Awakening - the Next Stage in Human Evolution

     It's blatantly obvious, when an elderly person observes how babies physically mature into toddlers, then gradually teens, young adults, middle-aged folks, seniors and elderly. However, at none of the earlier stages can we fully appreciate the lived experience of any of the later stages of life. Our inability to understand the lived experience of later stages of psychosocialspiritual development is a far more serious problem.

    As an example, someone who is angry, bitter & cynical, blaming others for his misfortunes, just wants to wreak havoc on "the system" and fervently believes every conspiracy theory YouTube video out there, cannot be reasoned with. His powerful emotional charge (misdirected Life Force) has to gradually run down like an old battery in cold weather before it can sense the way Home. Even then, psychotherapy, possibly with medications, may be necessary to allow normal psychosocialspiritual maturation to get back on track.

    Many of us, even if we've lived a reasonably successful life, and are reasonably comfortably retired, do not seem to be ready, willing or able to actively participate in normal psychosocialspiritual maturation. DO NOT IGNORE this resistance! Life is shorter than you think & you have no idea what you're missing!

    As most of you who've been following my posts realize, I understand true spirituality as Perennial Philosophy - the common meeting place of ALL serious seekers of truth / wisdom, regardless of what tradition they started in or continue to support, be it Aboriginal Wisdom / Shamanism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. 

    For those who are ready, willing & able, I HIGHLY recommend this 67-minute video which beautifully summarizes the current spiritual understanding of many of the teachers I most respect: https://awakentheworld.com/film/awakening-mind-film-part-1-know-thyself/ 

One Pearl I've Learned

     A precious key pearl I've picked up along the way:

    "The Great Way is not difficult
      for those who have no preferences..." Sengstan

    It's natural, universal & harmless to have mild preferences eg to want chocolate more than vanilla ice cream, or medium-roast more than dark-roast coffee. IF however your world falls apart - even briefly - when you can't get what you prefer, then you are creating UNNECESSARY SUFFERING for yourself & those around you. And most of us take our meaningless preferences way too seriously!

    A MAJOR reason for this is that, in lock-step with our current Western society, we're very left-hemisphere dominant - totally dependent on controlling the external environment. The fact that we have minimal control over the most aspects of life, perfectionism in general, but especially over the most important, most meaningful aspects of life, is frustratingly unattainable.

    Most of us have no idea how powerfully our usual way of thinking & living is handicapped by the dominant materialist reductionist worldview. We are saturated with, & drowning in it, regardless of whether we consider ourselves spiritual, religious, atheists or undecided. The chronic frustration of desperately wanting 'complete control' manifests as: cynicism, nihilism, impatience, anxiety, depression, angry outbursts, addictions, illness anxiety disorder (hypochondriasis), burnout, thanatophobia (intense fear of death or dying), violence, suicide, etc.

    A major brilliant corrective attempt is Iain McGilchrist's book, “The Matter with Things. Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World.” Perspectiva Press, 2021. It is a detailed, intelligent, wise attempt to free readers from simplistic, meaningless materialist perspective most of us mistake for "science."
    In my & many others' opinion, this is the most interesting & most valuable book you will ever come across. (I bought the relatively-inexpensive Kindle version.)
    McGilchrist's book IS a long, patient read, but as he says, “Wisdom is always going to be relatively rare and involves a lot of things."

    A deeply meaningful, worthwhile spiritual life - is yours, IF YOU'RE READY to immerse yourself in wisdom.

 

"Morning has Broken"

Tragicomedy?

     Don't most of us take ourselves & life far too seriously? We desperately want & work tirelessly towards having everything go well for ourselves & our loved ones. But despite all our best efforts, education & technology, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” As a result, it's very easy & very common to become hopelessly cynical - the corrosive effects of which are powerfully illustrated in the 2014 movie, "Calvary" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234003/), available on Netflix. Two thousand years before Robert Burns, the Buddha taught about ("dukkha") the inherent imperfection of everything in the world, and how chasing after & trying to hang onto stuff just creates an extra layer of suffering, and how we can end such needless suffering.
    Kristin Neff PhD provides a short useful practice to deal more wisely with our own, everyone & everything else's imperfection: http://www.johnlovas.com/2018/11/self-compassion-mantra.html

     There are many reminders every day that, despite the fact that life at times does appear like "a real shit show," there is an underlying loving intelligence to life, with a wild sense of humor. This message even comes through at the very end of the otherwise dark movie, "Calvary." Of course it's not possible to have this rather startling insight while we're chasing control with every fiber in our body, nor while depressed over the fact that a lifetime of frantic chasing failed to deliver.
    Only when we start to recognize the important yet very narrow role of our frenzied survival & procreation activities, that some of us become able to hear the whispers of our far more evolved intelligence.
    Some near death experiencers - Natalie Sudman in particular - and others, have suggested that we knowingly volunteer for specific, sometimes very challenging roles & situations in life, for agreed-upon reasons, with considerable humor! BUT most of us completely forget about what we signed up for, causing a lot of unnecessary confusion & suffering.
    I highly recommend watching Natalie Sudman's video AND a detailed reading of "The Bus Stop Conversation" both at: http://www.johnlovas.com/2023/01/the-nearly-unforgivables.html

"Thus shall ye look on all this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in the stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream."
Gautama the Buddha

"Lighten up!"

Just A Shift of Perception Away ...

     You, like many others, probably have some fear & anxiety about having dental or medical procedures like fillings, blood tests, colonoscopies etc. You might start worrying days ahead, thinking of worse-case-scenarios, pain, unlikely mishaps, etc and even have some sleepless nights beforehand. When you arrive for the procedure, you're likely tired, stressed & hypervigilant, ONLY noticing & MAGNIFYING any negative perceptions that confirm your worries, while OVERLOOKING or DISMISSING all positive perceptions - "negativity bias." Afterwards, you're exhausted, mulling over how terrible it was, complaining to all who'll listen. 

     You have everything to gain if you try this very simple experiment. Decide ahead of time to focus all of your attention on radiating kind wishes to the people who'll be treating you: dentist, assistant, physician, nurse, etc. Instead of agonizing, worrying & scaring yourself, remember to be the continuous source of kindness & good wishes towards those looking after you. FEEL the warmth, love, good wishes, radiating from your chest, as when watching a sleeping beloved child, partner, or pet, and radiating loving energy to them. As soon as you feel fearful contraction, let it drop, and focus on being the open-hearted source of love, kindness, encouragement, gratitude towards these folks who are helping you. Notice also how you feel when it's all over, compared to how you usually feel.
     I had advised someone, who was very apprehensive about dentistry, to try the above intentional shift from fearful contraction to being the source of nurturing kindness. He just reported to me that he had 3 excellent experiences using this technique for his last 3 dental appointments, which included a root canal & an implant placement.

     This shift from fearful contracted self-concern / frightened child to wise, loving elder is a natural evolutionary step we will all make sooner or later, AND it has to & will eventually involve not just dental/medical visits, but every aspect of our lives.

     “It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.” Mother Teresa

      Our son, Mike Lovas, pointed us towards Charles Eisenstein's 70-minute interview - an intelligent, realistic overview of our present global situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggdmkFA2BzA

      "To be enlightened is to be intimate with all things." Zen Master Dogen

      "I was born
       when all I once feared
       I could love.”                        Rabia Basri

      "Once we are willing to be directly intimate with our life as it arises, joy emerges out of the simplest of life experiences." Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara

      “If we really were in love with the planet, and incorporated that love into all of our systems, into our money system, we would not have an ecological crisis.” Charles Eisenstein
      “If an economy is operating outside of ecological limits, then the inevitable conclusion is that it’s going to completely erode the resource base until it implodes or collapses. So really, the choice that we have is to design and develop an economy that operates within ecological limits. That’s our only safe bet. It’s our only bet at all.” Shane Ward
        Living the Change: Inspiring Stories for a Sustainable Future (2018) – Watch this EXCELLENT, INSPIRING 86-minute Documentary:

 

 

 

Let the Love-Light Guide

      How often have we seen creative ideas for solving serious problems get quickly shot down with, "Well, I HATE to be the devil's advocate, BUT ..."? This can come from someone who's seen this idea not succeed. However, far too often it's a clash between those who've given up, and those who can see a bright future & have the faith & energy to achieve it - a clash between dark, defeatist "deficit-framing" & creative, nurturing "asset-framing."
      There are lots of reasons for cynicism, depression, hopelessness & nihilism:
      Our evolutionary instinct is to far more vividly remember negative events than positive ones ("negativity bias"). This helped animals survive visits to water holes, but for today's humans, it probably causes far more harm than good, by energizing many of our irrational fears & phobias.
      Trauma is so widespread, psychologists estimate that "94% of us, most of the time, are driven by the negative motivations of fear, greed/craving, anger, & self-assertion; such negative motivations lead to negative & destructive behavior." Danah Zohar
      The dominant, though mostly unconscious worldview today, of "Materialist or Reductionist Science, has (MISTAKENLY) concluded that we are the only sentient beings in an inanimate universe that is without life, meaning, purpose, direction or intelligence. This bleak ‘philosophy’ has taken on the power & absolutism of an ideology.” Anne Baring
      Then we add the fact that the world is in the midst of multiple huge crises: climate change, air-water-food-land pollution, war & nuclear weapons, racism, sexism, wealth hoarding, millions of refugees on the move, rising sea levels. 

     Our global crises DEMAND that we abandon defeatist, dead-end attitudes like "deficit-framing", and bravely, energetically & optimistically chart a new course towards a wise, sustainable life. 

     “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right,” Henry Ford

     Asset-Framing is a narrative model that prioritizes our own & others' assets & aspirations over our challenges & deficits, and invests in people to benefit society. "Trabian Shorters, the creator of the non-profit social impact network BMe Community states 'Narrative tells us which facts to even credit, which facts to ignore, which things are real, which things are false, narrative literally tells you who you are, it tells you who matters, where you should go and where you should not go. Narrative is really the key to how we frame our lives.'" Mick Krasner https://mindfulpracticeinmedicine.com/aspirations-an-inspiring-focus-for-our-practice/  .

      Most of us have some memory of our common primordial Source, but the duality & adversarial nature of our consensual reality veils us from the Light. Some of us sadly choose to remain stuck in total darkness, at least for this lifetime.
     But darkness need not be feared. It is not an actual entity.
     Darkness is simply not remembering what's most real - Light.

     "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
      Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
      It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us."     Marianne Williamson

     We CAN "raise our motivations to the higher ones of exploration, cooperation, self- & situational-mastery, creativity, & service.” Danah Zohar https://spirituality.ucla.edu/docs/newsletters/5/Issue_5/Zohar_Final.pdf Those of us trapped in

     Let's end our tendency to feel hopeless, meaningless, drained & dark! We know this causes nothing but hopelessness, meaninglessness, listlessness & darkness.
     No matter how dark things may get, no matter how low the odds for success appear, IF our goal is NOBLE, we NATURALLY SUCCEED - merging our WISE LOVING INEXHAUSTIBLE energy with the LIGHT. We cannot imagine what our world WILL be like WHEN we realize our UNLIMITED CAPACITY to hold ourselves, others & the entire universe in safety & unconditional love. This imho pivotally important, intelligently mind-heart-expanding book helps give us the confidence to succeed: Paul Levy. “Quantum Revelation: A Radical Synthesis of Science and Spirituality.” SelectBooks, 2018.
     We ALWAYS CO-CREATE our reality, be it light OR dark! We've wandered in darkness for too long. We must NOW intentionally seek the Light!

     “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
     What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
     And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” Howard Zinn PhD

If I stumble, will I fall?
If I fall, I'll tuck and roll
Close my eyes and let the love-light guide me home
Let the love-light guide me home
Let the love-light guide me home       "Skin and Bones" by Cage The Elephant 

I am that living fiery essence of the divine substance
that flows in the beauty of the fields.
I shine on the water;
I burn in the sun and moon and the stars.
The mysterious force of the invisible world is mine.
I sustain the breath of all living beings.
I breathe in the grass and in the flowers;
and when the waters flow like living things, it is I . . .
I am the force that lies hidden in the winds;
they take their source from me,
as a man may move because he breathes;
fire burns by my blast.
All these live because I am in them and am their life.
I am Wisdom.
The blaring thunder of the Word
by which all things were made is mine.
I permeate all things that they may not die;
I am life.                                                                 Hildegard of Bingen

Art by Mollycules www.BuddhaDoodles.com

Choosing Light or Dark?

     At birth, and until we're around one & a half or two years of age, we feel at one with everyone & everything around us, perfectly loved, perfectly at home, perfect: http://www.johnlovas.com/2022/01/bouncing-into-graceland.html I suspect that most of us, at least vaguely remember this wondrously perfect direct experience, have no words to express it, but try desperately to recapture it for the rest of our life. The result is an almost universal sense of 'lack': http://www.johnlovas.com/2019/05/our-sense-of-lack.html .
     Artists, those with addiction disorders, perfectionists, and perhaps most successfully, mystics are drawn towards the tantalizing perfect love that's almost within reach. Brief as well as more prolonged re-connection, re-membering of this perfect love (a "heart opening") occurs in mystical experiences: awakenings, near-death experiences (NDEs), "trips" on entheogens, post-traumatic growth experiences, etc. Even listening to people recount their NDE can help us to remember our own direct experience of having been loved unconditionally, and thus can be a profoundly meaningful, healing experience. I invite you to immerse yourself in these profound, transformative experiences:

Daniel Giroux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60BBp1Tl8Gw

Tricia Barker: https://batgap.com/tricia-barker/

Jose Hernandez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiOHQh-orH4

David Bennett: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiGqrkCMft0

Robin Landsong: https://batgap.com/robin-landsong/

NDE overview, by NDE-researcher Jeffrey Long MD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNRZzmNANIk

     Of course, we all know people who respond to this powerful calling by turning away from perfect love, denying its existence, and fully committing to fear, meaninglessness, materialism, cynicism, bitterness, anger & hatred. Here's the powerful NDE of a man who pushed this approach to the max, and how that worked out:

Howard Storm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxq6aoo5udA

     We can choose to be the source of love, nurturing everyone & everything - OR - to take all we can away from everyone & everything. This choice between being an evolved human being or a narcissist is always ours, moment-by-moment, with very different effects on everyone.
     EVERYTHING depends on this choice, and clearly, we can all be choosing MORE WISELY!

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love              Leonard Cohen

Core Beliefs and Mental Health

     Our personal core beliefs, no matter how unaware we may be of them, nevertheless powerfully guide & influence our life. And many educated, Westernized people have core beliefs based on scientific materialism. Scientific materialism is entirely appropriate for physical sciences, BUT makes no sense at all as a worldview, particularly when dealing with our identity, the meaning of life, and other existential matters. These most critical aspects of life have been studied by the world's wisdom traditions for thousands of years. Ignoring this depth of knowledge, and assuming by default that science has all the answers is "profoundly alienating, depressing and delusional."

     Wisdom traditions can be compared to politics. Many politicians put self-interest & their own party's success, ahead of the welfare of their country. Such "partisanship" is tearing the US apart. However, politicians who take their job seriously, primarily serve their country's, & ideally the world's, best interests. Wisdom traditions, taken seriously, guide practitioners toward ethical behavior, unconditional love of self & others, and the capacity to gracefully navigate life's most difficult existential challenges. Like politics, religions have a shameful history of incompetence, bad actors & criminals. Nevertheless, both politics and wisdom traditions - when taken seriously - are absolutely vital & irreplaceable for a deeply meaningful life.

     The quote below is from a Buddhist perspective, but those who take any wisdom tradition seriously (are working towards or are at Culliford's or Fowler's 5th or 6th stage: http://www.johnlovas.com/2018/10/nurturing-nonpartisan-human-maturation.html or http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/11/fowlers-six-stages-of-faith.html) tend to have surprisingly similar perspectives. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and other mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are secular practices, based on Buddhist principles.

     “Cross-cultural psychiatric research shows that the Western understanding of all mental illnesses, such as depression, is profoundly influenced by cultural beliefs and expectations. Mental health care providers, drug companies, and patient-advocacy groups typically regard mental illnesses as ‘brain diseases’ in which the patient has little choice or responsibility. As journalist Ethan Watters comments, ‘The mental-health ideas we export to the world are rarely unadulterated scientific facts and never culturally neutral.’ Derek Summerfield of the Institute of Psychiatry in London writes, ‘Western mental-health discourse introduces core components of Western culture, including a theory of human nature, a definition of personhood, a sense of time and memory, and a secular source of moral authority. None of this is universal.’
     From a Buddhist (& other wisdom traditions') perspective, the materialist view of the human mind – reduced to a composite of electrochemical processes occurring unconsciously in the brain – is profoundly alienating and depressing precisely because it is essentially delusional. Watters writes:
     ‘If our rising need for mental-health services does indeed spring from a breakdown in meaning, our insistence that the rest of the world think like us may be all the more problematic. Offering the latest Western mental-health theories, treatments, and categories in an attempt to ameliorate the psychological stress sparked by modernization and globalization is not a solution; it may be part of the problem. When we undermine local conceptions of the self and modes of healing, we may be speeding along the disorienting changes that are at the very heart of much of the world’s mental distress.’
     The only cure for this culturally induced mental illness is to awaken from our culturally acquired delusion so that we can grapple more effectively with our habitual mental afflictions. The process of adopting a Buddhist (or other wisdom traditions') view of human nature and the world around us is actually designed to induce a profound disillusionment with all mundane concerns. This has served as a motivating force for many Buddhists (& others) to take monastic ordination or devote themselves to a life of solitary contemplative practice. From the perspective of modern clinical psychology, such disillusionment and malaise could easily be diagnosed as clinical depression, calling for therapy, including drugs, to restore the renunciate to the Western ‘norm.’ In the United States, one fourth of the population has a diagnosable mental illness, and from a Buddhist (& others') perspective, even what passes for normal mental health looks more like mental illness – for which the only cure is a radical shift in one’s worldview, values, and way of life.
     William James is not alone in regarding Indian spiritual traditions as promoting a kind of pessimism and nihilism. But Buddhism, unlike modern psychology, proposes that mental afflictions are not innate to the human mind. They are rooted in ignorance and delusion, so they can be irreversibly dispelled through direct insight into the nature of reality. ... the essential purpose of sentient existence is to free ourselves from the fundamental causes of suffering ... by coming to know reality as it is.
     In stark contrast, the modern view of human nature is that we have evolved through natural selection in such a way that all our mental processes have survival value, including egotism, attachment, and hatred, despite the grief they bring us. They are intrinsic, inescapable features of the human mind; any attempt to defeat them could only be a futile and frustrating endeavor. Freud sums up the modern materialistic view by declaring that there is no possibility of achieving the goal of the absence of pain and displeasure and of experiencing lasting pleasure: ‘all the regulations of the universe run counter to it.’ From a Buddhist (or other wisdom traditions') perspective, the view that an individual’s consciousness terminates at death is utterly nihilistic, and the belief that there is no possibility of gaining freedom from suffering, except through personal annihilation, is deeply pessimistic and self-defeating.
     Within the Buddhist context, spiritual practice ... refers to a worldview, meditative practice, and way of life that lead to a lasting state of genuine happiness.”
       B. Alan Wallace. “Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic. A Manifesto for the Mind Sciences and Contemplative Practice.” Columbia University Press, 2012.

Choosing the Way of Love over the Way of Fear

www.facebook.com/elephantjournal

Out of Fearful Pessimism, We Isolate & Diminish Ourselves

     "The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love."          Plato

     Sadly, "men and women have lost their souls, their belief in their souls, especially in the West. Since the rest of the world is profoundly influenced by the West, the catastrophe is global - and spreading daily.
     By 'lost their souls' I mean that the old and widespread idea of an inherent nobility of humanity, created by a just and benevolent God or Higher Order, and of consequently having the opportunity to live a meaningful life in the world with a purpose beyond survival and sensual gratification, died. Yes, the idea, in its many variations, is still around, but it has lost its vitality and has been totally rejected by many, especially those who are supposed to be 'educated,' and is paid only lip service by millions more. The modern belief is that somehow 'science' disproved the idea of any kind of god or divine order of things, and what we have left is only the material world, with humans as the superior (but badly flawed) dominant animal.
     The results are too obvious: living only for 'Number 1,' a sneering at idealism of any sort, increasing psychopathology, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor nations, and the insane, uncaring destruction of the environment in the frenzied pursuit of material wealth, to name only a few." Charles T. Tart
       Vaughn F. The Inward Arc. Healing in Psychotherapy and Spirituality. iUniverse.com Inc, Lincoln NE, 1995, 2000.

Dale Chihuly   http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/

Understanding & Releasing Suffering

      “I’d like to underscore a point the Dalai Lama has made repeatedly: ‘Buddhist teachings are not a religion, they are a science of mind.’ This does not deny the fact that for many people around the world Buddhism has also come to function as a religion. Like most religions, it offers its followers a rich tradition of devotional practices, communal rituals, and sacred stories. But this is not the origin of Buddhism or its core. The Buddha was a human being, not a god, and what he offered his followers were experiential teachings and practices, a revolutionary way to understand and release suffering. From his own inner experiments, he discovered a systematic and remarkable set of trainings to bring about happiness and fulfill the highest levels of human development. Today, it is this path of practice and liberation that draws most Western students to Buddhism.
     (These) teachings … are a compelling challenge to much of Western psychology and to the materialism, cynicism, & despair found in Western culture as well.”

        Kornfield J. “The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology.” Bantam Books, NY, 2008. 

murfdig09   www.dpreview.com

 

When one's Worldview Sucks

     Amazingly, our primitive (reptilian) approach-avoidance reflex also influences whether we continue functioning at that level OR allow ourselves to mature & function at a higher (human) level.
     How do you feel after being involved, perhaps only as a listener, in hours of "small-talk"? People who've known each other for many years can still carefully manoeuvre away from topics of any depth or meaning, quickly calling these "depressing", or making cynical jokes about spirituality, and dogmatically stating that mindless escapism of blowed-'em-up movies is the ultimate entertainment - "as good as it gets."
     Cynical nihilism, for too many of us, appears to be better than nothing. Fear (avoidance) makes us hang onto any belief system, no matter how bankrupt and miserable.
     It takes courage to even look at, never mind let go of our own worldview, even when it's outlived its usefulness in our life. 

     See also: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/01/shine-light-of-awareness-embrace-process.html

Manitoba Legislative Building, Winnipeg

How & What We See

     "So many of the clients I see feel deep anger and cynicism about people. They summarily dismiss some for not meeting their expectations, and constantly put down others for their 'trivial' concerns and 'stupid' pursuits. In their anger and frustration, they do not see that they must change the way they see their fellow human beings if they are to release their own pain.
     When you look at others with the part of you that is feeling bad about yourself, you tend to see other people as bad. I see like that sometimes. When I’m feeling bad about myself, I see human concerns and pursuits that go way beyond trivial and stupid all the way into completely incomprehensible. I can see all that stuff. There is a lot of it to see in people – if you’re into seeing it.
     If you’re not into seeing it, you might want to periodically travel to that part of yourself that isn’t feeling bad, which is the heart, and start seeing the world with the eyes of the heart. The eyes of the heart don’t see bad in people, except with the compassionate desire to comfort and alleviate their pain. The eyes of the heart see the brave and beautiful search of other human hearts looking for happiness, truth, peace, love, and God. Every human being is a seeker of the truth of her own self and of the truth of the universe. When we know that we’re all on this journey together, we no longer concern ourselves with who’s bad and who’s good, who’s stupid and who’s smart, who’s ahead and who’s behind, we just take the journey, following the same searching heart that everybody else is following.

     ‘Make your eyes pure,’ says St. Hildegard of Bingen, and they will see only purity.

     So the next time you look out the window and see multitudes marching into their next round of trivial and stupid pursuits, immediately change your vision, see with your heart, see them all as the pure, searching human heart looking for happiness, truth, peace, love, and God in the best ways they presently know how to do this. Fall in love with them all for doing that. Fall in love with them all, period. They’re heroes and saints and gods and goddesses in magnificent disguise. See them as truth looking for truth, as love looking for love, as God looking for God, and you’ll be seeing truly. ‘The world is as you see it,’ says the sage Vasishtha, so when you see with the eyes of your heart, you see the whole world on a journey to the heart.”


        Alter RM, Alter J. “How Long Till My Soul Gets It Right?: 100 Doorways on the Journey to Happiness.” Regan Books, 2001.

Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia