Tag: God

Featured

1,000 WORDS (2nd attempt): DAY 73: Use Your Talents to Shine A Light.

Life’s about sacrifice, you gotta put in work because people’s hearts have grown cold as ice. No one is obligated to lend a helping hand, so don’t expect anyone to understand. But the trick is to not grow bitter and cold, even as we constantly witness the wicked ways in which life in this world unfolds. The point is to take a true hold of your own soul, to put the mind under the Spirit’s authority. We have all been blessed with skills and talents, with intelligence and wisdom, which we can use to bless, others as well as ourselves, to exert the will to progress, but too many of us have our gifts sitting on the shelves. We all have the ability to think and then to express, creatively, whether in poetry, lyrics, music, art, spoken word, to be true to who we were meant to be, and nothing less. Speak your mind and stand for what’s right, though it might shake up your whole world, possibly overnight. Stand by your word. Be who and what you claim to be, always take the high road, up high as a kite, fly forever free. Have the courage to follow the highest vision you see, to create what you conceive. Be a beautiful light, shining bright for what you believe, the brightest star shining on this blessed summer night. It is said that those who wish to give light must first burn. Take up your cross and sacrifice your physical self on it. Kill your attachments to earthly pleasures, especially those which harm others and cause suffering in the world. The right thing won’t always be the easiest one, or the most pleasant one, but we can’t possibly ignore what’s right and expect a good outcome. Recognize the wrong way and turn around to run. I thank those who paved the way for me, and I hope to do the same for generations to follow me, for years, for decades and centuries on, the legacy of everything we do lives on, we live forever even after we’re gone. So know that this is not the end, this misery nor this joy. There is more significance in every second of every day than we care to realize. I don’t know which is the right religion, but I do know that all of us are battling a spiritual war, so we were born with a mission. We all are meant to be, essentially, an example of righteous living, of unconditional care, of charity and selfless giving. Stop all the hate, leave the past behind and recreate, forgive and forget, leave behind every grudge as well as every regret, love for love’s sake. Be thankful for every friend, and even every enemy you’ve ever met. There are no enemies, have no fear for real or fake. Life has placed these people on our path, so that we may come to know what it’s like, to experience hate, pain, separation, rage, wrath. We had to know these things to come to know that they are not us. We are the consciousness on which these emotions, these thoughts and feelings appear, quickly fading away like dust, remain calm and watch them disappear. Let your mind rest, feel at ease, peace of mind is like a soothing breeze, close your eyes and meditate, elevate, feel the unity between you and everything that’s ever been, yet know that the source of you is something so great, that the angels are your kin. How were you conceived and born? How can you speak and connect with others, how can you understand concepts such as love and mutual respect? Life is filled of meaning, but it’s up to us to detect. So leave behind any notions of insecurity, of not being or having enough, stand proud and erect, if you woke up today there’s no excuse to feel like a wreck. Whatever you did, leave it behind and give yourself a chance. Life is in constant movement, so we have to jump in and dance. Roll with the rhythm, with discernment, don’t worry about the past or the future, everything will pass, everything is temporary, and everything is just as necessary. Be humble, understand that God dwells within your brother, within all others, and we all will one day decompose in a cemetery. The heavenly and material aspects of our nature each go their own way once death arrives, each from where it came, each continuing in changing, in transforming, after having gone back to the source, ascending and descending, coming down after they rise. Therefore there is no death, be free of guilt, and understand you have a new birth, a new chance at life, with every breath. Ignorance is the problem, none of us know this. We desperately run around trying to get ahead, we think there will be nothing left of us once we’re dead. Worldly success means everything, we can’t wait to get a taste of the satisfaction the money and the fame will bring. And what if the dream doesn’t  true? It doesn’t happen for so many others so why should it work out for you? Will you cry and complain, will you wish you were never born, will you speak curses upon yourself, upon your life, or life in general, screaming in pain? Identify with the real inside of you. Be the Spirit, don’t rely on anything on this planet. Analyze the nature of things, understand and plan it. Whatever you’re doing, sacrifice what holds you back. You know what it is, and if you haven’t let it go yet, it’s because you’re hooked on it like crack. The real You needs nothing to survive, spiritually, it only needs to be aware in order to be alive. Adversity is nothing to the real Self, it thrives off of challenges, your talents are your tools, use them for the glory of what’s good, don’t follow the crowd like a fool. Life is a process of constant learning, but one day we’re all sure to graduate, just like from any other school.

To be continued tomorrow, on Day 74.

~ Rebel Spirit

Featured

1,000 WORDS (2nd attempt): DAY 72: A Positive Attitude When Facing Trouble.

All we can do is try our best, to have the most positive attitude we can have when faced with whatever obstacle life throws our way. When this becomes a habit, we start to feel that life has much more meaning, we start to see the dots connect, we start to really sense the significance in every word and deed. When we understand and feel that life has intrinsic meaning, it becomes easier for us to make the right choices, whereas someone who is bitter towards life, believing that it is just an insignificant, random thing, and that the suffering it includes makes it not worth living, is sure to make more selfish choices, even if they negatively affect others or themselves. When we understand that everything we say and do has powerful consequences, that every action has a reaction, we will think twice before saying things that are unnecessary or harmful to others. We will also feel more inspired to say or do the right thing whenever a situation arises. This is easier said than done, since saying and doing the right thing often require much courage. When we shy away from perceiving life as the deeply significant phenomenon that it is, it is easy for us to slip into tedious routines, into bad habits which are quick to turn into comfortable addictions. Just because someone addicted to heroin or prescription pills suffers more than we do from our own addictions, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t addicted to TV, or to money or clothes or even Facebook likes. If we are not living a life of purpose then we are only wasting the days away, we are only going from one temporary pleasure to the next, and we are sure to become desperate if these things are taken away from us. Our constant need for pleasure and comfort have made it so that we can never dedicate ourselves to anything worthwhile, anything that requires time and effort. How can we do such a thing if our minds are constantly focused on feeling the next pleasure, on finding the next thrill? Our addictions are sure to interrupt us, and since we are anticipating that future pleasure, we don’t do as well in whatever we are currently engaged in, since our mind just isn’t in the moment. Our mind is elsewhere, in the future, trying to conjure up memories of what that wonderful feeling is like, impatiently waiting for that moment when we’ll feel it again. We were born into this world with nothing, all naked and with no possessions. So why do we need so many things now? Do we really need them or have we simply convinced ourselves that we need these things, that we need to feel certain feelings in order to be happy? We all have to do things which aren’t very interesting at some point in our lives, or which are completely uncomfortable for us. We all have to make sacrifices, starting from the day we set foot in school so that we may learn basic things like reading and writing. So why do we complain whenever an uncomfortable situation arises, whenever we have to really focus and work at something which perhaps isn’t our favorite activity? If we acknowledge that life isn’t all about doing everything we want one hundred percent of the time, and that doing some things which we don’t want is actually beneficial and even necessary for us, then there should be no need for us to complain about anything. Each and every situation we find ourselves in is the exact situation where we need to be at that moment. If we feel that we shouldn’t be where we are, then it is only because we have certain expectations about how life should be, and we feel that if life isn’t up to our expectations then we can just make a different life, often with no reflection into why we might be going through whatever we’re going through in the first place, why it could be essential to our life. Most of the time we only realize these things in retrospect, as we look back at past tribulations, we recognize the specific ways in which we have learned since then, due to those exact situations.  We need to be humble, we need to seek to understand, to listen more than we speak, to observe and to wonder, but no matter what, we always have to try our best, we always have to have the right attitude, to do what needs to be done. We all know what needs to be done in our individual lives. It all depends on what is going on in each person’s life, but we all know what we need to do. We all know where we are fucking up, as well as where we are succeeding. It is a dangerous thing to lie to ourselves even once, since we might repeat it, and then we might develop such a habit of lying to ourselves that we don’t even know that we’re lying anymore, and this is when it gets really hard to make the right decisions in life. As long as we don’t allow negativity to corrupt us, as long as we can do good and be good in this world, no matter what we may see others doing, then we will be well equipped to make the right decisions, even when we are facing the hardest of struggles. No matter how things may seem to be going for you right now, if you feel depressed or discouraged, if you feel that you aren’t where you would like to be in life, just remember that it’s all a process. Be thankful for what you’re facing, acknowledge that bad things happen to everybody, that it’s all part of life, for a deeper purpose which we can’t understand. Don’t become frustrated at this, but accept it. Accept life as it is, accept your current situation, and from this day forward, make it a habit to always be completely focused on doing your best, on giving your best no matter what. Watch life change as your mentality changes. It might take some time, but change is guaranteed in life. It is up to us if it will be positive or negative.

To be continued tomorrow, on Day 73.

~ Rebel Spirit

1,000 WORDS (2nd attempt): DAY 68: Be Thankful for Life.

Remember to be thankful for all the blessings in your life. I just want to take this day to get some personal thanks down, a lot of things I’m thankful for, things I couldn’t do without. I’m thankful because I’m blessed, as we all are, I’m thankful that my life hasn’t been too rough, although I’m also thankful for the problems I’ve faced and for the lessons I’ve learned from them, both the easy and the hard way. I’m thankful for my family and few real friends who have always supported me through those problems, and I’m thankful for having had the inner strength to endure past trials and tribulations. I’m thankful that I have my health, I hope it can stay this way, and although sickness and disease scare the hell out of me, I hope I can remain grateful for life even if something should ever happen. I’m thankful that most of my family are healthy, for the most part, and I’m thankful because I have so many honest and real people in my family who I can look up to. I sometimes wish that I could live like they do, that I could be as correct as them in every aspect of life, but then I remember that I’m thankful for being myself, exactly as I am. I’m thankful for my mother and my father, two amazing people who raised my two brothers with unconditional love and much more. I’m thankful that I still have them by my side, and that I always will. I couldn’t be happier about the way our relationship is progressing, so I’m thankful that those old stressful days are behind us now, and that we can move on as a family. I’m thankful for life in general, for the diversity and the difference, for the depth and the significance of seemingly random events, I’m thankful for my wonderful wife and for the pure love we’ve come to share together. I’m thankful for every day we spend together at our little house here in Honduras. I’m thankful for my grandparents who are letting us stay at their property, I thank God for my family’s generosity and their unconditional love and support, their wise advice. I’m thankful for my gift of writing, of creating music, of rapping. I’m thankful for my body, I know that it’s my responsibility to take care of it, to use it in the right ways and as a tool to achieve the right purposes. I’m thankful for whatever amount of discernment I possess, and I’m so thankful for the little bit of self-control I’ve begun to have recently after much work, failure and trying again, after setting numerous goals, rearranging days, planning weeks out, letting go of things I think I need. I’m thankful for consciousness, for simply being alive, for my legs and feet, for being able to walk slowly down the street, enjoying a song on my headphones on a sunny day. I thank God for creation, for nature, for the sun and the moon, for the planets and the stars and the sky above. I’m thankful for the ocean, for the seas, for the sand, the beach, the dirt, air we all breathe. I’m thankful for every obstacle in my way, since it presents an opportunity to grow. I’m thankful for every single thing I’ve gone through, for every memory, for every random event as well as everything I ever chose to do, I’m thankful for it all, since it’s all made me who I am. I’m thankful for being me, but I’m also thankful that you are you, that he is he and that she is she. I’m glad that we’re all here, that we can read, we can write, we can learn and philosophize. I’m thankful that I can wake up in the morning and enjoy a tasty breakfast, that I can plan my day with optimism. I’m thankful for the cool breeze, I’m thankful for the rain for the plants need it and we need the plants. I’m thankful for the innocence of newborn babies, for animals and their variations. I thank God for the mystery of life, and for all there is to figure out. I’m thankful that I’m not God, or some all-powerful being, that I do not hold the responsibility of the whole world or universe on my shoulders. I humble myself and I am thankful for it, since I know I am an instrument in life, although I have free will. How can we understand this? We cannot possibly comprehend such a concept with earthly understanding, and I am thankful for it. I love life as it is, I am thankful because I’m still me. Should I cry and complain all the time because I haven’t reach a completely selfless, or impersonal state? Should I practice all sorts of severe austerities, should i neglect my body and starve myself to death, should I despise all that is in this physical realm? I am thankful for my life on this planet, no matter what its ultimate meaning may be, I am thankful that I have the opportunity to live this life. We all have the power to create the lives we wish to live. We are all born in different circumstances, and for some it may prove more difficult than for others to reach their dreams, but perhaps the hardships were just what we needed in order to grow into the people we needed to be so that we could succeed at that new stage of life we are sure to enter into once we do realize our greatest dreams. Accept the reality and the unpredictability of life, be thankful for it. Would you be interested in watching a movie if there are no problems, nothing to resolve? What if you already knew everything that would happen also? Life is unpredictable because we have a say in what happens, and if we want to live in freedom then we have to assume responsibility for our actions, and we have to be willing to pay the consequences. Be thankful for the life that even allows you the opportunity to live and to choose otherwise, to be thankful or the hate life.

To be continued tomorrow, on Day 69.

~ Rebel Spirit 

1,000 WORDS (2nd attempt): DAY 66: Life Is A Learning Process.

Life is a constant learning process. The ups and downs, trials and tribulations, the highs and lows that make up our lives, they can all be looked at and appreciated, if we can achieve such a state of mind, as the necessary pieces of the puzzle which makes us who we are. Life is about putting all the pieces together, about connecting all the dots in the right order, in order to see the bigger picture eventually. Life is really about trial and error, although we can learn beforehand about the things we consciously choose to become involved in. Some things just happen though, or at least we have no clue why they’re happening. Sometimes we have no way to prepare for such a situation, and in these cases learning happens on the spot. We have no choice but to learn. In reality, we learn from everything we experience, consciously and subconsciously, we are always learning, always changing into something new. We are never the same person, every passing second changes us in a profound way, even if we don’t experience the change in progress. Small changes that take a second give way to big changes that happen throughout a lifetime. Pain comes and passes, we curse and we cry, joy comes and we rejoice, but we cry when it leaves. We are relieved when the pain passes, and we appreciate life a little more, but for how long? Is it only a temporary feeling? Too often this is the case. We often overlook all the blessings in our lives by being too caught up in complaining. By focusing on the negative aspect of everything, we fail to be thankful for, or to even acknowledge, all the wonderful things in our lives, and we also fail to see how any positive result could come from the things that seem like total tragedies to us. The biggest problems in our lives are the ones that we could learn the most from, but too many of us are too afraid to do this, and we are also too afraid to even acknowledge our own cowardice. If we could dive deep into our despair, if we could stare sorrow in the face and smile at it, if we could master our emotions and all the thoughts that run daily through our minds, we could probably do a lot more learning, and a lot less complaining than we currently do. We could dig for gold in our problems if only we changed our attitude. We could trace the cause of every problem we face, and we would see that it starts with us, and that a change must therefore start with us as well, with nobody else. If we refuse to learn, if we run from distraction to distraction, hoping to avoid looking at the truth of our lives, we still will not be able to avoid learning completely. We can choose not to learn now, by discernment, but we will surely learn our lesson later, only we will have to learn it the hard way, probably not under very pleasurable circumstances. Life has a way of catching up to us, and there’s no escape from fate. We have free will to create our lives, but if we act out of ignorance, if we don’t know what knowledge even means, then are we really making conscious decisions, are we really free men and women? We talk way too much, and we all think we have the answer, we are all self-righteous in some way, and I’m not excluding myself. We all have to fight a constant battle, one that’s even more important, more intense, than any battle against external forces. We are all facing an inner battle against demonic forces, evils such as lust, greed, hate, jealousy, ambition beyond any reason. These are all things that are bound to lead to catastrophe if they are not placed under the power of the Spirit, or at least under the power of reason or common sense, which might not be enough. If we are not aware of this, then how can we even think of starting to learn about how to be free? How can we try to learn to live life if we think it is meaningless, if we think that nothing really matters and that life is just a constant quest for the most pleasurable feeling, for the highest high or the craziest thrill? We must do away with these ignorant notions. Life is meaningful beyond human comprehension, and we can learn something from everything. We can learn from good and from evil, we can learn from the kind and we can learn from the wicked, we can learn what is right and what is not right, we can learn from our parents, we can learn from priests or from politicians, we can learn from books or from crooks. Who we learn from often plays a big role in who we become in life, but the wisest teacher of them all is life itself. No matter who we choose to learn from in life, be it professionally or just in general, about life, no one can teach us like life can. Life is the master of life, it knows all there is to know about it, because it is life itself. The more we understand the deep significance of life, the more we try to connect with it, to really live and to feel it, to feel fully alive, the easier it becomes to understand life, to understand how to incorporate everything, the good and the bad, into our lives, how to keep calm and continue to move forward, how to trust in God, in life, and how to leave worry behind. We were not meant to live in fear or worry, so we must focus on living our lives as best as possible and on learning the most we can from every day we are blessed to live through. The first step is to humble ourselves and to accept that we don’t know much at all, that we are the humble students of life from now on.

To be continued tomorrow, on Day 67.

~ Rebel Spirit

1,000 WORDS (2nd attempt): DAY 60: Look For the Answer Within Yourself.

Sometimes it feels like nothing makes sense. Sometimes we feel tired, or angry, and we don’t know why, we just feel like something’s wrong, and we wish we could find out exactly what the problem is. We try to pass the time, to think about other things, to stay busy, or to sleep. We try to distract ourselves by any means necessary since we can’t simply sit, alone with our discomfort, we can’t accept that it’s there for a reason, so that we can find out what that reason really is. In order to find out why we feel the discomfort we do, why we feel stressed or depressed or frustrated, we need to acknowledge that there’s a reason why we feel this way. Feelings don’t just come out of nowhere, and most of the time we are unconscious of the things that we do, or that happen in our lives, that cause us to feel certain emotions during the course of each day. We don’t observe our feelings, we simply feel bored so we find a way to kill time, or we feel stressed so we find some way to distract ourselves, to get caught up in the moment so that we don’t have to think. This may be the very root of our problem, the fact that we are not fully transparent to ourselves. We might think that we know ourselves, that we know what really makes us who we are, what we stand for, why we think or feel the way we do, but the truth is that we know very little about ourselves, about how our thoughts and emotions work or where they come from. It’s very easy to believe our own lies when they are comforting, when they prevent us from making the changes we need to be making in our lives. Usually we don’t even know that this is going on, since very few of us even take a few minutes of each day to sit in silence, to reflect. So many of us have unresolved issues which are subconsciously sabotaging our lives, issues which we are too afraid to face, which we have been too afraid to face for far too long, and which are now wreaking havoc in our lives without us being aware of it. We’ve ignored our problems for so long that we’ve finally forgotten that they are there. Forgetting about our problems won’t make them go away however, it will only make us unable to deal with them. What we need to do is to find time to go deep inside, to find time to simply be, to know the essence of what it means to be alive, to be ourselves, by ourselves, without any external influence, keeping our awareness away from desires and ambitions, from attachments and aversions, and focusing on that which we know is the highest truth, the highest good which exists. All of us have some form of understanding of this, it is an intuition which is within us. We need to stop ignoring our intuition, we need to find time to be alone with it, we need to pray, to meditate, to be at peace, to let go of any past evil which has been committed by us or against us, and to be at peace, just here and now, understanding that now is all that there is, and that we can only begin to live correctly now if we come to terms with the past, and if we can let go of our pain, of our hate, of our desire for things to be different, and to reach a point where we are now free to enjoy the blessings of each moment, without pressure. Problems often seem too big for us to overcome, but it’s often because we don’t even know where the problems stem from. We are under too much pressure, too much stress, we are not in a position to find out what the source of our problems are, let alone to get to work on fixing it. We have to stop looking for external solutions to problems which we can’t even pinpoint, and instead we need to focus completely on the inner, on slowing down and on analyzing our lives up until now, on bringing peace to our minds and lives. We need to stop frantically searching for an answer, and we need to simply stop ignoring that which we know to be right. The solution to our problems doesn’t have to be too complicated, but if we never bother to look in the right place, in that place within our very souls, then we will never find it no matter how far we may travel, no matter how dedicated we may be to our search. If we keep on ignoring those things which make us uncomfortable, if we keep on attempting to fill the void, to fill the silence, with all sorts of pointless noise, with useless and even harmful activities, we will never find the answer, we will never find true satisfaction. This is a message to everyone who is feeling completely frustrated by life and what it entails, by the feeling of something missing, of something being wrong even when nothing seems to be wrong externally, who suffer and struggle with these feelings but don’t know why. Don’t give in to boredom, don’t give in to restlessness. Calm down, calm your mind, see the blessings which surround you in your life, understand that everything is a process, that everything happens for a reason, that you are where you need to be. Stop desperately looking for the magic cure against all sorrow, instead embrace all your sorrow, embrace your pain, embrace life with all it includes, and simply seek to humbly understand yourself, to become better every day. Stop ignoring the truth, make the necessary changes and things will slowly get better. Don’t try to run before you can walk, make the changes that you need to make now so that you can be in a position to make much bigger changes in the future. 

To be continued tomorrow, on Day 61.

~ Rebel Spirit

1,000 WORDS (2nd attempt): DAY 48: Nothing Will Change By Wishing.

Heaven and hell, some believe are states of mind, that we can reach at any time. Some say we will reach them after we’ve finally left this world behind. We have the Light within ourselves yet we always try to shine, externally, to fulfill a longing that persists eternally, we’re on a constant quest to find, connection, first we need a bit of introspection, before the world we can dream to conquest. We need to do the necessary work with no exception, until we can rise again just like Jesus’ resurrection. To carry the cross to our own death, to leave the palace privileges behind like Buddha, in order to live among the people, the poor, with their many diseases and infections, to work on work of the breath, Pranayama, on concentration and whatever’s left, after feeling has vanished and thought has totally left. Who can find heaven on earth? Who has even a recollection, of his past life, who can remain loyal to God’s goodness as a faithful husband to his loving wife? Who has the most minimal clue of what life is actually worth? Have we found any true connection with the source, or affinity with the living and loving force which animates the bodies we inhabit? How many of us have taken the time to analyze and change our most familiar habits? The habits which we need to change, to take the time to rearrange, our life, at first it’s bound to seem so strange, but you’ll find another range, of vision now becomes clear, you feel you’re on a mission, fear begins to lessen, every obstacle becomes a lesson, which is in itself a blessing, of the highest degree. As we see the Self in others and ourselves, we become free. Free of doubt, truly understanding what the Soul’s about. Spirit, however you’d like to call it. A blessing so rich, wealth that can’t fit in a wallet, even if it’s in a bank card, beyond the thrill of an alcoholic, or an addict of drugs, the source of unlimited love, the light that shines in the heart of even the hardest thug. It cannot be extinguished for good, embrace it is exactly what we all should, and indeed need to do, if we wish to succeed. Is success heaven? Not material success? You could argue for the side of no, or either for the side of yes. Fame and money bring stress. Is this how you would define it? Success to you is all about shining, diamonds, fine and expensive attire, is this why you work so hard and can never retire? Is it the money you’re connected to, so mentally wired? Is that the highest reason that you have to get inspired? Don’t chase wealth, but take care of your health. Don’t chase paper, it comes and it goes. Time goes and never comes back, as far as anyone knows. To death and annihilation, we’re all at all times exposed. So we might as well do it on our own, and follow it as the path we chose. The path of doing what’s right, of shining a light, of being a blessing, a bright, and shining guide to the blind with no sight, to the dumb and deaf, understand their spirit never left. It’s been living through the centuries, and even milennia, through us all. Help your brother up when you see him fall, don’t laugh at him while he’s down and you stand tall. Heaven? Nirvana? Do you know if it’s now or then? Is it today or tomorrow, is it here or there? Who knows? But what we do know, is that life on this earth short, and we can’t go through it as if it’s a simple hobby, we need to pretend we’re professionals at our favorite sport. We need to take it seriously, to understand our situation. We can inspire an entire generation, with the words and deeds which we bring into formation. We can never escape duality, but we can play an immense part in creating our own reality, and thereby affecting those of those around us, so we can stop feeling so lost and finally see that it was God who found us. Stop thinking of the future, of the gift you will receive. Stop thinking of your own self being rewarded, feel the pain when others grieve. Treat the world as your own Spirit. Keep this realization in your mind like your favorite musical lyrics, keep it in your attention, can heaven escape you if you are at peace with who you are? Do you know how to be anything else? We have all made mistakes, and we are sure to make more. Life is very unpredictable still, we don’t know what’s in store. But we can make less mistakes, and ensure we will suffer less. Bad things will happen still, nevertheless. Yet we leave it in God’s hands, we never worry since it’s all in God’s plan. All we can do is find a way to portray what righteousness means to a world that has gone astray. Every religion or race can find wisdom, within their own religious and spiritual system. But the vast mass of world civilians, has no clue of their true nature, people in the millions. We feel trapped, under the stress of work and bills, under the fear of going out and being killed, due to the neighborhoods we live in, we are tempted by all forms of evil so we give in, and we participate, we descend lower and lower instead of elevate. We conform and we’re okay with being mediocre, but never great. We see life as a horrible fate, which we just can’t escape. We feel constant suffering, hunger. We feel the world on our shoulders, holding us down, keeping us under. Drugged and sedated, we love and we hate it, we endlessly cry, we look up and complain to the sky. Isn’t this pure hell? Ignorance of our true nature, giving in to such suffering, wailing and wishing that things wouldn’t be the way they are. Nothing can change by wishing, whether to God or on a star.

To be continued tomorrow, on Day 49.

~ Rebel Spirit

1,000 WORDS (2nd attempt): DAY 46: Renunciation, Annihilation of the Will.

The whole human race, ashamed, afraid to look at each other’s face. Living to cause death, only killing time and taking up space. Some of us wish that we could disappear from the life we know, without a trace. We’re ready to throw the towel in, what a disgrace. We must use the past as motivation for the future, that’s why it can never be erased. But since we don’t know its purpose, when we recollect, the soul is suffering, the spirit is experiencing sorrow. We can’t live in the present, mentally stuck on the pain of the past, on a violent vision of a possible tomorrow. This is the danger of dwelling on a vision of illusion, which is the main cause for decisions that are made in delusion. We try to keep the mind steady, but the media has a plan of perfect intrusion. We need to remain focused on the real, to everything else’s exclusion. Their plan has been thought up in order to invade, to cast a dark and detrimental shade over everything that God has lovingly made. Some do it for pleasure and some are paid, they cause harm and agony, they gain their money from tearing apart an entire family. Their plan is to confuse creation, to enslave an entire generation, to have children thinking that they belong to a certain nation. We still haven’t realized the treasure, the amazing treasure that lies beyond pain and even all pleasure. We’ve learned and remained patient, yet we still haven’t understood the greatest annihilation, which is that of our own will and determination. The human will that causes people to be raped and killed, with no hesitation. The will is used for the purpose of implementing the interests of the greedy, within this corrupt system which will always need the needy. Why don’t things change already? Are we ready for change? Evil is on the rise, steady, coming up in popularity, where can we witness charity, where can we hide from humanity’s apparent demise? Where are those people on the pursuit of what is holy? Those who follow the inner Light only, who know the way, who attempt to further emancipate the minds of the masses every day. Where is the man who sits and talks to God at night, searching for direction? Alone, in the plane of heavenly peace, his soul starts to take flight, he is shown what must be done for correction. The realms of reality are familiar to him. The angels become his closest kin, he sees the nature and meaning of sin. He comes to recognize the rich reward for true renunciation, which can only be the greatest state of elevation. Levitation, calm, above pain, knowing that we are something much more than our nationality and name. Much more than what we’ve done, much bigger than the place from which we came, much brighter than the sun, much more complex than our father and mother’s son. We come from the essence, the fire that burns within all souls. Unfortunately we now live in profound ignorance of the power we all hold. That’s why we search but never find, we desperately try to take control. That’s why demons harass our minds, why we have trouble when trying to sleep, we feel empty and cold. Why we often don’t even know why we weep, these tears we can’t hold, so we let them flow. We remain at the surface, since we’re scared to go deep. To explore what subconsciously drives us, to understand what lies behind perception’s doors, what secrets do the mysteries keep, what do we hold in this mental store, aren’t you willing to take a peek? Connect with the source of all love and respect, the highest source from above, keep yourself in check, look beyond the intellect. Wisdom lies in seeing through, what’s ordinary to me and you, in seeing the essence, in understanding the significance of presence. Life is all a series of lessons, and even the toughest of tribulations are blessings, moments of incredible inspiration must be understood as divine presents. Let’s appreciate life, who we are, let’s understand that we don’t need to be celebrities or stars, in order to shine, we don’t need to get ahead in order not to fall behind. Life is not a competition, you can only outdo your past self. So let go of the fear, nurture your vision, set a goal for your mission, and take your skills off the shelf. Give life all you got, keep on moving and never stop, even when you look around you and you see the people’s hearts drop. Remain strong, along the way a lot of things are bound to go wrong. Use the pain, use the struggle, to gain, to learn to remain untroubled, to remain in God, even in the worst situations, to remain centered in your mind, and to refrain from useless conversation. We transmit consciousness through our brains like radio stations, we pick up the signal and we perceive it. We see, so we believe it. But often the realest things are those unseen, the symbolism hidden in our dreams. Sometimes we need to disconnect, from the stress and we need to realize that, yes, it is true what they say, the answer’s always been inside. Look inside, accept your limitations, there is nothing to hide. Life is a journey of self-realization. We all have problems and we all have expectations. But we don’t need these things. There are no problems if there are no expectations. Be yourself always, be honest with yourself, work on yourself, start a revolution in your own mind, this is all any of us can do. We can start a personal revolution, in order to inspire others to continue this spiritual evolution. Perhaps we can bring some good to this earth. Perhaps more people can wake up and see what life is truly worth. So, another thousand words are posted, now it’s time for me to go get toasted, to relax, and enjoy the now. Tomorrow’s a new day anyhow.

To be continued tomorrow, on Day 47.

~ Rebel Spirit

1,000 WORDS (2nd attempt): DAY 38: Philosophy and The Meaning of Life.

Philosophy is great, but it can be dangerous. Everything is usually great and has the potential to be dangerous if used in the wrong ways, or by the wrong people at the wrong time. But we all must philosophize, at least personally, about our own lives, in order to create some kind of order. We all need to have a meaning in life, and simply living, loving our family and friends, and being the best we can be is possibly the greatest source of meaning we can find, other than sincerely searching for, and finally finding, God. How should we give meaning to our lives though? Some argue that life has no meaning, yet I notice that even these people try to improve their personalities in some way. If life was truly meaningless, then what would be the point of trying to better ourselves, to try to create order from chaos in our own lives. The only way we can come to this realization of order is by analyzing, by understanding the philosophies of the world and the ones we have subscribed to, unknowingly, over the years. Then what we need to do is to develop new habits, ones that will allow us to break free from an often nihilistic and depressing viewpoint of life, and to embrace the fact that, in reality, life has much more meaning than they were previously willing to admit. The mere system of union between a loving couple, of procreation and of life continuing in a family, of parents raising and unconditionally loving their children until they grow, instilling love into their children’s hearts with their very own actions. There is a flip side however, as there is to everything in this world of duality, as parents can impose their destructive beliefs onto their children, even without knowing it at times, by being bad examples when confronted with any given situation. The point is that, one cannot ignore the great significance of this unity between two people, to complement each other throughout their lives, to learn what it means to truly have to sacrifice yourself for someone at times, especially when children come along. Then these children take the best and the worst of both parents, plus a whole lot from its own unique environment as well, and blends all of it together to create a new person, who might very likely be a new family man or woman. And so life goes on, indefinitely. What for though? Are we free to assign meaning to anything and everything, just as we please, trusting everything we believe to be true? In a way, yes, we are all free to find meaning in our own lives, and we should definitely do this, we should never ignore or depreciate those blessings which have been ours all along, some of which we have actively neglected for so long. One example is when we try to act tough, so we try to stop being vulnerable, we try to stop connecting with people, we feel that there is no point to life, or to play the game of life with all these people around us. It’s tempting to feel like this sometimes, like a lone wolf, like it’s me against the world. I used to have this mentality back in the days a lot, I felt alone against forces which were beyond me. I’m glad I’ve overcome that now, for the most part, as I understand that life is, without a doubt, a collaborative experience, and that connections between people should be nurtured and appreciated, that for true communication to take place, we need to be true to ourselves and to those we interact with. If we play a part everywhere we go then no one will ever know the real you, they will only know fragments of you at each place, depending on how much of that true self you let show at each event. We need to come to terms with who we are, and what we are in this life. We need to understand that every human life matters equally, but that no one is superior to anybody else or matters more. We agree with this, yet we ignore the fact that, in any situation of danger, we would always look out for ourselves. We would attempt to save only those of our immediate family, our loved ones, precisely because of that, because we love them. Love compels us to go beyond our selfish self, beyond our personality and to connect, to truly feel a connection, between who we are, and who somebody else is. This love is usually complicated enough between two people, but if it’s true it will endure through the storms. What if an equally true love, but on a different scale, not in a romantic sense, but an even more complete love, a Divine love, existed and could be realized by all human beings if only we understood and truly felt a connection between our lives and those of other human beings, random people to us? After all, we are random people to them, and so are all the people we love. They would sacrifice all of us in the blink of an eye to save those they themselves love, should the tragic situation arise. We can never truly escape from this love of ourselves while we live in this world, or perhaps we can, but not living in this society. We must exchange love for the self, for love of the Self, and we must be the light that shines eternally everywhere we go, being an example of humility and love that people can feel the truth in, that people can feel inspired by. Philosophize and understand, realize that people have been attempting to figure out the meaning of life for millennia, and that philosophy and all the various religions are the result of this fact. We all feel that there’s something more to life, and that is why we try to life a meaningful life, or at least one that means something to us. Don’t give up on your life before you truly look at the value which is hidden in every crack, in every bad habit, in every problem you keep on facing, in every issue with a family member or friend, in every blessing and every love, in every enemy and friend. What does a friend mean to you, or an enemy? Is there such a thing? Reflect, philosophize, experiment, observe. Take your life in your hands, but remain humble, under the Higher Power which has given you the opportunity to live, and to even try to understand.

1,000 WORDS (2nd attempt): DAY 37: Forget About Enlightenment and Live Your Life!

Stop worrying about achieving enlightenment, and focus on being in the moment instead. Focus on living your own life to the fullest extent, to the best of your abilities, with no excuses, at all times. Too many people are seeking thrills from so-called spirituality, boosting their egos up with fancy new terms, pretending to fully understand ancient concepts. Nowadays people make money off of spirituality just as with any other service, it’s all been commercialized now. The answer is not in some training program though, or in some spirituality course. The answer can only be found in your own Spirit, the Spirit of God living within you. Can you not feel God’s presence within you? Are you blind to your own goodness, to your own consciousness? Remove the blindfolds then, and behold, be honest with yourself and complete, look at you through God’s ayes, feel your oneness with all beings in Spirit. See that the suffering you can go through could be anyone else’s. We all go through problems while we live our lives, and some of us are stronger than others and are able to find better coping mechanisms than them. Many go down a very dark path of destruction, whether of self or of others. They are caught up in negative emotions, in feelings of hate, of extreme hopelessness, of being alone in a cold world. Understand that everything depends on how we handle each situation. Everything changes, so each decision leads to a new condition of life, and slowly but surely we create the lives we wish to live. On the flip side, we can create a life which we’ll later blame God for, claiming to have no idea how things could have gone so horribly wrong. So make the right decisions now, while you still have the chance to do so. No one will pay for your mistakes but yourself, yet you are bound to bring others down with you with each bad decision, just as everyone else will bring you down with their bad behavior. Let go of the cynicism and understand that, as you help to normalize negativity, others are bound to do the same, and soon we will all be at risk, we will all think we are fine, that we are normal, yet we will be living in an insane and dangerous society, one whose values are upside down. Aren’t these the times we are living in now? Stop looking for the answer here and there, stop treating spiritual matters as a game, as if you can advance from level to level, ascending and becoming some kind of divine teacher who reads peoples futures or commands others what to do at all times. Be humble, acknowledge your limitations and don’t flaunt your talents, use them when necessary. Understand that fools love to talk much, remain observant and alert, alive in the Spirit, unshaken by all the stupidity that might surround us at any given moment. Life becomes a moving meditation, writing a sitting meditation, cooking and making tea or coffee are standing meditations. Feel the moment, whether there’s nothing that seems to important currently going on, or whether you’re going through the biggest crisis you could ever possibly face, remain grounded in your awareness that this too shall pass, and that everything has a lesson to teach. Don’t feel entitled, don’t fight life’s process, however painful it may be, don’t complain, feel all the suffering and pain, but understand is as necessary. A lesson can be learned from every tragedy, and all can rise from the bottom of the deepest pit and ascend to the top of an empire like Joseph, all of us have been granted the ability to rise again, time and time again, just like a fiery phoenix. This is enough to challenge us for the rest of our lives, learning to live with acceptance, submitting our will to the Divine will, to things we cannot understand. Being content with events which we can only analyze over and over in order to learn from, or moments we can only cherish in memory now. What need do we have then to conjure up spirits back from the dead, to do great feats before the eyes of the masses, to spread the word of some religion or ideology wherever we may go, if we have not mastered our own minds, if we haven’t yet learned to be truly humble and accepting of life in every way we perceive it? We will fall, we will easily be deceived, we will think ourselves powerful, yet we will be nothing but puppets for the system, or even for evil spirits, who knows? Spiritual learning is nothing without true humility, without a true commitment to truth, without love for humanity, with cynicism towards life, with evil intentions towards others. No advancement can be made if the requirements to reach the goal are not followed. True bliss comes from the feeling of being rid of all impurity, or at least of most of it, knowing we have tried and struggled but succeeded in the end, from feeling that we are truly connected with the Divine Will, not from acting totally against it. We cannot feel God’s presence within us if we ignore the goodness of our own Spirit. We sometimes choose to ignore our intuition for reasons such as impressing others, or simply blindly following others against our better judgment. We can’t trust others to make decisions for us, we need to be always alert and we need to understand that we have to make the correct decisions for our own lives, each and every one of us, at all times. We are all imperfect as we live in this earthly life, and we all feel this illusion of separateness. It is the reason why we try to learn special skills, why we are so interested in the dark and mysterious at times, since we want to feel like we possess some special, or hidden, knowledge. We can now use this knowledge or wisdom to elevate our consciousness, and therefore our own lives, to a higher level. This is most people’s mentality, and it simply stops there. Not a single thought about using this new knowledge or energy for good, or to give back to the community by creating actual positive change. People want to achieve the condition of no-self, by following purely selfish pursuits, and it just doesn’t work that way.

To be continued tomorrow, on Day 38.

~ Rebel Spirit

1,000 WORDS (2nd attempt): DAY 36: What Do Adam and Eve Stand For?

The Fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden makes me wonder about a lot of things. Of course, Christians claim it is simply a literal account of how the world was created by God. I don’t regard any belief as false, but I think it might just be possible that there’s much more to it than that. Why did women start giving labor in pain only after God cursed Eve for disobeying his commandment? Why was this also the point in the story when they were commanded to work the earth? Could it be that this was the time when “Adam and Eve” became incarnated beings, the time when time began, so to speak, when souls entered into male and female bodies and populated the earth? This is a similar concept to the Kabbalist idea of tzim-tzum, the big bang which took place due to God contracting his total goodness, thereby removing it from a certain place in time in space, creating the Earth, a world motivated by infinite desire, all beings feeling the emptiness of having lost God’s all-encompassing love. This is believed to be the reason why most of us experience a spiritual impulse at some point in our lives, why religion has arisen since the dawn of time and continues to pop up in every part of the planet, since we long to reconnect with God, with the creator. Could Adam and Eve also represent masculine and feminine forces, both which are found within each person, positive and negative, the yin and the yang? Could the story of the creation of Adam, and then Eve from his ribs, be a way of symbolizing the fact that both forces need to connect, that one can’t be without the other? After all, a man and a woman connect to create a new life on this planet. Nobody knows how this conjures up consciousness into a new body, nobody knows the complete process whereby a cranium is developed to hold that consciousness, or actually the brain that will receive, or perceive, that consciousness. It all just happens, a higher intelligence takes care of all we take for granted. All we need to do is get together and make love, ideally while we are in love. This disregard for connection, yet global obsession with sex at the same time, is creating a lot of problems as unexpected and often unwanted children are being born, and their parents either give them up for adoption, or much worse, go in for an abortion. If they choose to keep the child, he or she usually grows up in a tense environment, if the parents are teenagers there are usually lots of problems with parents and they end up separating. This ruins the experience of childhood for many kids, and it ruins many people’s adult lives as well, as experiences of fear or trauma or too much stress and disagreement in the air can cause psychological or emotional problems in young children’s minds. But of course, these parents never thought about the idea of truly connecting with someone else, in order to start a family and take care of a new life. All they did was let themselves go, into all kinds of pleasures, desensitized from all possible consequences, living as if life is nothing but a dream. If more people treated the subject of sex with respect, if they truly understood the sanctity of love and true connection between two people who support each other, then maybe people wouldn’t abuse it so much, and many of these problems could be avoided. Quick and stupid decisions have consequences that last for generations. I got a little bit off course there, but on another note about Adam and Eve, could they also signify the good and evil of life? We already wondered about the positive and negative poles. The Law of Polarity is one of the seven hermetic principles, as well as The Principle of Gender. Good and evil could be part of this as well, since no one really know what real good really is, the truest good which is beyond both the good and the evil of duality. This is a planet of polarity, and maybe we need to find balance between good and evil by understanding both pain and pleasure and becoming indifferent to them, understanding that there is a higher essence above them. Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, so was there already good and evil, or did they begin when they ate from the fruit? Did they simply become aware of these concepts, of good and of evil, and that this knowledge came along with free will, with human life, with the life of suffering which we all live in, according to the Buddha? Why must the nature of life be one of suffering, why must no earthly good completely satisfy? There must have been some initial mistake, and Adam and Eve’s mistake seems to be one that impacted generations for millions, or possibly billions, of years? But how could they have chosen to disobey God in the first place and eat from the forbidden fruit, if they didn’t yet have free will? So, I don’t really know. Where these really human beings, or angels, or mythological characters, personifications of certain concepts? Could a happy marriage be the highest we can achieve in life? Could it be some kind of way for us to fully connect our opposite energies, if we do it in the spirit of true love, and to feel a connection that resembles the connection between Spirit and God, between the Atman and Brahman, the lover and the beloved? Could marriage, just as sex, be divine symbols for the connections that must be joined in balance, during this life, in order for us to live correctly, or of the physical body parts that must be joined in order for life to even continue? We can never know, but we can study and maybe one day we’ll come to a more complete conclusion.

To be continued tomorrow, on Day 37.

~ Rebel Spirit