meaning versus meaninglessness

The use of a concept of what it means to say "God" has been the easiest method for letting oneself be moved away from egoism and towards humility for perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. Why? Because it puts wisdom into accepting life on life's terms. That is not to say that accepting life on life's terms is not a wise decision to make in its own right, but using that feeling within us that there seems to be more going on with this business of living than we can yet fully understand, and thereby falling in with most of our fellow human beings and adopting a God concept which makes sense to us (whether actual to the normal use of the term reality or not) most assuredly makes acceptance an easier pill to learn to swallow. The key is in that spiritual term, Thy will, not my will, be done.

In that term, we spot an attitude towards living that can never really fail us, whether there actually is ultimate meaning to existence or absolutely no meaning at all. One may view it as the 'maybe' proposition. That is, maybe there is ultimate meaning to it all, even though it's becoming ever more difficult to believe so . . . because surely the unknown is still not a void. So the question is worth raising, if there is ultimate meaning to my existence, is there any advantage in making use of that meaning in order to learn how to be a happier human being while I'm alive? Thy will not mine be done is the affirmative answer to that question. If we keep in mind that our design is to want to be happy, joyous and free, and our present task is to learn how to accomplish that objective, then we can see that it would be easier to surrender up our 'right to be miserable' to a loving Higher Power than simply to the empire of fate even if the actual existence of that loving Higher Power remains an unanswered question as to its reality. We aren't talking religion here. We need not be willing to enter into all the dogma and promises of tents full of virgins or streets paved with gold being readied for us after death in order to reorder our thinking to that of the agnostic. And once willing to do so, we then can make use of the possibility of their being ultimate meaning to "The Big Bang" rather than absolute pointlessness. The base for our reasoning can then be, "It is wisdom to make use of any reasonable way of viewing my existence so long as that way promises a better chance of attaining the singular goal of life for which I am designed to desire"

So long as we maintain a working relationship with that base, we will be ready and willing to deal with the humbling truths that beset us on a daily basis. And perhaps the most basic of those truths is this. No human being, regardless of social status, degree of wealth, and/or degree of power over others, gets her/his way more than fifty percent of the time. In fact, those of us with inflated egos (i. e. those of us who wallow in our great sense of specialness and separation from the masses) are so filled with ego-neediness that it is likely we don't get our way even twenty-five percent of the time. We really need to see the truth in this thinking. If we tie our feeling really good inside to the necessity of our getting our way, we simply will never learn how to feel good inside more than half the time . . . and probably a lot less of the time than that. See it for yourself. Meditate upon the truth of it. For in that way, you will begin to see the importance of accepting life on life's terms as a way of living, rather than it being some suggestion you can't possibly accomplish.

Admittedly the forgoing argument and idealogy stems from the original beginnings and purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous. The beginnings were tied to a Christian group who were trying to help alcoholics and had devised a program which was having some success. When one of the two founders of AA (Bill Wilson) could not believe what he was asked to believe in order for the program to work for him, an (at that time) successful member of their program had the open-mindedness to suggest to Bill, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God." From that open-minded question from a practicing Christian was born the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. In Akron, Ohio, one of the two founders of AA routinely was reading the Holy Bible at AA meetings. Back in New York City, Bill W. was busy earnestly pointing out that simply by making use of whatever concept of God made sense to you, you could use that concept successfully in order to gain freedom from your addiction, one day at a time.

the point was that the shoe was on the other foot from religious teachings. For these first AA members, it was not a matter of God needing them to believe anything they couldn't believe, it was a matter of them needing God if they wanted a better chance of getting and staying sober. One of the simplest ideas which was put out was said like this: "If you can't believe in God right now, fake it 'till you make it." With the discovery that that advice worked just fine, the fellowship began to grow. Today there are literally millions of sober members around the world. When a friend of mine went to a meeting while stationed to temporary additional duty in Japan, one if the members walked up to him and said, "This program is the first thing you Americans have ever exported to us that works the way you said it would; all we do is change the word God to Good and it works for us just as it works for you."

Is that cool, or what? Love and Blessings - Chuck

The point of beginning with The Spiritual Axiom is because that simple truth is the all important and all encompassing truth that puts the lie to all egoistic thinking. To put it simply, the ego does not want to hear any truth which doesn't support its great sense of specialness. Humbling truths; those truths which lead us (whether kicking and screaming or finally surrendered to willing compliance) from egoism with its nil capacity to love towards humility with its infinite capacity to love are, of course, the ultimate and final threat to the ego's continued well-being. Thus, obviously, no egoist would have the slightest interest in internalizing such truths, were it not for the mental anguish inherent in the resistance to internalizing them. It is precisely the pain inherent in that resistance which puts the truth to the spiritual axiom. Whenever I am upset inside, no matter what the cause, that upset is a message from my insides stating that there is a humbling truth waiting to be internalized.

Right up into the nineteenth century, perhaps from as far back as 250,000 years ago when tribal living began to include philosophical questions and tribal gods first made their entrance into human thinking, there has been a logical way to surrender to humbling truths and gain wisdom, serenity of spirit, peace of mind, and a daily sense of being at home in one's own skin through the use of a concept of an omnipotent god backing up one's life. I'll let you see if you can figure out what that way would be, and get back to this blogging business later. I've got to go to the drug store and pick up some meds for my wife Marilyn before it closes. Love and Blessings, Chuck

The egoism/humility continuum

It strikes me that at least one way to make sense out of the different degrees of egoism versus humility amongst a variety of human beings would be based on the idea that there are always younger souls and older souls inhabiting any given society of humans. This would of course take us into the area of committing our thinking to there being ultimate meaning to human life. Thus, for agnostic and atheist readers, please understand that I'm speaking not about what is, but only about what might possibly be. Reincarnation has been an established belief among much of the Eastern Hemisphere peoples for literally thousands of years. It is a belief which has been growing in the Western Hemisphere peoples as well. The reason for this, of course, is that it is so much more reasonable than any other belief concerning what is going on if (and I stress the if) there actually is ultimate meaning to life. The movement forced upon every human being by living daily life is always a movement from egoism (a natural state) towards humility (a spiritual state). That which dies with the death of the body, then, would be the bovine scatology of egoism. That which survives would be the truth of humility. So how much of each of us survives? That's up to us, isn't it? If we willingly internalize all humbling truths which take from us our great sense of specialness and importance when we are asked to see the silliness of that falsehood, then that which replaces the falsehood and informs us that we are not better than, not worse than, but only one of what it means to be a human being is that which survives. It will be all that is attached to seeing and living that truth. The golden rule is not even a part of such a one's being. The life of such a one is the proof of the wisdom of the golden rule. Such an entity would only be living in order to help others feel better about alive. Such a one would be filled with a love for her/his fellow humans that he/she would be truly puzzled as to why such a rule needed to be stated. Such a one would see no difference between its own self and the self of others. That is what is called universal love. That is what is displayed by those who are, during this lifetime, edging towards the state of pure humility; the Albert Schweitzers who no-one recognizes. The Mother Teresas who no-one knows and has no life other than a life of service to others. These types of humans are not proud of how good they are, because every day of their lives they are doing what they most want to do within their circumstances. They simply are way further along the continuum from egoism towards humility than the rest of us.

So how, if we desire eternal life, do we become as they? We pay attention to our depth. We pay attention to how we are feeling inside every minute of every day. When our peace of mind, serenity of spirit and daily sense of being at home in the universe is replaced by negative emotion, we don't blame other people, places, situations nor things for this loss. We see that our egos are preventing us from feeling the way we want to feel at all times, and we laugh at the foolishness of taking that portion of ourselves which is not everlasting with a seriousness that is tantamount to foolishness. We then laugh at our egoism, and in so doing we return ourselves to our state of serenity, calmness, and peace. In the beginning, we do this perhaps thirty to fifty times a day. With the passage of months we find that we are only doing it a few times a day. With the passage of years, perhaps we will be able to go for weeks without needing to do it. The ego gets smaller as humility increases. It truly is a continuum, and happiness and possibly everlasting life is at its humility end. More to come - Love and Blessings - Chuck

Defining "feeling really good inside"

So, what does need to change within us if we accept the idea that the design of our being, whether from "God" or dominant genes resulting from natural selection, is a built-in order to learn how to feel really good inside all day every day? The answer is quite simple. We need to remove all vestige of importance from all of our thinking concerning what is important in being alive that does not allow us to be in full charge of whether or not we are feeling really good today. Impossible? Maybe so. It depends upon how much time we have to get the job done. If we have one lifetime, all most of us can hope for is growth in the direction of our singular goal. If we have eternity, then the accomplishment of the task is not only do-able but inevitable. Since no one knows whether or not there is ultimate meaning to our existence, complete with there being forms of energy yet undiscovered which could make the latest Big Bang the 40,000th rather than the first, and reasonably account for this feeling within us that there is more to life than just the physical universe with its physical laws, we perhaps must walk always half blindly towards our goal. Fortunately, this is not a problem. Because for every step we take towards our new goal of infinite wisdom, we will discover within us an increased degree of freedom and self-confidence which states of being are all that are needed to place us in the position of wanting to continue on the path.

I heard that! Someone giggled at the term, "goal of infinite wisdom." That's because you don't realize what wondrous feats are accomplished by one who is perennially embued with the necessary states to feel really good in depth (or spiritually, if the term suits you better). For it is when one has serenity of spirit, peace of mind, and a daily sense of being at home in the universe that one can be said to be feeling really good throughout one's being. When one possesses those inner qualities, what will one be doing with one's time? In every fiber of one's being, one will be wanting to help others feel as good about being alive as that one feels. That is the reality of inner happiness and contentment. One is no longer driven by ego-neediness, and one is free to give all of oneself to the joy of helping others feel better about being alive. Thus, we truly are talking about the way not only to inner happiness, but to the wisest of ways to live as well. Do you see it? As some wise person said long ago, "the only real freedom a human being can ever know is doing what you ought to do because you want to do it." [Alcoholics Anonymous 4th Edition pg 552]

Serenity of spirit, peace of mind, and a daily sense of being at home in the universe . . . the words are not important, the feelings behind the words are all important. Use whatever terms are comfortable for you, it still will be the same goal. My job is to learn how to feel really good inside all day every day for the rest of my life. Some of you, perhaps even most of you, will require some confession to a trusted other (we are only as sick as our deepest secrets) and perhaps also some will need to make amends to free them from the fear of the past catching up with them. If you need to go to prison, and you have no family commitments that would be impaired thereby, go to prison and know that we are all imprisoned by a cage of circumstances we awaken to every morning. Accepting that portion of the cage that we can do nothing about today, is the first step in freedom from anger, despondency, regret, and self loathing. We all find our cage confining in some way or other, the secret is to simply trust that it is precisely as we need it to be today in order for us to best grow towards our goal. We don't need a different cage, we simply need to come to terms with the cage we are in. Once there is acceptance, there is no longer a feeling of being trapped. Google the term, acceptance, read all you can read about it, and you will become familiar with the gift of wisdom it has for you personally. Herein, in this paragraph, are the basic beginnings of setting up a program for living that, when surrendered to, has been working for humans for thousands of years. Get excited! Know that you not only have the right to feel really good inside, but it is also the mandate from whatever is backing up this business of living that you feel so. More to come . . . love and blessings - Chuck

Back in 1953, the members of Alcoholics Anonymous published their second major piece of literature entitled, "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" as a further aid (coupled with their first published work, "Alcoholics Anonymous") for the maintenance of sobriety for current and future members. Within the pages of this second work, (Step 10, page 3) one discovers the sentence, "It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us."


That is a fascinating sentence worthy of deep meditation. Perhaps the first fact of interest is that it was not written by a theologian or religious scholar, but is widely assumed to have been written by one of the two founding members of AA, a recovering alcoholic stock broker. One must truly marvel at the daring and sense of self-assurance required for any human being to place such a qualifier on any pronouncement. If the term, "spiritual axiom" has actual meaning, it brings into one's meditation that if there be one spiritual axiom, how many more may there be? And does it not also tax us to ask ourselves just what this spiritual axiom is asking of us?


My 1971 edition of World Book Dictionary defines 'axiom' thusly: 1. a statement taken to be true without proof; self evident truth: It is an axiom that if equals are added to equals the results will be equal. 2. an established principle. 3. a maxim; rule; law.


Assuredly we could not find consensus within the first definition. More humans than not would agree that if some very sick sexual predator raped and killed their child, they not only would be disturbed, but would consider themselves to have every right to be disturbed. Which speaks also to the second definition. Few would agree that the statement as written is an established principle . . . quite the opposite, in fact. So we are left with the third definition. We are left with the idea that the statement is being put before us as a, "Spiritual Law." It is within this definition, then, that we need to determine the truth or falsehood of the statement. It will not be easy. It cannot be done quickly. I, however, know that it is truth, and I believe I can convince you all of the truth of it. This blogging will be a work in progress for a long time to come. At some point I will let some friends of mine know it exists, and welcome any and all others who may stumble across it.


Logic requires a base, does it not? If I am going to come into agreement that Socrates is an animal I am first going to need agreement that all men are animals. Thus, if we are going to logically determine what is important in being alive we need consensus on a base to build our reasoning upon. there is depth to a human being. Perhaps it is depth of thought and nothing more, but there surely is depth that each of us can agree exists in this business of being a human being. Clinical Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Sociologists and others make very good livings plumbing the depths of individual human beings.


If we can be in agreement with the actuality of depth within us so that we can speak with mutual understanding of feelings associated with that depth. We can then deal with terms like 'hurting inside,' (mental anguish) versus 'hurting outside' (physical pain). This is important in order to decide what is 'deeply' and eternally going to be the most important goal to attain in this business of being alive. The theologian Paul Tillich has written extensively about this depth within us and if you need more convincing as to its reality I would point you to his writings. If we are in agreement that to be human is to have depth of being, no matter by what name it is called; Psyche, Soul, Awareness of being, etc. then we are very close to a common definition of that which would be of maximum importance to every human being.


Simply put, we all want to feel as good inside as we can possibly feel. Herein is a truth that defeats all argument. It makes of all altruism nothing more than wise selfishness. It brooks no successful arguments from those with lofty philosophical and moral values, for they are always striving to measure up to those values for one basic reason only: they all want to feel as good inside as they can possibly feel. I now urge you to meditate upon this. I would urge you to set up arguments against the truth of it and watch them fall. In so doing, you will finally get to know yourself as you have not heretofore known yourself, and you can finally relax in the solidity of that truth. More to come - Love and Blessings - Chuck