Gratitude is the door to joy. Seriousness is a killjoy. - Dr. Thomas Hora
The fact we are unhappy when we attempt to be “happy” by partaking in “happy holiday festivities” points to our mental health. Within our awareness is the uncomfortable realization that we are participating in a fantasy.
Read MoreThere is not one person or organization that can rightfully shoulder the culpability for this devastating event. As in all experiences that “go wrong” with suffering, heart ache, trauma and enormous expense, there is an endless wagon train of ignorance, arrogance, greed and ambition in many individual acts along the way.
Read MoreIn every life there will be at least one moment when ongoing grind of daily life blinks - revealing the timeless harmony of existence. In that moment a glimpse of true being is revealed; without words, without action, without description. Those who know this moment recognize it always, even in these clumsy words.
When the moment passes and ordinary life faces us again, our thirst is both quenched and heightened. The reality of completeness is complete, and, at the same moment, it has disappeared behind the open-mouthed monster mind on the search for something to have or someone to be.
After the glimpse, everything in the ordinary world is tainted with the recognition that it is a sham – a poor second to the glorious ever-present, yet ungraspable truth.
The bottomless pit of wanting is confronted by the infinite wholeness of being.
Albert Einstein described such a moment as “the religious paradise of youth,” as he recalled the recognition of universal harmony when he was first introduced to Hebrew teachings. As a young man, he wrote simple hymns he sang and prayed to himself while walking to school.
When introduced to geometry in math class, his view of God was challenged. While he did outgrow religious ideas, it seems to me that he was fueled by his naïve recognition of universal harmony to search for a mathematical and scientific language to understand it.
All of us are on the same quest through a unique route. For some the original “glimpse” may have been overshadowed by the traumas and tribulations of early life or possibly smothered in comfort and indulgence. Like looking for lost keys that “we know were left somewhere around here,” universal harmony seems lost just beneath the daily relentless routine.
Universal harmony cannot be lost – it is impossible – but our attention can get focused in other directions. And, as when looking for lost keys, the more agitated and anxious we get about finding them, or universal harmony, the harder it is to find.
Is it possible to find something that isn’t really lost? For that matter, is it possible to lose something that is ever-present?
Perhaps when Albert Einstein was singing his hymns to God someone else was thinking that he was wasting his time.
It reminds me of one of my daughters screaming: “Mom! I can’t find my sweater. . .” or whatever. Within 30 seconds of my coming into the room the “sweater” magically appeared – on the bed, under the bag, or on the floor of the closet. It became a joke as it occurred every time.
It wasn’t that something was lost – it was that she, or you or I, can’t see what is there when our minds are cluttered.
“Nothing is as it appears to be; neither is it otherwise." -Zen Koan
The fact of physical temporariness and the inevitable end of material life is often experienced as an underlying anxiety. In the words of Dr. Hora “the human condition is an unceasing state of existential dread; a doubting fearfulness about whether or not we really exist.”
We seem to be physical, material persons made of flesh and blood; with mental, physiological, and psychological functions. We seem to be urges, desires, needs and wants, inclinations, habits and traits. And yet, all of these are temporary. They change many times during a lifetime and then disappear completely.
There is also a sense of timelessness. There is an awareness of being eternal and indestructible. How can it be that we seem to be temporary, yet, also seem to be timeless? Which one is real? Psychology might suggest that “timelessness” is merely a coping fantasy to the truth of “temporariness.”
In Metapsychiatry the experience of temporariness and the awareness of eternality are both recognized as meaningful. They point to a truth about who and what we are, as well to the purpose of our lives.
An underlying experience of anxiety may be the awareness that the physical form is temporary. Clinging to the physical form does not alleviate the anxiety, nor will it stop the inevitable dissolution of it.
Instead of fighting or subduing the anxiety it can be seen as information. It may be an invitation to open to another perception of our selves. Like caterpillars that evolve into butterflies, we are seeded with the inspiration to evolve into an ever more enlightened expression of what is infinite and eternal.
This places the study of consciousness and its content as essential to living an anxiety-free, happy life. The experience of life in a temporary form is an opportunity and a means to awaken to the eternal reality. All of the suffering, longing, pleasures and urges are meaningful. They reveal the content of consciousness. Awareness makes it possible to wake up to this content and discern the healthy from the unhealthy, the temporary from the eternal.
“Nothing is as it appears to be. .”
What we experience with our senses is symbolic of what is really real and what is not.
“And, neither is it otherwise.”
The physical appearance of life is neither something nor is it nothing – it is meaningful. Like a map to a trail, once we understand it, it can help guide us to a fuller understanding of who we are and our purpose in life.
Money is viewed as the source of and solution to our problems. Yet, perhaps the problem is thinking that money is the solution to our problems. The view that money is both the source and solution to our problems has brought the nation to a no-win situation: We need money to solve our problem of lack of money, but taking money from ourselves will continue the problem of lack of money.
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What is “spiritual” is best understood next to it’s opposite: Material. “Material” refers to what is physical and can be perceived through sensory perception. Spiritual refers to what is non-material.
To understand God, it is important to understand that God is unimaginable Reality; we have to be capable of knowing that which cannot be imagined.
Infinite Love-Intelligence, the Metapsychiatric name for God, implies an infinite source of ideas. These ideas are not duplications of one another; they are unique in content and...
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Joy just is. It’s not in the lights or the stars, in getting or giving presents; nor is it in gathering with friends and family, although one might, or might not, be aware of joy in any of these experiences. Experiences come and go; joy is a spiritual quality that is unchanging. It manifests through awareness of it.
Who are we? What is life, and what are the laws that govern it? What is its meaning and purpose? What is real; what is unreal? What is truth, health, evil, disease, death? How are these elements of existence cognized and understood?
The term “existential” is used to connote whatever deals with the above issues.
When a tree has its roots in contact with the source of its nourishment, it is in harmony with its own nature and, as a consequence, it is a beneficial presence in nature. What is our essential nature? If we were ego-persons, then ego gratification would make us healthy because then we would be true to our essential nature. But we see that ego gratification does not make anyone healthy; it makes us sick. So, there must be something wrong with this idea.
At Christmas time and other holidays, families come together and the members make a supreme effort to express love toward each other. They try to do it and the result is that after these holidays people tend to run into various problems (such as colds, flu, sadness, exhaustion, etc.) .
Isaiah in chapter 1, verse 18 makes it sound so easy: “Come, let us reason together.” And, indeed, it may be easier than it looks. All it requires is sincere interest in what is really true, useful, and beneficial for all concerned.
Are we free, or are we enslaved?
Most people don’t realize that they are enslaved. It is so widespread that they think it is just natural to be paralyzed with fear. So the first thing is to know the difference between being enslaved and being free. Once we know that we can be enslaved when we could be free, then the question is, What is the next step?
Here is a simple idea to discern what is good and healthy vs what is not:
Any idea, or system of values, or religious system, anything that impinges on individual existence, can validate itself or disqualify itself by its consequences for the health and fulfillment of the individual. . .
if we have the right idea of what abundance is and what its source is, we will never lack an opportunity for being useful and helpful. But if we are ignorant of this fact and feel deprived or sorry for ourselves, we have closed the floodgates of the good which God is generously pouring out continuously.
. . .Our ability and willingness to be useful and helpful in business or employment determines the prospering of it. Should we experience insufficient income or a slowdown in our business, we need to improve our ability to be helpful.
. . .In a certain sense, looking for a job is a mistake. We are looking to be useful, to contribute. While it is intelligent to be concerned with what benefits we may derive from our employment, we must also be interested in what way we may benefit the company or institution we work for.
There are all kinds of moneys. We have to distinguish between drug money, and political bribery money, and crime money. But the real money, the good money, is the shadow of love.
Seed finds itself on a journey to share the best of who it is with all life. Landing underneath a boulder on a cliff, her growth is stunted and sorrow abounds. This is a story about human existence. We are inevitably born into circumstances that are not perfect. Discovering the perfection of being within imperfect circumstances is the journey. Seed is on this journey, as we all are. How does Seed find the way from unhappiness to joy? You will just need to read the book to find out!
Aging is the accumulation of unresolved grievances. . . .
The word “maturing” is an attempt at describing a progressive development of consciousness, moving in the direction of ever-clearer discernment of nondimensional Reality: toward the light of enlightenment.
-Dr. Hora: "Self Transcendence"
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Joy just is. It’s not in the lights or the stars, in getting or giving presents; nor is it in gathering with friends and family, although one might, or might not, be aware of joy in any of these experiences. Experiences come and go; joy is a spiritual quality that is unchanging. It manifests through awareness of it.