This is a re-post, originally featured on my blog when my blog was just a baby and me just an obnoxious grl trying to learn to learn her voice in public. Now, I'm still as obnoxious if that translates to bravery and exploring/standing your ground AND I feel I know my voice in a true way, too. Thanks Web-Log! I go back to this post every so often, because the voice is there clearly for the early days, but more, I like the reminders:
LIST
1. NO CELL PHONE USE IN RESTAURANTS OR STORES. Obnoxious cell phone use is Western entitlement at its best. I don't care if its your sister or Aunt Jodie calling just for a sec get off the phone and focus on the task in front of you. Also, you are in full right to not call people back if you are currently involved in something else, even if that something else is the very important necessary for your soul mandate of DOING NOTHING. This stress and always being busy and worry of us and our culture is compacted by the insane idea that just because we all have cell phones now and Gen Y never knew any different that we all have to call each other back right away! Or feel guilty for it if we don't. No. Engage in the life in front of you without deluded expectations. When it is time to be on the phone, then be someone fully engaged with your friend or loved one or business person or whatever on the phone. No excuses.
2 . LEARN TO BE ALONE. QUIET. BY YOURSELF. I don't care who you are, I am suspicious of anyone who can't sit a while doing nothing but sitting a while in the presence of their own soul. Take mandatory quiet time or time-out time with you and you alone. This is different than doing nothing. Though it is, after the initial restlessness dies down, a genuine relief to take a big breath and say to yourself, No, no, there is nothing left to do right now other than just be me with me. Make it a custom. Explore the world you are unto your self. Should the Death face come today, or the hangman or the angel and It stands there and says to you what good did you do, you can say to Yourself, I knew quiet. I surrendered to what I came here with, to what I'll go out of here with. What more courageous thing could there be?
3. HOLD DOORS OPEN FOR PEOPLE.
4. SMILE. On both number three and four: The following is perhaps the most simple principle there is, applicable to or perhaps even relegated by the beating heart. We like to feel good, we don't like to feel bad. We ALL have this in common, even the birds and the deers and my cat and your dog--just for them good is food and bad is danger of predator. Feeling good is a contagion as is feeling bad--literally, the chemicals behind each of these emotional reactions do nothing but stimulate more of the same chemicals. Chemicals are the body's ensured unconscious response to see to it that those good experiences are enhanced and repeated and those bad are feared and avoided. There is great , great power in this. So do your part! Make a small difference every day. Help people feel good. It will make you feel good, too.
5. BE CONSISTENT. Stick to your word. Do what you'll say you do and don't say you'll do something if you can't or you wont or you have to drag your feet about it because secretly it makes you feel bad or stresses you out or drains your energy. If you change your mind don't fear the consequences or make excuses. Simply see to it that your actions now stick to your new word.
6. RECOGNIZE WHAT YOU RESIST PERSISTS. Simply put, wherever you go there you are. What you don't want to deal with will constantly nag and drag you down all quiet or loud until you are forced to confront it in an explosive manner. Be good to yourself--have courage to look at your nagging good or bad feelings even if initially scary and running you down. This is called preventative action. Or personal responsiblity. Be easy on yourself when yet again you slow down only to find, oh damn, my eyes were closed again.
7. TRAVEL. I don't mean go to hotels and restaurants for 7 nights and 6 days. I mean get out on the road in your own state or in a foreign country and find the things and try the things the locals do there. See a new part of the world with new eyes but with the same precious sky and earth and sun. Keep yourself fresh, vital. Come home and see how very alive and boundless you're able to feel in your own little home corner of routine and regularity. PRACTICE THIS.
8. REMEMBER INFINITY. At its base level the world, our whole universe in its entirety is nothing more than endless amounts of protons neutrons electrons and that odd space in-between. The very base level application of this: anything is possible. ANYTHING. That makes everything ordinary extraordinary, and everything extraordinary actually quite ordinary. Modern science itself is a mere hundred years old! As recent as the late 1800's people actually believed that the size of one's skull actually determined not only their intelligence but their superiority--making women and non-whites "scientifically" incapable of certain levels of intelligence and inferior as well. Stay open. Don't settle.
9. TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Be brave enough to try something different for the sake of your own infinite human spirit. The most dangerous thing isn't conformity, it's unconsciousness. Recognize the world for the series of opposites that it is. Whatever action you take throws equivalent energy in the opposite direction. So if your a peace lover go militant for a day. A godlover go totally nihilist tonight! A warrior soldier sit passive attentive Zazen all morning, action of non-action. Counter-balance yourself. Stay fresh--open yourself to the content of this--avowing yourself to the experience of the present, not a dictate of your own reactive unconscious measures.
10. FORGET WORDS. Forget words, forget lists, forget all you've read. Words are words. Yes, they are the first form of contractual obligation of action. Yes they harness the power inside of you in sound form given out to the air and to ears or the eyes and to the breath and the water and the fire of the sun. They are the first tangible form of action after your thoughts. But action is every step you take. So forget words, this list, all you've ever read or heard. Touch down within yourself until you realize, until you know for sure that who you are is how you be. Make your own list. Be your own King, Queen.
11. BREAK THE RULES, every one, on your own list. Remedy your unconsciousness. Don't be afraid of it. If you are accept you are. Then love yourself, forgive. And open again, again, again. It's the surest tool you have to bring you closer to other human beings or breathing or living creations.
12. CLOSENESS IS A BEAUTIFUL THING. Realize the choice is yours: closeness could be the very reason that you're here.
LIST
1. NO CELL PHONE USE IN RESTAURANTS OR STORES. Obnoxious cell phone use is Western entitlement at its best. I don't care if its your sister or Aunt Jodie calling just for a sec get off the phone and focus on the task in front of you. Also, you are in full right to not call people back if you are currently involved in something else, even if that something else is the very important necessary for your soul mandate of DOING NOTHING. This stress and always being busy and worry of us and our culture is compacted by the insane idea that just because we all have cell phones now and Gen Y never knew any different that we all have to call each other back right away! Or feel guilty for it if we don't. No. Engage in the life in front of you without deluded expectations. When it is time to be on the phone, then be someone fully engaged with your friend or loved one or business person or whatever on the phone. No excuses.
2 . LEARN TO BE ALONE. QUIET. BY YOURSELF. I don't care who you are, I am suspicious of anyone who can't sit a while doing nothing but sitting a while in the presence of their own soul. Take mandatory quiet time or time-out time with you and you alone. This is different than doing nothing. Though it is, after the initial restlessness dies down, a genuine relief to take a big breath and say to yourself, No, no, there is nothing left to do right now other than just be me with me. Make it a custom. Explore the world you are unto your self. Should the Death face come today, or the hangman or the angel and It stands there and says to you what good did you do, you can say to Yourself, I knew quiet. I surrendered to what I came here with, to what I'll go out of here with. What more courageous thing could there be?
3. HOLD DOORS OPEN FOR PEOPLE.
4. SMILE. On both number three and four: The following is perhaps the most simple principle there is, applicable to or perhaps even relegated by the beating heart. We like to feel good, we don't like to feel bad. We ALL have this in common, even the birds and the deers and my cat and your dog--just for them good is food and bad is danger of predator. Feeling good is a contagion as is feeling bad--literally, the chemicals behind each of these emotional reactions do nothing but stimulate more of the same chemicals. Chemicals are the body's ensured unconscious response to see to it that those good experiences are enhanced and repeated and those bad are feared and avoided. There is great , great power in this. So do your part! Make a small difference every day. Help people feel good. It will make you feel good, too.
5. BE CONSISTENT. Stick to your word. Do what you'll say you do and don't say you'll do something if you can't or you wont or you have to drag your feet about it because secretly it makes you feel bad or stresses you out or drains your energy. If you change your mind don't fear the consequences or make excuses. Simply see to it that your actions now stick to your new word.
6. RECOGNIZE WHAT YOU RESIST PERSISTS. Simply put, wherever you go there you are. What you don't want to deal with will constantly nag and drag you down all quiet or loud until you are forced to confront it in an explosive manner. Be good to yourself--have courage to look at your nagging good or bad feelings even if initially scary and running you down. This is called preventative action. Or personal responsiblity. Be easy on yourself when yet again you slow down only to find, oh damn, my eyes were closed again.
7. TRAVEL. I don't mean go to hotels and restaurants for 7 nights and 6 days. I mean get out on the road in your own state or in a foreign country and find the things and try the things the locals do there. See a new part of the world with new eyes but with the same precious sky and earth and sun. Keep yourself fresh, vital. Come home and see how very alive and boundless you're able to feel in your own little home corner of routine and regularity. PRACTICE THIS.
8. REMEMBER INFINITY. At its base level the world, our whole universe in its entirety is nothing more than endless amounts of protons neutrons electrons and that odd space in-between. The very base level application of this: anything is possible. ANYTHING. That makes everything ordinary extraordinary, and everything extraordinary actually quite ordinary. Modern science itself is a mere hundred years old! As recent as the late 1800's people actually believed that the size of one's skull actually determined not only their intelligence but their superiority--making women and non-whites "scientifically" incapable of certain levels of intelligence and inferior as well. Stay open. Don't settle.
9. TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Be brave enough to try something different for the sake of your own infinite human spirit. The most dangerous thing isn't conformity, it's unconsciousness. Recognize the world for the series of opposites that it is. Whatever action you take throws equivalent energy in the opposite direction. So if your a peace lover go militant for a day. A godlover go totally nihilist tonight! A warrior soldier sit passive attentive Zazen all morning, action of non-action. Counter-balance yourself. Stay fresh--open yourself to the content of this--avowing yourself to the experience of the present, not a dictate of your own reactive unconscious measures.
10. FORGET WORDS. Forget words, forget lists, forget all you've read. Words are words. Yes, they are the first form of contractual obligation of action. Yes they harness the power inside of you in sound form given out to the air and to ears or the eyes and to the breath and the water and the fire of the sun. They are the first tangible form of action after your thoughts. But action is every step you take. So forget words, this list, all you've ever read or heard. Touch down within yourself until you realize, until you know for sure that who you are is how you be. Make your own list. Be your own King, Queen.
11. BREAK THE RULES, every one, on your own list. Remedy your unconsciousness. Don't be afraid of it. If you are accept you are. Then love yourself, forgive. And open again, again, again. It's the surest tool you have to bring you closer to other human beings or breathing or living creations.
12. CLOSENESS IS A BEAUTIFUL THING. Realize the choice is yours: closeness could be the very reason that you're here.
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