Are you okay?
Nynke May 16th, 2006
Vision is the ability to see beyond the present into, and to be able to chart a map of, the future. Is a united vision easily imaginable for religions? With all technologies and knowledge in the world converging, why would humanity harbor different religions in the core of its gestalt? What’s in it for us?
All religions reflect values in external reference frames. Values to live up to like truth, commitment, integrity, accountability, responsibility … all worthwhile values. No sane (wo)man would argue or disagree with things like “walking your talk and talking your walk” being a sound grounding for a harmonious and happy life.
Yet religions and spiritualities fight over which rituals are best, measure other religions against their own more detailed ritualized values, and given half a chance, blame others for karma coming back at them as a result of their own (re)actions.
The way some spiritual gestalts seem to behave towards each other reminds me of children playing in the sand with other children. Without assigning significance to any of the particular games played, both childlike and childish games seem to me a requirement for growing up in our contemporary time, if only to learn the difference between the two.
And when I look a bit closer to and farther away from the sandbox, there’s “others” playing in it too. “They” may not be of human kind, yet are players in the bigger system just as much. Let us hope and wish the sandbox does not explode, leaving an Earth no body can ever play in again.
We were warned at the end of the second world war by two bombs on Japan, that human kind is actually capable of doing just that. Destroying the entire sandbox. As if it is nothing. Oh, oops. … We didn’t do it, they did! They asked for it, and otherwise the war would have continued! It was them or us!
I don’t believe the war would have gone on eternally. I do believe those two bombs stopped the war. I also believe there are other ways of stopping wars. We can only find out by stopping throwing bombs at each other.
At some times I find the (near) future to look bleak, to put it mildly. Why?
To my great dismay I encountered spirituality seekers still placing (the different) rituals at their core in avoidance of sameness. Why?
Perhaps because of exactly that. Their true core, be it gnostic, sufi, pentagram, pentateuch, whatever … is the same: it’s about experiencing (vibrating) silence in the now. It’s about (w)holeness. Rituals is what spiritualities and religions differ in. By creating a ritualistic core instead of a quantum core, we can allow ourselves believing actually being different. Why?
So we can continue with our addictive victim and war routines for getting our way at the expense of “someone else”. It’s not us! It’s them that are the bad guys and gals!
Nothing more than bullying of a part not believing our own core saying,
“I am Okay
In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me.
Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine,
because I alone chose it
– I own everything about me:
my body,
my feelings,
my mouth,
my voice,
all my actions,
whether they be to others or myself.
I own my fantasies,
my dreams,
my hopes,
my fears.
I own my triumphs and successes,
all my failures and mistakes.
Because I own all of me,
I can become intimately acquainted with me.
By so doing,
I can love me and be friendly with all my parts.
I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me,
and other aspects that I do not know–
but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself,
I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me.
However I look and sound,
whatever I say and do,
and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time
is authentically me.
If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting,
I can discard that which is unfitting,
keep the rest,
and invent something new for that which I discarded.
I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do.
I have the tools to survive,
to be close to others,
to be productive,
and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me.
I own me,
and therefore,
I can engineer me.
I am me,
and I am Okay.”
Some of
Us Are Okay
(We believe it and continue to work to Make It So)
and bring excellent food to an international table:
Experience the Festival of Global Oneness Commitment
[…] As long as I keep daring to take risks while I consciously know that I may get such reactions to my not only thoughtwise but also emotionally intelligent presence, I am responsible and accountable for my own work, and I am Okay. […]
[…] Meditation is not just another distract-from-chaos-strategy. It can lead to vibrating silence (verrrrry restful), increased objectivity, and self-control. And more … we can connect with Beyond, with Global Oneness, and more fully humanness, if done “whole”. […]
[…] And several religions added to the distinctions made by declaring different races. What if we were to perceive differences made between “nations” and “races” as essential boundary conditions for growth? […]
[…] As Virginia Satir said, “Because I reflect on all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. And by so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I am Okay. ” Whether I re-read my journal or not, I already gain benefits from writing down my story. I am writing about how I see and experience life. […]
[…] Great Illusions of Freedom cause isolation and separation. Wake up from living in lala land and try some reality (even when you believe nothing exists). We are all in(ter)dependent on Earth, and we need not fight each other. We need no approval or disapproval from any group gestalt or individual to exist, or to preserve ourselves. Illusions. Nobody knows the right way anyway and nobody is stupid. And we’re all responsible for the collective projections and how we interact with our selves, life…. […]