Why are people so reluctant to improving themselves and enjoying life better? I know that people can get stuck in life, not wanting to step into the unknown territory because they feel more comfortable in their safe zone, but why are we humans like that? We would like for everything to evolve and become better in our surroundings all the while we don’t have the courage to face ourselves in the mirror and accept that we have to do some changes in our lives, and most of the time we actually know what it is that needs changing.
Anyway thinking out loud here, but I stumbled on this video of Matthew giving a speech to a bunch newly graduated university students and listening through the thing I have to give it to him. It was inspiring and great advice he put forth.
Honestly it feels like Matthew is the living proof of someone who is living by Jordans 12 Rules for Life .
What I liked was the part where he talks about Process of elimination is the first step to our identity. Where you are not is as important as where you are.
This is something I’ve heard JBP talk about in similar fashion. Making a list of where you’d not want to be in five years from now, make another list where you write where you actually would like to be in five years from now. Use the first list to fuel your motivation to get where you actually would like to be five years from now. So it’s very important as both guys suggest to come to realization as to where you aren’t in life just as where you’d love to be. It isn’t until we make that first list that we keep reminding ourselves, Hey I’m getting close to getting back to my old self and I don’t want that let’s change the course.
Haha no you do not want to turn into a bug whether it’s literally or metaphorically.
What that book taught me is that we also reduce others into bugs, an estranged being that we don’t recognize as human beings or as worthy as us. Plenty of examples throughout the history of this sort of behaviour. Such as the African slaves, or the behaviour and treatment of the Jews.
But metamorphosis is also about the depiction of soul versus the body. Gregor loses his human body but still has his soul, he’s still a suffering and loving person. And isn’t suffering what we consider as being real?
Sorry for blabbering on, this book has an immense depth to it and can be interpreted in so many ways. I just love it!
The heading for this post caught my eye… process of elimination is first step to our identity… this method to reach enlightenment, knowing what you really are, goes way back. There’s a book…I Am That by Nisargadatta. His teacher told him “you are not what you think you are; find out what you are. Identify everything you are not and the only thing left will be you” I’m paraphrasing. Nisargadatta did it in 3 years. But don’t get caught up in the words. He, and others… Ramana Marharsi, say that we mistakenly identify with the body and the mind. We are neither, nor are we the thoughts or the thinker of the thoughts. For anyone that might disagree, try a little experiment. Tell the thoughts to stop. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
I’m not talking about remembering how to drive a car or pay bills…I’m talking about the tape that starts every morning upon awakening…coming to consciousness. First thing you realize every time you wake up is “I am”…and then everything starts. The world only is, if you are. Same with God…God is because you are.
Someone asked Nisargadatta to compare his state to God and he replied that he is beyond God. He says that before all of the comings and goings of all the universes, and physicists have proven that universes come and go, he was. He, and we, are, The Absolute. There is only one. And this manifestation…all the things in the universe, is not us. And identifying with the body/mind will prevent one from ever realizing this. If you just observe your mind and body for a little hike, you’ll come to know they are not you. There’s something else that knows this that is not the mind. And it is pointing towards “that”.
I have been reading Nisargadatta, Ramana and listening to Eckhart Tolle cd Practicing the Power of Now for a couple of years. While my mind still does what every other mind does…judges, reacts, etc… I know through meditation that the mind and thoughts are not me. Of course I am not enlightened nor am I claiming to be any different than anyone else. But I’ve had some experiences that at least allow me to keep and leave the door open to the possibility of what these spiritual teachers say. I encourage anyone searching for the truth to research the 3 people above and compliment your reading with developing a meditation practice. The knowledge we seek is there…within.