Sunday, March 25, 2007

Just Another Day

When message appeared and carried the meaning of Blessings, Body Care and New Love.

Some days are just special for they bring the joy of blue skies.

Today is that day.

When somebody you know has birthday and it is time to celebrate.

When puppy becomes a dog,

When friends share a laugh,

On the way home

From the long weekly march.


Live every moment of it

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Light Revealed In the Dark


Beijing, Sanlitun March 2007


This city has magical moments that can surprise all the senses. Unexplainable euphoria during Spring Festival revealed this site: full moon, sparklies (fireworks) and Sanlitun wearing its display of lights on the top of the buildings - like a peackok opening its tail and expecting sighs and respect from the audience.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

The Work

The Work (by Byron Katie) neatly directed my belief shift. Once, twice, three times...

I want to tell you about three believes that directed my life story:

  1. If I don't eat evil witch will take me away to her cave
  2. If I break a plate I get punished
  3. If I break a vase I get rewarded

And that is where all confusion started ...

My story:

The first story is kind of explanatory - rule by threat...
Plate and vase though, how are they so different to trigger
separate recognition outcome?

Ultimately I know - when I broke that plate I was 'careless' at age of 4.
At the age of 8 or 9 I was dusting and broke vase, so I got recognition
for dusting - vase was less important (and obviously not expensive).

The final logism would be:

I believe in punishment and reward.

which further takes me to conclusion:

I believe that

There is punishment
There is reward

Is it true?

To certain extent

Can I absolutely know that it's true?
Today I got a sign of an approval and it feels good. I got rewarded so I indulge in the
moment. I want reward to be absolutely true - for punishment... I'd consider.

How do I react when I believe in punishment and reward?
Punishment: Tense, offensive, defensive, withdrawn, pondering, figuring
out, proud, distant, creative...
Reward: Carefree, light, witty, whimsical, anything possible,
creative...

Who would I be without belief in punishment and reward?
Violet (The Incredibles), free, citizen of Earth.

Turn the thought around:
There is no punishment
There is no reward

Turn it around to myself:
I punish
I reward

How is this turnaround true?
When I punish and reward I become tense, offensive, defensive, withdrawn or I become spaced out.

How unpleasant!

And what if I believe that:

Universe is Benevolent
Change is inevitable

And I forgot the third one...

Oh, yes

Answer is in the future


Candy and Simba playing in the Dog Park, February 2007
Chaoyang, Beijing, PRC


Tragic Heroine

Do you see your life as an empty chair



or colourful door experience?



Today I was called a tragic heroine. My story has become my shield of sorrow and determined thought that I have lived life battling and struggling to come out safely at the other end, like a child coming out of a womb. Nothing whimsical about that.

As it goes with life and its mysterious ways I have simultaneously received a message (how kind) to check Byron Katie's website www.thework.com. This is what it says under www.thework.com/DailyMsgArchive.asp

  • If you could save the whole world from the chair that you sit in, would you? Well, you can. Judge your neighbor, write it down, ask four questions, turn it around.
  • You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer.
  • Reality is always kinder than the story we tell about it.
  • I’m very clear that everyone in the world loves me. I just don’t expect them to realize it yet.
  • For me, reality is God, because it rules.
  • An unquestioned mind is the world of suffering.
  • Personalities don’t love—they want something.
  • Sanity doesn't suffer, ever.
  • You are what exists before all stories. You are what remains when the story is understood.
  • I’m a lover of what is, not because I’m a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality.
  • Everyone is a mirror image of yourself—your own thinking coming back at you.
  • “I don’t know” is my favorite position.
  • What is is. You don’t get a vote. Haven’t you noticed?
  • Until you look forward to criticism, your Work’s not done.
  • If I had a prayer, it would be this: “God spare me from the desire for love, approval, and appreciation. Amen.”
  • Thoughts aren’t personal. They just appear, like raindrops. Would you argue with a raindrop?
  • You either believe what you think or you question it. There’s no other choice.
  • There are no new stressful thoughts. They’re all recycled.
  • Stress is an alarm clock that lets you know you’ve attached to something not true for you.
  • We do only three things in life: we sit, we stand, we lie horizontal. The rest is just a story.
  • The teacher you need is the person you’re living with.
  • If I think you’re my problem, I’m insane.
  • The world is my perception of it. I see and hear only through the filter of my story.
  • There’s only one thought to question: the one appearing now.
  • When I argue with reality, I lose—but only 100% of the time.
  • Everyone and everything is doing its job perfectly—no mistake.
  • Ultimately, I am all I can know.
  • Until we know that death is equal to life, we live in fear.
  • When I am perfectly clear, what is is what I want.
  • Arguing with reality is like trying to teach a cat to bark—hopeless.
  • How do I know that I don’t need what I want? I don’t have it.
  • We fear only what we haven’t understood.
  • There are no physical problems—only mental ones.
  • We never make a decision. When the time is right, the decision makes itself.
  • The miracle of love comes to us in the presence of the uninterpreted moment.
  • The last story: God is everything, God is good.
  • No one can hurt me—that’s my job.
  • When they attack you and you notice that you love them with all your heart, your Work is done.
  • Forgiveness is realizing that what you thought happened, didn't.
  • Seeking love keeps you from the awareness that you already have it—that you are it.
  • Have you asked you?
  • Everything happens for me, not to me.
  • We say to others only what we need to hear.
  • I don’t let go of concepts—I question them. Then they let go of me.
  • Nothing you believe is true. To know this is freedom.
  • If you want to see the love of your life, look in the mirror.
  • Reality is always the story of a past, and what I love about the past is—it’s over.
  • We suffer only until we realize that we can’t know anything.
  • You see only what you believe. Nothing else is possible.
  • I could find only three kinds of business in the world—mine, yours, and God’s. Whose business are you in?
  • No one has ever been angry at another human being—we’re only angry at our story of them.
  • Gratitude is what we are without a story.
  • My life, as it is, makes up the perfect world. Failure was just one more of my opinions, and I am, once again, left as my own living joke.
  • Failure is a state of mind. Therefore, “it’s possible to fail”—is it true? Not possible!
  • My failure is my success, and my success is my success. How wonderful to be God’s will.
  • Why are you upset? You’re believing what you think. Want to get sane? Question what you believe.
  • To get forgiveness within yourself, give it; there is no other way. To see that what you thought happened didn't—that is forgiveness. Look back at your “mistakes,” question what you were believing.
  • If you want to have a happy ending, go back to the beginning.
  • 'Thoughts appear; beliefs create.'

Monday, March 19, 2007

Whimsy March

Whimsical March as it says on EQ callendar. I am not sure what whimsical means
As yourdictionary.com suggests:

adj.
1. Determined by, arising from, or marked by whim or caprice. See Synonyms at arbitrary.
2. Erratic in behavior or degree of unpredictability: a whimsical personality.


A little bit confused I ponder what would be EQ with whimsical personality and I read closer:

Overcome terminal seriousness. Develop a sense of whimsy. People who lose their capacity to be playful are perceived as cold, dull, boring, sad, lonely, tight, rigid, etc. Instead, maintain the playful attitude that comes naturally to children. Work at spotting the incongruities, absurdities, and ironies of life. Turn reality on its ear. The by-products will be less conflicts, less anger, less anxiety, and less depression. in fact, playfulness may be more conducive to the production of peace than superb negotiation skills.

March is almost over - it took me two weeks to flip the page and move from Resistance to Whimsy. If I look at it as a play, I made a first step - marching into new month 19 days later.

Carlos Castaneda talks about the spirit of the Hunter in a somewhat similar style. Only animals that have unpredictable behavior manage to survive the wild (think "Madagascar"). Surprise yourself by acting unpredictably and the world of possibilities reveals itself.