Questiong our fears

Volumes have been written about fear. Yet it is the question of our own fears that control our lives and our impact upon this planet. When we live our lives based upon our fears and our beliefs in those fears we have missed an important boat. We have let outside influences control our Insides and have given our choices away. When we do not question our fears and just let them run amok that we find ourselves in challenging times and circumstances. We draw our fears to us and feel helpless because they manifested themselves.

One of the acronyms about fear that I learned was Forget Everything And Run. This is the cleaned up version that I choose to discuss, as the older version would decrease my readership. When faced with something we do not wish to face we purposely forget about it and avoid the situation, person and challenge. This is a guarantee to bring it about at a later date and in a more intense fashion. When we run, we deny its existence and in doing so give it power over us. A small situation turns quickly (most of the time) into a massive situation that demands our attention or makes the denial so much harder to create. Fear starts to permeate everything we do and think about. We lose our sense of control and go into a downward spiral of increased fear and depression.

Another acronym that I have heard said is False Events Appearing Real. In the study of the Course in Miracles they go into great depth and detail about how we must look at our surroundings in a different way. As with the theories of Quantum Physics are now suggesting all we see and are aware of is an energy field of the smallest form that have grouped together to serve a common purpose, If we believe in an omnipresence was must agree that God is in everything and everywhere. If we believe that premise then we must ask ourselves is this a loving and a loving Universe? Our fear or faith will provide the answer to this question. Do I have fear because economists say we are in a depression/recession? An idea of lack or that there is not enough for “me” in this world would make the case for we are in desperate times and we got left out. Our ideas that “they” get but “I” don’t have reinforced the concept that lack in this world exists. Never mind that in the rest of nature our idea of lack does not exist.

We must look at our fears and replace them with more productive beliefs. We can look at the world from a new perspective, one of faith in the Universal mind and our belief in God. Our world can be a prosperous and loving one while the outside world appears to dispel the notion of prosperity and loving humans. We can chart a course to make our portion of the world a personal Utopia in the desire to spread our wealth and hope to the Universe as a Whole. Based on fear it will not happen based upon Universal Truths and loving thoughts it is not only possible but likely.

A Question of Remembering September 11,2001

As with many of us, the events of September 11, 2001 changed my life forever. I was out exercising and preparing for a trading day of the stock exchange when I arrived back home from my bike ride I saw the news and the second tower being hit. Devastated and in awe I watched as the events of that day unfolded. Was this the start of something larger, will further atrocities happen next? I live under a flight path of an International airport and next to what appeared to me as a likely target. The silence of the planes cast an eerie silence over my house. Having met a lot of people on Wall Street and the financial community I waited to hear whether or not my acquaintances made it through the ordeal.

As the days followed I took a look at my path and what I truly believed in on a spiritual level. A tragedy of this magnitude had to have some good come out of it. This was a way of awakening massive amounts of people quickly. I saw my country gather together in a manner that hadn’t occurred in my lifetime. Everyone was patriotic, everyone was a part of the Whole, we asked for help from other countries and they immediately supported our efforts. I thought this may be a great dawning, a new beginning, a time to realize we are a global community not just a nation ,but a nation among many. Our leadership ability as a growing and prosperous nation will lead the way in peace and understanding throughout the entire planet. This tragedy will serve as a building block for real understanding among nations, a true United Nations standing hand and hand against extremism and negative thought patterns so long held as core beliefs.

I was excited as our government worked together to move forward and resolve to make changes. I saw people on both sides of the political aisle put aside differences and strive to make the nation stronger, healthier and encourage the growth needed form surviving such a national tragedy. I saw for the first time in my lifetime our form of government really work, really tackle projects, to really do the right thing.

My own choices, in my own life needed changing. My livelihood as I knew it was destroyed with the towers. The markets would be in turmoil for some time and my heart was not into the long rebuilding process. I had spent a long time in front of a computer screen analyzing the markets and determining the best course of action to maximize profits and being in the right place at the right time. At this point, I felt as if there was no point for me at least. I needed to get back to working with people,. I had the idea that by being a friend, being available to other human beings a difference can be made for the betterment of the planet. I had been in isolation with the markets to too long and needed to change my outlook. I vowed to myself to give back to people, to make a difference and that road has changed my life. And I hope in some way can change even a small part of this world to look at things differently, to look at life from a Whole perspective to not just be isolated as an individual or as a country but to look further beyond our differences to the similarities and the Oneness that we are.

A Question of Health

It’s a question of health, can we obtain perfect health? At a time when we are all hearing about Health Care and the reform debate continues on as to who is responsible for your health, your employer or your country. Can we take this a step deeper and look at who is responsible for our health care.

We spend a lot of our time these days making sure our hands are clean, our environment is sanitized and free of dangerous germs that makes us sick. Yet haven’t these same germs been around since we started inhabiting this planet? Are they more dangerous today ,then before? We even have a center for Disease Control to monitor our progress on the latest epidemic that threatens to kill us all. We have government agencies, a massive commercial marketplace all thriving because we look outside ourselves for our health.

I am not for abolishing any of these resources, as they can be useful when an outbreak of something awful occurs and to keep the population as a whole healthier. But, do we need ,or want to rely on outside influences to gain or maintain our health? Being able to use this body while we are here is an important part of our more important purpose. Longevity and ease of mobility of this body can be useful in promoting enlightenment. While health of our body is useful, it is not a requirement to enlightenment, knowing how to heal yourself and others is an important lesson however in personal growth.

An internal source for our health and well being is important. We need to see we are all connected and the health of one means the health of us all. The health of one of our cells is the health of the whole being. Our discussion of health should really be one of Universal health care and not just a national health care. We must see the world as a healthy place to live.

In our own selves it means treating each cell with importance, acknowledging it existence and importance to the whole and transferring healing energy to all of our systems. This energy system can be manipulated through our thoughts, and observers energy levels We have discovered that when a system (any system) is overloaded with stress and to much information to assimilate that the system cannot function as it used to. It will adapt to a new situation or it will cease to exist. have we not seen this in our economic system as of late? Our bodies systems and organs react the same way. With too much stress they will go through an adaptive stage, may even demonstrate as dis-ease, and then move on to create a new and different system. This can at its extreme be a chronic disease such as cancer or a long term disorder.
When we acknowledge the stress, change our course of dealing with it and change the systems role through meditation and healthy living we can affect our own health in a positive way and influence those who we are close to make the choices needed for effective body system management. We have then made a change to the Whole and started our own World Heath Organization.

A Moutaintop Question

The true measure of a man is by the questions he/she asks. What other evaluation do we have that gets to the real heart of the matter, the true core of one’s existence? So, how important are the questions we ask ourselves daily? Do we ponder our life purpose, or more importantly, if we know our life’s purpose, what am I doing today to fulfill that purpose?
There was a song when I was young that started out with a story and an interesting question, It went something like this:
There was a man who climbed up to the top of a mountain to ask the Master a question:
What is the meaning of life, dear Master?
The master said first you must spend three years in constant meditation and return to me. The man spent three years in constant meditation and returned to the mountain.
The Master asked: Did you do as I have asked?
The man said: Yes Master I have.
The Master replied: Life is like a beanstalk, isn’t it?
We do not need to go outside ourselves for the answers we already have placed within ourselves. We do however need to ask the right questions. The meaning of life is an individual answer as it has to do with our purpose and that overall has one answer, but individually expressed. Our purpose is our beanstalk, isn’t it?
Asking a simple question can present challenges if we have a tendency to ask...Why me? Your human mind will come up with all sorts of answers to make sense of that question and it will be answered. We will find that the answers to envelope all the fears and self doubts we ever had and logically tell us in great detail why indeed it is you.
On the other hand, when you ask for a clear purpose in life, that answer will come to you also. The Universe will answer the question of what we are to do with this existence at this time. The answer can be an easy one or one we need to explore further but we will always be made aware of it.
The answer leads to many other questions. The most important being is:
What am I doing today to fulfill my life’s purpose?
That answer will come and more questions will be asked of you on the journey of your life’s purpose. It seems the more information you have, the more you want to know and the more you want to know the less you feel you know. As you experience the vastness of some of the answers to the questions that you pose you will no doubt do more exploring.
Ultimately the more you know the more you question. Have a good arsenal of questions to ask in mediation and prayer and hear the answers throughout your day as you navigate the pathway to your own mountaintop.