15
Beauty: Could It Be More Than Just in the Eye of the Beholder?
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Beauty. We all want it, gravitate to it, seek it out, admire it, strive to surround ourselves with it, and sacrifice to embody it. But could it be that what is pleasing to the eye is more than just visual eye-candy? What if beauty were a force, a power that could change your life? What if beauty held within it the seeds of a greater growth and inspirational quality of life?
Being an over-the-top fan of Oscar Wilde, I find myself haunted by his insights and wisdom. One of my favorite Oscar Wilde suggestions is his idea that the fastest way to transform your mind is to surround yourself with beauty. Interesting and compelling, isn’t it!?!
I have no doubt that Oscar is right. Consider that when you seek out an environment in which to relax and enjoy life, aren’t you ultimately attracted to it by virtue of its beauty? When you consider your next vacation destination isn’t it always motivated by what grabs your visual attention? When you fall in love, whether or not the person is a “classic beauty”, don’t you know it when you see your beloved as perfect and just right for you? The truth is that human beauty is very different from outer world beauty. Pretty faces can lie in ways a sunset cannot. After all, human beauty is not determined exclusively by its outer packaging but more importantly by an inner quality of honesty, pristine kind-heartedness and loving-kindness. Could it be then that beauty is a form of self-correction or inner self-healing?
by Vaishali, author of “You Are What You Love” and “Wisdom Rising”
After being diagnosed terminal from an illness, and then ten years later from a near fatal injury, there is one thing I truly understand as a result of piecing my health back together though Chi Nei Tsang and studying the Eastern healing sciences. That is the physical dynamics of emotions – how emotions travel through the body, what emotions stress and undermine which organs and how unresolved emotional experiences can literally get trapped inside the body.
Emotions are a form of energy, and like all forms of energies they have a certain vibrational signature frequency. That vibrational frequency difference is what separates anger from fear, and sadness and grief from impatience. Our internal organs, also being forms of energy, vibrate at difference frequencies. That is what makes the liver, the liver, and not the lung or the foot. When we have an emotional experience, that frequency moves through the body like waves move through water or sound waves through air.
Our internal organs have the ability to digest those emotional frequencies. Different organs digest different emotions. For example, the lungs and related airway passages are designed to digest the signature frequency of sadness and grief. When that organ has digested that emotion, it has taken the emotion in, then pulled from it what is needed, and last and most importantly, let the rest go for the recognized waste that it is. The natural post-digestive emotional byproducts of sadness and grief are courage, self-confidence and self-assurance these emotions are then absorbed internally and ultimately embodied.
Being a female in 21st century America, and being in my fifties, I can honestly say in the spirit of “been there, done that” that there is nothing I fail to understand about hacking oneself to pieces with an overly critical eye.
I have taught many class over the years on various aspects of life- management. I usually start by asking what issues people are struggling with the most. That is what I focus on. What I have noticed is that a greater number of people are requesting help in the area of how to deal with suffering. Self-inflicted suffering they experience at their own hands: how they perceive their own body image. For many women, and an increasing number of men, feelings on this subject range from mild emotional discomfort to outright self-hatred every time they look in the mirror.
You can blame the media all you like with those beautiful, thin supermodels on television and in print ads, but the real underlying problem starts from within. Seeing who you really are through the filter of body image is like trying to get a clear picture of yourself in a fun house mirror. The lens itself is bent and twisted rendering everything in its reflection an easily misconstrued version of reality. Like all other issues that originate with perspective, the problem is a symptom of an inner distortion: a bigger picture misunderstanding where truth has gotten overshadowed and lost along the way.
by Vaishali , author of Wisdom Rising and You Are What You Love .
One morning as I was running along the beach, I saw this semi-homeless man. He had dug a large hole that cut him off at the knees when he stood in it. The locals had assured me that the man was harmless, and there was no need to be afraid of him. I noticed he had a long stick, and he was drawing something in the sand. Curiosity got the best of me. I decided to stop by and see what he was so busy creating. Upon approaching I introduced myself. The man looked up and smiled warmly. He had been absorbed in the task of drawing stick figures with the greatest of concentration. I did not wish to appear rude, so I pointed at one of the stick figures and complimented him on how realistic his drawing looked. The man proudly smiled and informed me this was a portrait of his brother. Then the smile slowly faded and the man shook his head sadly and said, “It’s too bad about my brother.” “What happened to him?” I inquired gently. “He has a house” came the simple answer. “He has a house?” I repeated, not sure I was following the line of tragedy. “Yes,” the man replied thoughtfully. “My brother and I used to do things together and go places. Then he got a house, and now the house needs him to do things. He does not do things with me anymore, because he has to do things for the house, and he cannot go anywhere with me because the house has him.” The man continued to shake his head sadly. “I will not go into houses,” he said with resolve. “Because once you go inside… that’s it… the house has you! It will always need something, and that’s how ‘it’ gets you.”
by Vaishali, author of Wisdom Rising and You Are What You Love .
Today more than ever the effects of religious conflict can be felt in global episodes of tension and violence. Suicide bombers expect a Heavenly sponsored orgy as a reward for murdering innocent people; family members alienate family members, because their religious beliefs and expressions differ from one another, or from a traditional norm. The tragedy that clinging to a rigid “buy or die” or “my way or the highway” belief system creates, is that it disenfranchises us, individually and collectively, from the truth. And exactly what truth is that, you may ask? The 18th century Swedish scientist mystic, Emmanuel Swedenborg, said it better than any one else, when he reminded us that there is only one God. It does not matter what name you call that God, or what point in time you worshipped that God, there is only the one God. That means we are all worshipping the same God, no matter how different our expression or ritualized behavior appears to be.
In the fashion world, accessories make the outfit. The religious world is not any different. Most religious organizations share an equal passion for clinging to the accessories that make their denominational “outfit” stand out and apart from others. If you find yourself in the Catholic fashion club, then you will find that getting baptized is a religious must for your group. If you are a practicing Hindu, you are more than likely also a vegetarian. Buddhists shave their heads after making a serious commitment to their awakened Buddha Nature. Accessorize the bald head with an orange robe and tambourine, and you have haute couture of the 60’s airports. If you are a Muslim, you face Mecca to pray numerous times a day, and as a Muslim woman, you most likely also have your head covered. There’s also a good chance your daughter will not be participating in the “wet burka” contest at the downtown Islamabad Hooters. Oh, and if you are entered as one of God’s “chosen people”, that doesn’t guarantee a win either.
As 2012 blazes forward, there are a lot of endings and ultimately new beginnings to embrace.
In his time Socrates was considered the wisest man alive. He was condemned to death in 399BC after losing his trial, and died from drinking hemlock. How Socrates died is equally as important as his life. When I say how he died, I am not referring to his actual ingesting of poison. I am referring to his attitude about death and dying. Socrates firmly felt that death is a journey to be embarked on with excitement, that it is inherently a positive and liberating event. A far cry from how we view death today. So frequently we of the modern more advanced age describe death as “losing a battle,” as succumbing, as a failure. We cannot just accept it; we must fight it to the very end. I wonder what Socrates would say about our age of enlightenment?
The Eastern healing sciences, Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, refer to death as the ultimate cure. A final culmination and resolution of all that ails one. I suspect this point of view is one that would bring a delicate smile to the face of Socrates. The notion that dying is as natural as being born, an action that can be embraced with as equal a mindset as living, is not common or popular these days.
I received the following email from a close friend recently, and it reminded me of the expression, “What would Socrates do?”
Throughout time all human beings have one thing in common. We love being creative; we live for it. When your day or week was a struggle to get through, how many times did the mere expectation of a creative venture get you through the grind? Maybe you were looking forward to playing music with your friends, or going to dance class. Perhaps your drug of choice is a round of golf, or working on your classic car to cherry that baby out. There is nothing more life affirming than creativity itself. An added bonus is that creativity comes naturally to every person. We are all born knowing how to play. Creating toy horses from brooms or mops is a ubiquitous childhood experience.
So, why the collective addiction to creativity? The answer is very simple. Creating is what God creatures do. After all God’s nickname is “The Creator.” Prime Source kicked it all off by creating the Heavens and the Earth. And Prime Source created this Earthly/Heavenly something, out of a pure void, from absolute nothingness. It is in our Spiritual DNA to create. We all strongly desire that 0 to 60 creative rush. Without creativity we would not be able to reach enlightenment, which is creating Self-realization from ignorance. Once again we mimic the big “G” in manifesting “something” from “nothing.” Creativity is how we end our suffering. We all have the God given creative intelligence to create a new response to any and all limitations. Do not get me wrong. Some of us have made an art form out of re-creating our stories and limiting issues ad nausea. However, as God creatures having a human experience, the potential to create an ending to the source of all unhappiness is our birthright.
There are two elements to creativity that take us from amateur creators on a hobby level, to master creators of our own Self-actualized destiny. Those key elements are imagination and practice. Ask any inventor what is the first step to any creative project, and he will tell you that first he had to imagine the outcome he wanted before directing the flow of creative juices. Creating enlightenment is no different. You have to be able to imagine that you are capable of liberating your mind, or you will not realize that you can. You have to be able to imagine that you are one with Divine Love and Wisdom before you can create an alignment with your Divinity, value, power and worth, that no one and no thing on this planet has the power to change or diminish. You have to be able to imagine that all life is interconnected and equally God and Holy before you can create the perception of Universal Divine Oneness. You have to be able to imagine your true nature as infinite and unlimited before you can create the embodiment of that reality. Creativity has no substance or direction without imagination.
6
Truth Unveiled: The Brilliance of Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks
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In elementary school, I wonder how many of us thought; when I grow up I want to be a spiritual teacher, however being a spiritual teacher is like any other calling. All kinds of people with unlikely backgrounds and talents find themselves occupying that role. Two of my favorite spiritual teachers are best known for their day jobs, actually their night jobs, or should I say their nightclub work. Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks both knew they were serving a greater purpose than merely transforming stand-up comedy into a revolutionary commentary and new way of perceiving reality. They knew they were spiritual teachers, and they were both forthcoming about stating that fact. Lenny and Bill both firmly took their stand among the ranks of those who dared to speak the Truth in the face of popular opinion and in direct opposition to a mob mentality of ignorance.
Like all good Spiritual teachers, Lenny got right up in our faces, forcing us to look at our own self-created bad faith and self-imposed limitations. Eastern Spiritual traditions encourage us to look at the charges that we have created with our own minds, with our own perceptions. Then they urge us to end the bondage that we alone have put into motion. We created the charges; only we can resolve these charges. Lenny is the greatest American Spiritual teacher of this tradition. He exposed the charges that we have projected onto words and then, with humor and wit, implored us to end that tyranny.
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The Answer to the Meaning of Life is… Multiple Choice!
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Reality. This crazy little thing called existence. What is it? Most likely, Lilly Tomlin gave the best celebrity answer in her one-woman show. She described it as little more than a collective hunch. Of course, she also described reality as a crutch for people who can’t cope with drugs, and a leading cause of stress. And here I thought it was something complicated. Start with a collective hunch, throw in some drugs, and add a dash of stress. I got it! Reality is college life in the 1970s!
For the sake of this discussion, it is not important whether or not we fully comprehend or even agree upon the scientifically approved definition of reality. The mechanics of reality, quantum or otherwise, are immaterial. What is paramount is the meaning and perspective we freely give to reality. From a purely existentialist point of view, reality is an indestructible freedom – a freedom of choice. You are free to choose your attitude, perspective and the meaning of your life’s situations, challenges and relationships. The entire content of your life is completely predicated upon the imbued meaning you freely chose to give it. It is a daunting task; so much is riding on your choice. A choice most of us are not even aware we are making, much less have so much invested in.
Today it seems we are stressed out, overworked, underpaid and sleep deprived. Balance gets thrown under the bus for productivity, efficiency, getting the job done. No wonder you seldom hear people talk about the value of balance in our everyday lives. Who even knows what it is? How does one find it? Or maintain it?
The truth is, all energy seeks to be balanced. It is a natural state of rest and ease. Even the term for the carpentry tool that is used to achieve balance is called a “level.” Could it be that balance in one’s life can produce a level playing field for the mind, body and emotions? The ancient healing sciences from the East, such as Chinese Medicine and Indian and Tibetan Ayurveda, are all big on treating disease and strengthening the human experience by bring the subtle energies that comprise life back into balance.
Relatively few people seem to understand how to create and nurture a balanced existence. But we all have attained the expert level in not being level. So what exactly is balance? It is an action, a state of mind and a perspective. Balance requires a “bigger picture” evaluation of priorities, an honest inner assessment concerning energy expenditure, and a willingness to implement appropriate boundaries.
Balance is really stopping to enjoy the flowers and the view, and not simply rushing by. Balance is arresting the “just one more thing to do” tyranny that keeps us up late at night. Balance is scheduling time for family and friends with the same commitment and single-minded focus you bring to a business meeting.
Oscar Wilde said, “…we know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” It’s a great definition of balance gone awry and a brilliant place to start seeking balance in your life.
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