The above thirteen words sum up what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to not limit my mind so as to not limit myself and then to see where I end up.
We put limits on our minds every day by accepting our own and others definitions and limitations of us. We leave greatness for either someone else or God. What would the world be like if we each really, really set about being our truly best selves, with no limits or excuses? What would that even mean to be our best selves? Would we recognize ourselves?
Every time I say or think something limiting about myself, I've actually done the limiting. If I think I can't remember names when I meet new people, I won't. Lately, I've been thinking I can remember, and I do. sThat may be a pretty inconsequential example, but I think it makes the point.
Try this one on for size: how many times have you been nasty to someone and felt somewhat justified because you were tired, hungry, stressed? Imagine dealing with that person from a point of view of no excuses for yourself. Would you still bite their head off?
At the class I took with Joe Dispenza, one of the first things he had us do was to introduce ourselves to the people we were sitting next to and to tell those people that we were geniuses. Nervous laughter broke out around the room. No one did it. He told us to do it again and we all waited for his signal to start before more nervous laughter and we complied. And this was even though Dr. Joe defines a genius as a person who can change himself which seems like a pretty easy thing to do and not the usual definition which would be something like a person of extremely high intelligence. Using Dr. Joe's definition, anyone who tries to do so can be a genius. By the typical definition, at this point only a few people are geniuses (but, maybe if everyone lived intentionally and tried to have a very high intelligence, everyone could be so). I don't know. I'm speculating. But even using Dr. Joe's definition, we're not comfortable being geniuses. Striving for that level of greatness feels wrong to most of us. We don't think we can attain it and we don't think we deserve it. And, we may even be afraid that being a genius entails greater responsibility. Instead of thinking we're all capable of it, we're afraid that others will think we're too full of ourselves if we have such lofty goals.
However, just walking this earth, having this chance at life, is such a huge gift, that I think we each owe it to ourselves, each other, and the world to make ourselves our best selves so that we can live our best lives and see where that leads us. I suspect it couldn't possibly lead us anyplace else than to having a much, much better world for all of us.
It's interesting. I just reread the last paragraph. In my little, fledgling practice, I keep coming back to this idea of being a good person: compassionate to all animate things and the world. Each day, during my meditation, I go through what I want, and as I meditate on them, they either crystallize on how they would lead to my living a more compassionate life or they fall away. For example, my desire to write crystallizes into that it's a way to become more creative, and if I'm more creative, I can think more creatively on how to be compassionate as I go about my day and may lead to finding a "bigger" project that would help the world. My desire to get our house in order is that it would make my family's life more pleasant and also simplify my life leaving me time that could be geared to helping the world. And the desire for a part-time job to just earn some money has fallen away.
The spiritual leaders of all traditions, throughout time all saw this (compassion) as central to their teachings (at least I know of none who taught otherwise). I really am trying to go within and strip away what I've been conditioned to believe. So, have I not been able to strip away my conditioning yet and am still echoing the ideas of the people around me? Or, do I too just happen to believe this? And if so, where did this belief come from? (Whoa! That's a big question - where do our ideas come from?) Is this a common belief that's hardwired into us all? Is there a universal consciousness that we tap into and learn this from?
Phew! I'm off to sit on the cushion. Usually, that's before coffee and certainly before philosophizing! Somehow, I think it's going to be an interesting session.....
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