ‘sacrificing something to God’ is utterly meaningless.

What faith, what courage, what fearless, unconditional love it demonstrates to humbly express to God, regardless of where we are at in our understanding, “I surrender to You this moment every belief I ever held of You, and wholly open my mind for You to teach me about You from now on.” We don’t need to look hard in this agreement to see a deep acknowledgment and vow of love and unity between Creation and Creator. It is from this very place of unity we were taught that “everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

This expression is not something we do only once ceremoniously or think about only on Sabbath or Sundays – it’s something we practice, and practice, and practice again until we come to know the experience that everyone and everything can be perceived as an extension of God. As such, our perspective of the world becomes ”unchangingly new”. From such an experience we can look back in hindsight and see that it had been our attachments to past beliefs that limited what we were able to experience in our “quest for God”.

Imagine how our human relationships could benefit from continually seeing each other with this fresh perspective rather than through a lens of ’good or bad’ based on judgments and beliefs formed by past experience.

~~~

If you want to read more from Anthony de Mello, I highly recommend a great, easy read of his titled Awareness.

Also if you’d like to read more on the topic of surrendering beliefs, here is an earlier post you might find useful: Wanted: Peace of Mind, No Worries and Freedom from Worldly Woes

Who Am I?

“Nothing is wrong with you, but the ideas you have of yourself are altogether wrong. It is not you who desires, fears, and suffers, it is the person built on the foundation of your body by circumstances and influences. You are not that person.”
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981), Indian spiritual teacher, philosopher and guru 

We sometimes neglect to realize that when we choose to identify ourselves by our stories, our past, we also inherently judge ourselves by them as well, which unconsciously can be a very heavy burden. Many of us, especially adults, have a host of past experiences that we would like to have handled differently where either we, or others, were hurt by our choices. Unresolved guilt and suffering from the past surfaces as prolonged depression, anger, restlessness, discontentedness in the present. This need not be. Why? Because the ideas we have about ourselves are altogether wrong… we are not our stories. We are not today merely the experiences we participated in yesterday, nor are we merely ‘what we do.’ Full realization and acceptance of this is the key to breaking the cycle of unconscious judgment and guilt that we pile upon ourselves. 

We often seem to get hung up in the “stories” of our lives. It’s as if by default we identify ourselves with these stories rather than actually taking the time to pause and contemplate who we are, right now… presently. The mere fact that we attach ourselves to a life “story” implies that we lean toward identifying ‘self’ as a collection of past experiences (past desires, fears, sufferings, mistakes, successes, etc.) rather than even considering the illuminating question, “Who am I?” In fact one could say we often literally have no idea how to answer this question honestly because instead we allow the mind to race off and list a bunch of things we “do” (things we began doing at some time in the past) rather than anything remotely related to really answering the question. All the things we do, all of them – including the role of being a parent, a child, an employee, a teacher, a member of the local church, the President of the United States – all are roles related to the stories we make up about ourselves… they don’t in any way answer the question, “Who am I?”  

So… “Who am I?” Am I the ‘me,’ the hero of my story that I’ve made up over this lifetime in a grand adventure called “my life”? No, I am not that person. I am the one who has quietly observed the story and watched the hero play his part all the way up to this moment now. I am as I was created, not as I have made myself up to be. I am the very same radiant light of life today that I was when I entered this world and I will remain just as bright when I leave it. I am that person, and so are you. Remember your light. 

~~~ 

Read more about Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Wanted: Peace of Mind, No Worries and Freedom from Worldly Woes

“You must unlearn what you have learned.” — Master Yoda

Everywhere we look today, we’re offered ”peace of mind” from an increasing list of misfortunes said to be just waiting to befall us out in the harsh world - sufferings and hardships of all sorts lingering out there in the darkness ready to snatch away our happiness, our sense of security and our contentment in life. Insurance of every type, extended warranties, identity theft protection, more control over this possibility, more over that… the list goes on and on and on. This “peace of mind” can be bought for a price - a price that we must continue paying indefinitely… a price we pay because we fear.  

If there was ever a genuine treasure to be found here in this world then - one freely given us that would actually deliver on the promise of true and enduring peace of mind - would it not be priceless to discover? In my lifetime of seeking such a treasure I’ve found many wonderful gems from a wide variety of traditions. One I’ve come across in particular has been truly illuminating… a single, solitary paragraph that provides crystal clear directions for experiencing an ever deepening peace and sense of freedom that is beyond description.

Here are all fears laid down…

“Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.” — from A Course in Miracles*

~~~

For those of us unsure about what it means to “live in the now” or to “be in the present moment,” here in these few sentences is absolute clarity given. Bringing nothing the past has taught us into our present
experience is to be wholly open-minded to what is and what can be - it is to have the ability to look at everything as fresh and new rather than through a lens of perception and judgment forged from past experience. This idea may seem in total opposition to the world’s thinking, which puts its reliance on accumulating and recalling worldly knowledge, but in fact it’s at the very root of modern innovative thought leadership tools like ‘thinking outside the box.’ When practiced in a spiritual or philosophical sense, the result is genuine peace of mind – a complete freedom from the past coupled with the total absence of anxiety over the future; the ability to be wholly content and present in this instant, now, which is the only ‘time’ we actually have to participate in and experience life.

For those of us baffled about what it means to “turn it over” or “let go and let God,” here also is the answer revealed. Emptying the mind of everything it thinks one way or another about this or about that (including both our beliefs and disbeliefs in God), allowing the mind to be a clean canvas upon which the world can be painted for us is to surrender the brush to the one true Artist. In this way our perception of the world is based not on our limited and often distorted vision, but rather on a vision that far exceeds what the human eye can see or the human mind can comprehend. Such releasing of the world from all we think it is opens us to the grace, dignity and integrity to accept what actually is, exactly as it is in the present moment. When practiced, the result is an enduring state of peace and sense of stability regardless of what seems to occur in the world around us.

For those of us struggling with what it means to have genuine faith, here is unshakable faith demonstrated in its purest form. Laying aside all thoughts from the past - all beliefs and stories imprinted on our mind about the world and all its trinkets, about who we are, who God is, about what our sciences and religions have taught us of such things – this takes great courage. Doing so with full trust in our Creator, however we have understood Him/Her to be up to now, is to open ourselves wholly to fresh, pure inspiration. To “forget this world” is a demonstration of profound trust in our Creator. It is also an act of remembering, acknowledging and exalting the holy relationship we have with our Creator above all else - above all our attachments to this world. When such a faith is practiced and nurtured, the result is the complete absence of fear, an awareness of our eternal, untouchable innocence and a deep sense of unity and connection with each other and all of Creation.

Following and practicing the simple guidance contained in just this one excerpt from A Course in Miracles, eventually and undoubtedly leads to:

• freedom from the past and from anxiety over the future
• enduring peace within amidst seemingly turbulent external events
• a sense of ease with letting go of attachment to specific outcomes
• the complete absence of fear and sense of loss or lack
• the awareness of an eternal, wholly innocent nature within
• a deep sense of connection with each other and all of Creation

Here is treasure indeed - unlimited and lasting wealth beyond imagination - far beyond any of the transient trinkets this world has to offer.

So for those of us seeking to experience a lasting peace that surpasses all understanding – to know a deep sense of lightness and freedom in our daily adventures in this world – simply do this: be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this post, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.

We may choose to continue to have our insurance policies and other worldy safeguards, but in following these simple directions we connect ourselves much more deeply to our true source of peace and security… from there, the rest is cake. Of course, one might also enjoy studying more than just this one paragraph from A Course in Miracles… in my adventures I’ve found it to be an enlightening and deeply inspiring masterpiece.

May your path be peaceful and well illuminated.

* Excerpt from A Course in Miracles workbook lesson 189