STEP 7 STAY VIGILANT
The Title Says It All...
While wandering through this human experience, staying vigilant is vital. In the beginning, being constantly aware of our thoughts, words, and actions is tedious, and often discouraging, but the more practice we do, the easier, more peaceful and more joyful life becomes.
Who Knows What is Good or What is Bad? – A Taoist Parable
…AN OLD CHINESE FARMER lost his best stallion one day and his neighbor came around to express his regrets, but the farmer just said, “Who knows what is good and what is bad.”
The next day the stallion returned bringing with him 3 mares. The neighbor rushed back to celebrate with the farmer, but the old farmer simply said, “Who knows what is good and what is bad.”
The following day, the farmer’s son fell from one of the wild mares while trying to break her in and broke his arm and injured his leg. The neighbor came by to check on the son but the old farmer just said, “Who knows what is good or what is bad.”
The next day the army came to the farm to conscript the farmer’s son for the war, but found him an invalid and left him with his father.
The neighbor thought to himself, “Who knows what is good and what is bad.”
What to pay attention to?
Are you judging something, or someone, as good or bad? Can we ever judge something is good or bad if we don’t know the ending of the story?
What to do?
Choose the perceptions and beliefs that result in peace, joy, love, and freedom.
If we choose to believe that all things in life can be seen by us as an opportunity to learn what unconditional love is, or an opportunity to extend/live/be what unconditional love is, then everything that happens in life can be of benefit for our spiritual growth.
If we choose to look at others who may make us angry, frustrated, or sad as our spiritual-mentors rather than as an “enemy,” then we will stop being a victim. We will begin to see how the person or situation has pointed out a fear we have that we can work on eliminating in our lives. Every fear conquered frees us to experience the love that we are. If we do not see our fears, we cannot conquer them.
It is important for me to remember that no one can make me angry, no one can make me sad; I am totally responsible for my reactions to anyone or anything.
Consequently, I am grateful to all who help me discover a perception or belief I want to change in order to experience the peace that I am.
From the Tao Te Ching
(an ancient Chinese book of spiritual wisdom guiding the reader toward Mastery of Life)
translated by Stephen Mitchell
Passage 27 of Tao Te Ching
A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arrival.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it wants.
A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
and keeps his mind open to what is.
Thus the Master is available to all people
and doesn’t reject anyone.
He is ready to use all situations
and doesn’t waste anything.
This is called embodying the light.
What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man’s job?
If you don’t understand this, you will get lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret.
The traveler is referring to all of us as we journey through life.
Spiritually, there is no place to which we travel or at which we arrive in life. Spiritually, we are to JUST BE – just be the love, peace, joy, and freedom that we are.
We can JUST BE while we are participating in any activity of the temporal/physical world, so there is no conflict; we just do all that we do, and say all that we say, with love; we just extend love in all that we do and say.
The Master of Life uses every moment, every incident, every person, every breath as an opportunity to learn or to teach, and in actuality, we learn each time we teach, and we teach each time we learn.
What to listen for?
Our own attack thoughts. Attack thoughts are the veil that prevents us from seeing the truth of who we are and thus robs us of our peace, joy, love, and freedom.
Attack thoughts are the bars of the prison we build for ourselves.
What to do?
Forgive. It is important that we let attack thoughts drift away by seeing them, forgiving ourselves for having them by realizing they are a prevalent part of our human experience and they have no power unless we dwell or act on them.
We can replace attack thoughts by choosing to see things differently; by not taking things personally, by believing that I have the freedom to choose compassion over conflict; mercy over malevolence, and truth over tyranny.
What to Acknowledge?
Buddha made it so clear that it is our attachments that are the root of our pain.
That is true because our attachments create fear of loss, or fear of lack. Fear generates sorrow.
What to do?
CALL TO ACTION
Questions?
Ask Jeanne
The purpose of this website is to help create positive, life-changing experiences. The best way to experience something is to do it.
After each of the Seven Steps, a “CALL TO ACTION” is provided which recommends an activity, or activities, to perform in order to experience the concept presented in the step.
The recommended activity for STEP 7 is:
For two days – Pay attention
- Write down things you judge as good and bad
- Take time to look at each one and determine if you are really in a position to determine, in the span of a life-time, if something is actually good or bad
- At the end of the two days, write down what you have learned from the experience.
For a different set of two days – Listen
- Write down every attack thought you have about anything
- Then, write down for each attack thought, a different perception, a different belief you can adopt about the person or situation you attack in order to experience a different feeling – a compassionate feeling – a caring feeling.
- At the end of the two days, write down what you have learned from the experience.
For a different set of two days - Acknowledge
- Write down people, things, events, and situations you are “attached” to. Things you would feel sorrow over losing or over not having.
- Write down how you might come to love and respect those people, things, events, and situations without needing them, without having your happiness be dependent upon them.
- Read the Park Benches Question: What is non-attachment? in Jeanne's Ah, so Life-Changing Experience that you were directed to in the Step 1 detour.
Though I have been practicing these concepts for years, I still find a need to stay vigilant; I still wander off the path of divine love, and must figure out what triggered the fear and remind myself of the beliefs that put me back on the pathway to peace once again.
It is a process – choose to enjoy the process! I used to get frustrated with myself for not being able to just naturally apply the concepts all the time; now I laugh at myself and get back on track as soon as possible. Attacking myself merely delays the opportunity to experience joy again.
Email me if you have questions or suggestions or criticisms or positive comments or Ah, ha moments or just to say hi. If I can, I will reply personally, but one thing I will always try to do is read your message personally and try to reach out to you in one form or another.
Come back often and walk with me on the Pathway to LOVE and PEACE and JOY.