The summary

I think the best way to enter a summary of all I've said so far is to use a basic idea from the Holy Bible's creation story. While I'm neither a Christian nor a Hebrew, I was raised as a Christian and after joining the U.S. Navy at age 18 and trying out a variety of exciting "wrong roads" (as charactized by Christianity) I tried a couple of different times to return to the fold only to discover that I no longer could believe what I was supposed to be able to believe in order to back up the beliefs of the other church members. For me, a goodly part of the worth of the church is a fellowship of acceptance. Where acceptance of one's beliefs is denied, there is no fellowship. The other church members seemed completely able to continue to believe -for me - truly outrageous ideas (when coupled to the truth which had been unfolded to human understanding across the past 2000 years). My thinking was a threat to their complacency. Since I couldn't believe what I couldn't believe, the mandate, "have faith," simply didn't work.


If it took 200 years for the Catholic Church to apologize to Galileo, how much longer will it take for religious leaders to admit to the same knowledge Bishop John Shelby Spong was taught in seminary and apologize to their membership for loading up the heads of innocent children with guilt and shame for no other reason than to maintain a position of power over them and/or, hang on to their lucrative societal positions. Forgive them almighty Blessed Truth, for they know not what they do . . . I hope.


So no, I am not a Christian. But wisdom is wisdom, and to forgo wisdom simply because it is written in the Holy Books of some other faith than one's own is to lose the opportunity to gain in wisdom oneself. So, in the Garden of Eden there were trees for humans to eat from. Yet, as soon as we hear that these trees include a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we know that we are not talking about natural trees. There obviously is no tree of nature which could provide food of this type. Thus perhaps we could agree that this is not a physical garden being spoken of, but rather a spiritual garden. When understood as a spiritual garden, then we might consider that within this garden would be trees of knowledge of various types. Perhaps a tree of knowledge of physics law and math law, and astronomy trees and biology and botany trees, perhaps also philosphy and psychology trees, all of course, providing food for the added wisdom of this new creature, the human. Yet this special spiritual tree we are told of, is not a tree which holds physical poison, for we are not talking about physical matters here. This is a tree whose fruit will kill one spiritually. The admonition from the Garden's owner is, don't eat from the tree 0f the knowledge of good and evil or you will become spiritually dead. That, it seems obvious to me, is the crux of this story. The spiritually dead cannot possibly walk in the Garden with the powers of Love, Truth, Wisdom, and Understanding, because their knowledge of good and evil needs to divide the spiritual dimensions of existence into an evil god and and a good god. And, of course, the spiritual garden cannot be divided by any within it. Acceptance is the key to the garden. And Thy will, not my will be done, is the proper spiritual attitude to hold, regardless of what name is given to the "Thy." Only when I stay in the realm of not being able to understand, rather than thinking I know how things ought to be, can I accept that somehow Love, Truth, Wisdom, and Understanding really are backing up this business of living, and all seeming evidence to a contrary idea must surely be necessary for the continued growth of those four powers.

Bertrand Russell called the, "Thy" the empire of fate. He was saying thereby, until one can accept life on life's terms on a daily basis, one cannot learn how to feel really good all day every day. J. Krishnamirti, a spiritual philosopher of the recent past, once said to his audience, "Do you want to know my secret? (the audience listened for some great profound statement breathlessly) "I don't care what happens," He replied. Most of them never realized they had heard the only profound statement they needed in order to understand Mr. Krishnamirti.

So the summary is this: if I'm hurting inside, I'm thinking wrong concerning what is important in being alive, and my job is to unlearn all that I have been taught in order to be able to learn what really is important in being alive. When I am willing to do this, then I will come to the conclusion, ultimately, that the only possible thing that is important in being alive is that humanity, as it is moved from egoism towards humility, is providing added wisdom, truth, understanding, and most importantly love to that amount of those qualitiews which have thus far existed within the spiritual dimensions of existence. And this, of course, makes my personal job nothing more than learning how to feel really, really good about being alive, and the humbling truths necessary for learning are always available to me, every time I hurt inside and am willing to internalize them.

So a proper prayer, to whatever I wish to call the spiritual dimensions of existence (i. e. those dimensions wherein are housed the very real powers of Love, Truth, Wisdom, and Understanding we humans have to deal with - or with the absence of within us - on a daily basis) would be something along the lines of what follows.

Thank you, Blessed Truth (my personal choice) that you have shown me the way to let you lead me from egoism with its nil capacity to love, towards humility with its infinite capacity to love. I now see that you provide me daily with the humbling truths I require to keep on growing along spiritual lines, that you instantly grant me forgiveness for my trespasses so long as I grant that same instant forgiveness to those who trespass against me, and that, since all I am being asked to do is learn how to feel really good inside in order to be moved from egoism with its eternal neediness towards humility with its final end to that ego-neediness, then you are moving me from the need to flee down wrong roads to fulfill my need for elation in a way that gives me nothing at all to be tempted to feel proud about. It is your Power that changes me, and any glory for that change most assured belongs to you, not to me. Amen! Love and Blessings - Chuck

What do you think is important in being alive?

So you're taking a lengthy airplane trip and the person sitting next to you turns to you and asks, "So what do you think is important in being alive." Are you all set to answer that question? If not why not? Could there be any other question which would better allow you to really introduce yourself to another? And there would be no reason to hold anything back because you wouldn't be pushing your views concerning what is important in being alive onto anyone who hadn't asked to hear them, Right? Meditate on this question. Go really deep within yourself, and after trying a number of logic strings, go back to my first post here and see if there could possibly be anything more important than learning how to have daily peace of mind, serenity of spirit, and sense of being at home in your own skin (i.e. having the knowledge that you are in good company when you are all by yourself).

Isn't it obvious that that foregoing state of being is precisely what your brain and body are asking you to dwell in at all times? "Then whence cometh your resistance to being willing to go to any lengths to work towards the accomplishment of that which will allow you to feel really, really good inside every day for the rest of your life? Meditate on that question, also. Love & Blessings - Chuck

Toward a summary of first idea

Okay, I don't want to get lost in explanations of AA's Twelve Steps. If you haven't ever been addicted to gambling, food, booze, or drugs and are not married to someone who is, you probably haven't had much to do with any twelve step program. The point is that since a Twelve Step program is where I first learned how to let myself be moved from a scared, lonely, self hating, booze needing individual towards what I am today, i.e., happy, well adjusted, part of a solution to the world's problems rather than part of the problem, and walking through life with a daily sense of being at home within whatever situation I might find myself, then it is the Twelve Step way that I know the most about. But as I have pointed out, those steps are just one of many ways of stumbling upon a way to freedom from both mental anguish and the ego neediness which maintains within us a constant itch which can never be successfully scratched.



There has been a lot of discussion concerning whether Bertrand Russell was an atheist or an agnostic. But neither school can dispute the fact that he wrote something indicating that he had found "the way" in a paper entitled, A Free Man's Worship, which found its way into a collection of his writings and talks entitled, Mysticism and Logic, and much later into a beautiful collection of quotes and essays entitled, The Choice is Always Ours, which called itself, "The Classic Anthology On The Spiritual Way" Edited by Dorothy Berkley Phillips, Elizabeth Boyden Howes and Lucille M. Nixon (and very recently reprinted once again). Here is what Bertrand wrote



"Except for those rare spirits that are born without sin, there is a cavern of darkness to be traversed before that temple can be entered. The gate of the cavern is despair, and its floor is paved with the gravestones of abandoned hopes. There Self must die; there the eagerness, the greed of untamed desire must be slain, for only so can the soul be freed from the empire of Fate. But out of the cavern the Gate of Renunciation leads again to the daylight of wisdom, by whose radiance a new insight, a new joy, a new tenderness, shine forth to gladden the pilgrim's heart."



"Those words seem to echo the words of an earlier teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, whose message never would have gotten so screwed up had his followers not seen the need to turn him into a god. Jesus showed he had found "the way" when he stated, "except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."



Now, of course, most people think of heaven as a place separate from earth, yet I see it clearly as a state of awareness, and believe Jesus saw it as the same. I have been living in heaven for the past 34 years, as much of the time as I desire to spend in that state, so I know what I'm talking about. No brag (since I had nothing to do with my transition other than to become honest, open-minded, and willing to grow along spiritual lines), just fact.

As I've 'hinted at' throughout these writings, self honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness to grow along spiritual lines (i.e. letting oneself be moved by humbling truths from egoism towards humility), are the elements available within each individual human which must be called upon to overcome an ego-defense system which currently manifests its power of imprisonment over most members of the human family. Why this should be so, can be easily explained. The ego is tied to the fact that all humans are animals, even if animals far advanced in their abilities for cognitive thinking (many atheists say of that advance that it is a result of their evolving with voice boxes - which would give new meaning to, "In the beginning was the word"). Egoism is the driving force within the male of the species to become the top male, thereby having first choice in the areas of sex partners and available food. Within the females, it exerts itself as a similar desire to be coupled with the strongest and most intelligent male so that her offspring will be superior to those of others.

Of course, that is a very generalized look at the probable evolving of egoism within animals, but it serves the purpose of seeing that we are talking about something to be dealt with on an individual basis, and not something sinful that needs to be overcome. The near proof that something deeper than a mere animal evolution of natural selection is going on within us humans is the very fact that to secure true happiness egoism must be seen through and personally labelled as a detriment to further human progress rather than as a given unchangable element of a human life.

The difference between an egoistic attitude towards one's existence and one which promises either eternal happiness or at least an ever increasing happiness during the remaining years of this present life will be thoroughly brought to the fore in future writings here. For now, in a short summary, the secret to happy living will be seen to be quite simple (as it must be to include the variance in human intelligence quotients thereby making the choice of change available to all). While I'm on my two mile walk today I'll be meditating on how to lay it out in one more way. While I'm gone, (humor here) you can meditate on how much faster break-throughs in scientific knowledge would have occurred had egoism (the desire for fame, fortune, wealth, and recognition) both group-wise and individual, been absent and all work towards similar goals been willingly and readily shared between all scientific communities. Love and Blessings, Chuck

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