RIGHT NOW: PART II

To celebrate Mindfulness Day (yesterday), here is the second half of a children's book (for everyone) I penned on what it means to live in the moment, and how to keep the elusive moment present.

Okay, but what to do about problem people around you, people who are disconnected and don’t have a loving heart?

Unfortunately, there are many problem people around you.  

These people are a problem because they have not learned how to separate their souls from their brains.  

They have not learned to observe and control their own thoughts, and how to live right now.

The way to deal with problem people is by using your imagination.

Imagination is mental energy, and mental energy is very powerful.

A great Roman philosopher once said:  We have free will over how to respond to external circumstances.

This means we have the mental power to choose what to do when problem people are around and if they confront us.

With your mental energy, imagine a shield around your body.  

Imagine that your imaginary shield cannot be penetrated by the negative energy of problem people.  

When problem people try to send negative energy at you, their negative energy bounces off your invisible shield and disappears.

When you are wearing your invisible shield, you simply smile, sit quietly and do nothing.

This comes from a Far Eastern tradition:  Sit quietly, do nothing.

Someone is hollering at you?

Do not answer back.  Sit quietly, do nothing.  Let it bounce off you.

These are some of the wisest words you will ever hear.

But sometimes you cannot help yourself.  

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, and letting negative energy bounce off you is harder than you might think.  

Also, your ego wants to answer back to make your story about yourself feel better. 

This may result in a tiff, which is what problem people want.

If you cannot help but engage in a tiff, think of ducks. 

After ducks engage in a tiff, they flap their wings, fly off in different directions, and give their tiff no further thought.

So, do as ducks do.  

It you have a tiff with problem people, shrug it off with your shoulders, move on, and don’t give the tiff any further thought. 

Why waste mental energy on problem people and the bad feelings problem people try to put on you?

But when problems come your way, through problem people, don’t hide or run away.

Welcome those problems. 

Life is full of problems and they need to be solved. 

And this a good thing.  

Because problems teach you the lessons you need to learn to help you grow.  

And solving problems helps to make you feel good.  

So, don’t run away from problems, solve them, right now.

And now the hardest part: 

Forgive problem people.  

If you do not forgive problem people, you will carry the negative energy problem people want to place upon you.

So, forgive problem people.  

And send problem people a silent blessing wishing for them to awaken their soul from their ego and not be so negative anymore.

Now let’s talk about God.

You hear a lot about God. 

But nobody can tell you where God lives or what God looks like.

Some people think they know, but they don’t know for sure. 

Some people say if you join their club, you will find God.

People in different parts of the world think of God in different ways and through different words.  Words like Mother Nature or Brahmin or Tao or Messiah or Allah or The Essence. 

These are all words for an energy source that created the universe.

Sometimes people think they need to travel halfway across the world and climb a mountain to find God.

Some people think they need to live in solitude and completely clear their minds for a whole year—or many years—in a special place of worship, or on a mountaintop, to find God.

And this is fine.

But it's not necessary.

An American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once wrote:  Don’t look for yourself outside of yourself.

Another American poet, Walt Whitman put it this way:  I am divine and make holy whatever I touch.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman were trying to convey a very important meaning about God.

This meaning:  

You do not have to join a club or go anywhere to find God.

That is because you can know God, right now.

In fact, you already do know God.

God is energy. 

God is every vibrating molecule in every living being. 

God is consciousness.

God is you.  You are God.

When a very influential religious figure said, I am the son of God, what he really meant was, we are all sons (and daughters) of God.

Once you know that consciousness—your consciousness—is God, you no longer have to travel anywhere to look for God. 

You don’t have to live in a special place of worship, or even visit a place of worship.   

That’s because you are already in a special place of worship. 

Your place of worship is your embodiment, which hosts your consciousness, and your very presence in the cosmos right now.

Now that you know that your consciousness is God, you can celebrate your Godliness.

You can draw wisdom from all the world’s great religions and philosophers.  

You can read about their beliefs and practices, learn what they want you to know. 

Then pull those pieces most meaningful to you into a spirituality of your very own. 

Pick and choose your own holidays.  

Make up your own holidays that are special to you.  

Create your own rituals for celebrating your chosen holidays.

You can create your own sanctuary or special place of worship—a place where you can be alone to reflect upon all you have learned, or maybe to clear your mind from all the clutter created by your ego.

This is called solitude.

Solitude is a good way to clear your mind and become aware of your inner, less known, senses.

Find a chair that is yours alone in which you feel completely comfortable.  

Sit in your own special chair and allow your soul to observe the thoughts of your brain.  

Or even better, think about nothing at all. Or just be aware.

Create an altar and decorate it with the artifacts and talismans that you have collected, and continue to collect, through your journey in life. 

This room, with your chair and altar, is your own personal cathedral, for peace and quiet.  

This room sets you free to pursue whatever creative projects you choose to embark upon.

To find peace of mind, and solitude, you do not need to become a monk or a hermit. 

It is easy to find peace of mind in these times.  

Here is the secret to finding peace of mind, and solitude, in these times:  Avoid social media as much as possible.  

And enjoy solitude as much as possible.

Take a walk by yourself and look at the clouds and trees and birds.  Listen to the sounds of nature.  Smell its aromas.

Look around and take three deep breaths.  Open all of your senses.  See, hear, smell, taste and feel what is going on around you, right now.

Pay attention to breathing fresh air, drinking pure water, and eating nourishing foods that provide and enhance the energy force within you.  

Pay attention to live music (choirs and street music, especially), art, trees and wildlife.  

Visit places of worship for solitude and to breathe the positive energy released into the air from prayer.

Now let’s talk about nationality and religion.

You never need to be attached to a nationality or an organized religion. 

Nationality and organized religions are based on deeply entrenched, very corrupt power structures and hierarchies. 

You are an inhabitant of Planet Earth and the cosmos.  

You are a flow of consciousness in a vessel with senses.

You are God. 

You do not need the corrupt leaders of countries or the corrupt leaders of religions to tell you what to believe, what not to believe, who to fight, what to do, what not to do.

As one wise man put it:  We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

During your human experience, honor your spirit by being natural to yourself. 

Do not be wholly influenced by the culture into which you were born, nor the conditioning from the culture that nurtured you.  

Become aware of all other cultures and their conditionings. 

Be your own being.

Don’t allow your mind to be invaded by advertising from the material world.  

For their invasions are based on commerce, on money.  

The people who advertise products strive to invade your mind for one purpose and one purpose only:  to enrich themselves. 

Now let’s talk about death.

Death is an ugly word whose cultural meaning implies finality.

But without death, you cannot have lived, which means that death is part of life.

Death means you are fortunate to have lived, to be alive right now.

Don’t dread death, said a Roman philosopher, Dread the FEAR of death.

Even better, don’t dread anything.

But do give death a thought every day, in order to better enjoy right now. 

And when death comes, which could be any day, any minute, any second—surrender your soul to the natural process of life and, by extension, so-called “death.”

If you do not dread anything, especially death, you will be happy all the time, for no reason.

You will be enlightened.

When death comes, your soul will no longer be constrained by a vessel. 

So, when your ship is ready to sail, throw your masts to the wind and let go.

           

Your soul, your consciousness, which is immortal and eternal, will transform to spirit.  

And your spirit will be set free to rejoin an overall consciousness of cosmic unity, from which your consciousness originated, and to which your consciousness must return. 

You are, right now, a free-flowing consciousness—albeit constrained by your ego, and your vessel—from this fleeting moment to the next.

Live in unity with your ego, but give it a short leash. 

We are all divine, and connected in our divinity.

And remember this:  all that truly matters is the love we have in our hearts and the kindness we show to others.