Musings on what sets us free?

Scandals....War...Politics...Stress...Tension...Markets are up & down...everything seems upside down?
Environmental Degradation...The Newspapers full of senseless unkind and insane acts of inhumanity. Hate. Rage. You even see it on the road-- people risking their lives to speed, pass and cut others off. Why?

What stories are we telling ourselves?

Time to step back and see where our stories as a collective body of people, a community, a family, as nations, a race, a creed, a gender have brought us.
Time to examine our stories and what stories we want to nurture or keep repeating from generation to generation.

I still love and re-read Eckhart Tolle's Book the New Earth- Awakening to your Life's Purpose.

" If you were not familiar with our contemporary civilization, if you had come from another age or another planet," states Tolle, " one of the things that would amaze you is that millions of people love and pay money to watch humans kill and inflict pain on each other and call it 'entertainment' "." Drama" .."The pain-body.. magnifies the ego's need for enemies".

Interesting. How many of us are even conscious of this thing called EGO? We are trapped in "Object"consciousness .... Most of our lives are cluttered up with things, material things to have or get or things to do, things to think about", he explains.

Is this freedom?

How do we cut through this? How can we bring sanity back to our planet?

First we have to be aware that much of what we do is in fact informed by stories that we carry on with....and with habits... or ways of doing things that we never question if they even make sense or if they really serve us. Gossip out of control? I sat at a table the other day and heard a person hold court with gossip and stories and gossip and finally no one was speaking as this person droned on and on with petty details of " he said.. she said".

We are trapped in our own insanity. Because we are evil? I don't think so.

Can we tolerate being quiet and still enough to examine the thought-less-ness that stands in the way of being aware of what a high price we are paying for carrying around egos of pain, hate, feeling less than, scarcity, greed, that empty spiritual hole that can't seem to be filled with enough distraction, activity, sex, drugs, noise, music,TV , Internet, video games cigarettes, success, needing to be the leader, the winner, the hero?? etc. etc.?

Why are we so afraid of quiet? of stillness? of nature?

"The greatness of life arises out of small things that are honored and cared for. Everybody's life really consists of small things. Greatness is a mental abstraction and a favorite fantasy of the ego. The paradox is that the foundation for greatness is honoring the small things of the present moment instead of pursuing greatness. " To read more of these easy to read concepts do spend time with Tolle's book The New Earth...a sin Slow time-- quiet time... aware of the ego talking to you as you read. Warning! Your ego may just kick and scream all the way through!
Just Read The book!

I rarely go to the cinema. I find many films just pure feeding of fear or keeping us feeling scared -- like the negative newspaper stories we read everyday. Where are the good news stories of people caring for each other? or Overcoming hate and fear or depression?

I just recently saw the film Invictus...it reminded me of the brilliance of how a leader helped a nation cross the lines of a horrible history together... where
(not perfectly and still imperfect) Nelson Mandela, in his first term as the first President of a free South Africa initiated a unique venture to unite the apartheid-torn land. He called upon the national rugby team to take on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Ah! He could have led with revenge and hate for the other. But who is really the OTHER?

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley 1875

This poem gave strength and courage to Mandela while he was incarcerated.
Henley, at the age of 12, despite a severe bout with TB successfully passed the
Oxford senior student student exams in 1867. In 1875 he wrote the "Invictus" poem from his hospital bed after having his leg amputated after the disease progressed to below his knee.

See The Trailer! See The Movie: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1889666329/

and Learn about the man:
http://www.nelsonmandela.org/index.php

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