For the first time, I have had clear-minded thoughts about the events surrounding the nationally-publicized tragedy that happened at the Boston Marathon. My pattern in the past has been to react with anger and hostility towards the culprits responsible for mass public killings, terrorist attacks, or any other local or nationwide tragedy.
However, I remained calm when the news first started coming out about the possible suspects. I read through the articles and user comments on websites and did not invest emotional worth or my own opinion into them. I did not think, nor did I ponder; I simply saw and left.
My enlightenment is to know that six billion of us each hold the most powerful thing known to man in the universe: the brain. With the brain comes the mind, which I believe still cannot be thoroughly defined. Within the mind, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, conceptions –all relative to the person’s experience— blossom into delusions, or beliefs we regard as the truth. Unguarded and unchecked, delusions can lead into action, causing the ultimate sin as we have seen: to kill our own flesh and blood, our brothers and sisters in humanity.
I find it a delusion in itself to try to put these people in other brackets of existence, to somehow make them different and more violent then your standard soccer mom or me. I am sure there have been soccer moms who have become so enraged by jealously and delusional thinking that their once-cheating husband was found gunned down in his own home. With the mind that all of us have, we are capable of deluding ourselves to grandeur in the darkest of ways. The mind will always remain clinging, wanting, needing, thinking, attaching. It is our job as sentient beings to realize when a passing thought manifests into a delusion and to stop it right there. The truth will always be shown to us outside of our selves, for the mind knows no truth. What is beautiful about truth is that it exists on its own. Needing no justification, rationalization, processing, or backing up, truth is a boulder in a desert of granulated-lies. We, as sentient beings, create drama when we attempt to tell the truth.
I exist in a world of non-truths from Wall Street to countries to religions to politics, etc. I choose these because they are volatile and explosive at any left or right turns. Why? Because they are delusions, thoughts that once occurred and then manifested into delusional action by people no smarter than you or I. The volatility of it exists because six billion minds do not think alike and can be just as delusional. These are concepts and ideas that, if you do not agree with, do not exist because they are not the truth.
This is enlightenment. I cannot change how people think or what they think and that in itself is a comforting thought. It is up to me only to change what I think and how I think or if I even think. My world changing internally will affect my experiences in the external world.
The real world that I want is one that knows no borders. I should be free to drive south and hang out in Mexico, learn Spanish, eat great food, enjoy great people, enjoy great culture, and taste what this world has to offer. North to Canada, across the seas to Europe or Asia, this is what I want.
Unfortunately, the mind continues to divide us --all brothers and sisters in humanity-- up into “countries” with imaginary borders and in many other ways. Our mind deludes us into thinking that we know the way. I believe we are just as lost as we were thousands of years ago; we just have more gadgets to distract us from the source of all of this delusion.
I encourage all of us to find the delusions we are living in and say aloud to our selves, “mind, you are a liar. Until I learn to see only what is, I will not listen to you.” Whether it’s what you think about your mom or the ways we destroy ourselves with drugs and alcohol, delusions set ablaze can adversely affect our short time on this wonderful earth.
It starts now, in this moment. If we all change the way we look at things, the things we look at will change. Eventually, there will be compassion and understanding even amongst a few friends that can change anyone’s world. Exist as a vessel of truth rather than a vessel of opinions and deluded thinking. Master your mind, or be mastered by your mind. The choice is yours.
However, I remained calm when the news first started coming out about the possible suspects. I read through the articles and user comments on websites and did not invest emotional worth or my own opinion into them. I did not think, nor did I ponder; I simply saw and left.
My enlightenment is to know that six billion of us each hold the most powerful thing known to man in the universe: the brain. With the brain comes the mind, which I believe still cannot be thoroughly defined. Within the mind, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, conceptions –all relative to the person’s experience— blossom into delusions, or beliefs we regard as the truth. Unguarded and unchecked, delusions can lead into action, causing the ultimate sin as we have seen: to kill our own flesh and blood, our brothers and sisters in humanity.
I find it a delusion in itself to try to put these people in other brackets of existence, to somehow make them different and more violent then your standard soccer mom or me. I am sure there have been soccer moms who have become so enraged by jealously and delusional thinking that their once-cheating husband was found gunned down in his own home. With the mind that all of us have, we are capable of deluding ourselves to grandeur in the darkest of ways. The mind will always remain clinging, wanting, needing, thinking, attaching. It is our job as sentient beings to realize when a passing thought manifests into a delusion and to stop it right there. The truth will always be shown to us outside of our selves, for the mind knows no truth. What is beautiful about truth is that it exists on its own. Needing no justification, rationalization, processing, or backing up, truth is a boulder in a desert of granulated-lies. We, as sentient beings, create drama when we attempt to tell the truth.
I exist in a world of non-truths from Wall Street to countries to religions to politics, etc. I choose these because they are volatile and explosive at any left or right turns. Why? Because they are delusions, thoughts that once occurred and then manifested into delusional action by people no smarter than you or I. The volatility of it exists because six billion minds do not think alike and can be just as delusional. These are concepts and ideas that, if you do not agree with, do not exist because they are not the truth.
This is enlightenment. I cannot change how people think or what they think and that in itself is a comforting thought. It is up to me only to change what I think and how I think or if I even think. My world changing internally will affect my experiences in the external world.
The real world that I want is one that knows no borders. I should be free to drive south and hang out in Mexico, learn Spanish, eat great food, enjoy great people, enjoy great culture, and taste what this world has to offer. North to Canada, across the seas to Europe or Asia, this is what I want.
Unfortunately, the mind continues to divide us --all brothers and sisters in humanity-- up into “countries” with imaginary borders and in many other ways. Our mind deludes us into thinking that we know the way. I believe we are just as lost as we were thousands of years ago; we just have more gadgets to distract us from the source of all of this delusion.
I encourage all of us to find the delusions we are living in and say aloud to our selves, “mind, you are a liar. Until I learn to see only what is, I will not listen to you.” Whether it’s what you think about your mom or the ways we destroy ourselves with drugs and alcohol, delusions set ablaze can adversely affect our short time on this wonderful earth.
It starts now, in this moment. If we all change the way we look at things, the things we look at will change. Eventually, there will be compassion and understanding even amongst a few friends that can change anyone’s world. Exist as a vessel of truth rather than a vessel of opinions and deluded thinking. Master your mind, or be mastered by your mind. The choice is yours.
