During January 2010, I took a 10-day meditation course. It had profoundly changed my life and made me shift my life completely. Since then I have been practicing on and off, not as much as I should. But because my perspective on life changed so much during those 10 days, I see things very differently in regular life.
I have been re-reading "An Ancient Path" by Dr. Paul R. Fleischman. I want to share a portion of the book here that has been on my mind lately, especially with the terrible incident that happened last week that shook me to the core.
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**There was a period of time when I set about the task of studying people who attained inner peace. What do they say? How did they do it? There are people from every era of history, every culture, who address this problem in one degree or another. Here is a conclusion that seems timeless and culture-free: there are two agendas that human beings share. One agenda is to be peaceful, to be happy, I want to find "more" to life. The other agenda is safety, security; that gold Cadillac may come in handy, or gold may come in handy, you can't trust other people, history if perfidious. There could be a war; I better situate myself in a good position. With two apparently competing agendas, very idealistic or simple philosophy might conclude, well, just walk the open road. Very pragmatic, very skeptical philosophy would say: make sure you know which side your bread is buttered on. But notably successful peace seekers throughout time and place have come up with what psychiatrists call the end of splitting. Splitting is where we divide human life into antagonistic partial answers. The end of splitting is where we make complex whole answers that take away divisiveness and produce skillfully integrated middle paths. The middle path of inner peace is to live a practical, competent, skillful, worldly life, during which every moment is also infused with the spirit of harmony and peace. Peace is part of survival, not its antagonist. Rather dividing or splitting adaptation and harmony, you fuse them.
Successful lives of inner peace exemplify competence illuminated.
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I seek now to find that middle path. It's a journey, and I am very happy to be in that search-mode. It makes my life so much more meaningful. In everything I do, I try to rise above the 'splitting'. It is not always easy, it is actually very hard. It takes a lot of self control and understanding. Every time I make a small progress, it gives me great happiness since I know I am on track. This is my life's purpose now. I know it will let me live an invigorating life. That is my definition of Happiness.
**This has been copied from the chapter "Cultivating Inner Peace" from the book "An Ancient Path" by Dr. Paul R. Fleischman. All rights belong to the author.
I have been re-reading "An Ancient Path" by Dr. Paul R. Fleischman. I want to share a portion of the book here that has been on my mind lately, especially with the terrible incident that happened last week that shook me to the core.
__________________________
**There was a period of time when I set about the task of studying people who attained inner peace. What do they say? How did they do it? There are people from every era of history, every culture, who address this problem in one degree or another. Here is a conclusion that seems timeless and culture-free: there are two agendas that human beings share. One agenda is to be peaceful, to be happy, I want to find "more" to life. The other agenda is safety, security; that gold Cadillac may come in handy, or gold may come in handy, you can't trust other people, history if perfidious. There could be a war; I better situate myself in a good position. With two apparently competing agendas, very idealistic or simple philosophy might conclude, well, just walk the open road. Very pragmatic, very skeptical philosophy would say: make sure you know which side your bread is buttered on. But notably successful peace seekers throughout time and place have come up with what psychiatrists call the end of splitting. Splitting is where we divide human life into antagonistic partial answers. The end of splitting is where we make complex whole answers that take away divisiveness and produce skillfully integrated middle paths. The middle path of inner peace is to live a practical, competent, skillful, worldly life, during which every moment is also infused with the spirit of harmony and peace. Peace is part of survival, not its antagonist. Rather dividing or splitting adaptation and harmony, you fuse them.
Successful lives of inner peace exemplify competence illuminated.
__________________________
I seek now to find that middle path. It's a journey, and I am very happy to be in that search-mode. It makes my life so much more meaningful. In everything I do, I try to rise above the 'splitting'. It is not always easy, it is actually very hard. It takes a lot of self control and understanding. Every time I make a small progress, it gives me great happiness since I know I am on track. This is my life's purpose now. I know it will let me live an invigorating life. That is my definition of Happiness.
**This has been copied from the chapter "Cultivating Inner Peace" from the book "An Ancient Path" by Dr. Paul R. Fleischman. All rights belong to the author.
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