honesty

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The Good Fight

There are many that are ready to fight the current political establishment.  There are many that are ready to fight against these first people.  Which group of people has something worth fighting for?  Both.  But, what is it that each is fighting for?  This is the question that each of us must ask ourselves.  We can claim that we are fighting for the most noble causes – for people, for security, for freedom, for rights, for this, for that, for the other thing, etc.

But, who is fighting for honesty?  Who is fighting for compassion?  Who is fighting for mercy and forgiveness?  Who is fighting for kindness and patience?  Who is fighting for patience towards yet “not condemning” the other side?

The “fight” for these is in bringing them forth through our behavior.  In effect, letting these live from inside us, coming from our own heart and mind, coming out in how we relate towards those around us is the strongest way to fight for them – by demonstrating them.  It is the strongest way to make honesty alive, real and solid in the world.  It is the strongest way to make compassion, kindness, patience and the others alive, real and solid in the world.  But, it is a fight that few are willing to engage in, dismissing it easily as if Christ never mentioned it.

If we require the acts of others to have these qualities, yet without these qualities being alive in us, through our own actions, then we are not putting forth the good fight.  When fighting for truth, why bother if we aren’t truthful with ourselves?  When fighting for kindness, why bother if we’re not kind to our enemies?  When fighting for mercy, why bother if we don’t show mercy to any group who thinks differently than we do?

Christ taught that the Romans were the brothers of the Jews.  He never condemned the Romans or their system of government.  Christ taught the message that what was worth fighting for was that which we can find within our own hearts.  It requires us to address who we are within ourselves, first and foremost.

Governments and people in the government will come and go, but who will we be during this time slot – a kind and cooperative person if one side wins and a violent and condemning person if the other side wins?

What does it benefit us to gain all we want in government, or all we want within our own business, or in the world, but then lose our humanity, lose our respect and kindness towards others, our dignity and self-respect, lose our ideals and that which we strive for bettering ourselves?  What does it benefit us, if we use our mind and heart to win the insult battle or win at condemning others more, or use our knowledge to belittle anyone, but then lose our spiritual path or lose our very soul in the process.

This will be done plenty, by others and ourselves, but who do we become when we add to the insults and belittling?

As human beings, we have many examples throughout history of when it became fun to cause suffering onto those we saw as less than, who we saw as beneath us in character, or the enemy, idiots or clueless.  We have many examples of when it became easy to pick up the stones with which to stone others.  We laugh at the words, today, that ridicule those we don’t like.

Imagine the world, today, if we put all that energy and effort into praying and meditating for all the people and all life on the Earth.  Imagine if every day more and more people joined in the praying and meditating to lift the spirits of all life on the Earth.

How does something like millions of people joined in praying and meditating come into being and start?  With one person one day deciding “I will.”

“We can do it if we try.”  John Lennon

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“If chaos, selfishness, bitterness and judgement of others gives us joy and peace of mind, and lifts one’s heart into the presence of Love, then by all means hold onto that.  But, if it doesn’t, consider trading up for that which may be better at lifting one’s heart into the presence of Love.”  (The Rainbow Cards, 1996-2017, Jodie Senkyrik)

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To Know Oneself

Over and over and over, we give ourselves messages from ourselves.  We talk to ourselves in our minds.  We think to ourselves.  We assure ourselves.  We comfort ourselves. We chastise ourselves.  We criticize ourselves.  We are instant messaging ourselves all the time – telling ourselves all kinds of things about the world and ourselves throughout the day.  We communicate more with ourselves than any other being in existence – all happening in all the different levels of our minds.

And we’re always honest with ourselves, right?  The one person who we would think would be honest with ourselves would be our self, right?  There’s no question that what we tell ourselves is always the truth, right?

Not really, and that’s putting it mildly, isn’t it.

In all honesty, we’re just as likely to be dishonest with ourselves as we are with anyone else.  In fact, sometimes it’s easier, isn’t it. Many times, since we’re the one who judges whether it’s okay to lie about something, we are mostly okay when we lie even to ourselves.  Aren’t we.  We do it so often, that we often don’t know the truth when we hear it, or say it.  Isn’t that true?  We have a version in our minds which we say is true, and which we tell ourselves is the absolute truth, and which we would swear to in front of any other person who asks, right?

That “truth” that we call “truth” to ourselves – we know that very well.  That’s the version of truth that we’ve worked out inside ourselves to be called “true.”  In our subconscious and in our day-to-day consciousness, we go about our day deciding what is going to be the truth and what isn’t.  Isn’t that so – not always consciously, but then sometimes consciously, right?

And how does this serve us?

It serves us by not requiring us to feel all the feelings and emotions which go along with acknowledging the actual truth.  Many times the actual truth that we don’t acknowledge comes connected to sadness and sorrow, grief and disappointment, anger and bitterness, hatred and aggravation – feelings we don’t want to be experiencing or acknowledge.

It also serves us by giving us a different view of who we think we are – or a view of how far we think we’ve grown on this spiritual path or in any way whatsoever.  Sometimes, subconsciously, these are factors that we think may determine whether we get loved or not.  After all, everyone wants to be loved, and maybe the “better people” are the ones that get loved.  And if I’m a “better people”, I should then be loved, too.  Right?

The actual truth doesn’t come with all of these aspects and factors all the time, but still, the actual truth that we want to not be true, many times does in truth come with heavy, painful, and disturbing feelings and acknowledgments as well as those subconscious messages which we tell ourselves related to being loved in the world, (a formidable source of motivation, since after all, everyone wants to be loved.)

Yet, this actual truth can come forward within us, but only if we allow it and only if we allow the emotions to come, also.  It can knock on the door, but it comes in only when we open the door and welcome it in.

This actual truth often comes with an assessment of ourselves.  It sometimes points out how we need to change something within ourselves or how we may have acted inappropriately in how we related to someone.  It can come with regret or sorrow, shame, guilt or embarrassment.  Or it can come with a chance to heal.

There are times that we can really benefit from knowing the actual truth.  There are times that we can heal when the actual truth is acknowledged.  Counseling helps that process.  Talk therapy helps a person find their way to clean out their closet filled with all kinds of stuff that we fill closets with.  Yet, that’s only one way of many ways to figure out the truth within ourselves, though.

Sometimes, it helps to just be willing to accept the actual truth, regardless of what comes with it.  “Willingness” to allow the actual truth to come forward is the single strongest quality that helps it come forward.

Yes, we can lie to ourselves about being willing.  We can tell ourselves that we want the actual truth, and then not be willing to open the door for it.  Sincerity is a big key, but then sincerity includes willingness and comes with one of the deeper forms of honesty, doesn’t it.

What has helped me many times is to pray to God – “God, help me be honest with myself.”  If I’m really wanting honesty and truth, who better to ask for help to gain honesty and truth.  When we’re truly sincere about working to be more honest with ourselves, it’s best to start with the one who can actually help make that goal a reality.  When we pray for God to help us be honest with ourselves, we are “standing in front of the face of God.”  We are placing ourselves in front of the face of the One who knows Truth about ourselves, about our thoughts, our feelings, our actions, our behaviors, our pain, our suffering, our shame, our guilt, our disappointments, our grief, our hopes, our dreams, our loves, our hates, our healing, our needs, our crying out in the wilderness, our courage and our fear – our whole selves – our deepest parts of ourselves and our shallowest parts of ourselves – our honesty and our lies.  It’s not that easy to do, but again, all we need to be is “willing” in order to move forward.

“God, help me be honest with myself” is a gentle prayer, but can be an effective one if what we seek is the real truth about ourselves and our lives, and to be honest with that real truth about ourselves and our lives.

It’s a challenging “row to hoe”, and what I describe here is in no way the whole truth and nothing but the truth, because I don’t have a lock on ‘Truth’.  But the effort we make to dig for the truth – to dig for being honest with ourselves – pays off with a greater understanding and knowledge of ourselves, and to know our self, honestly and truthfully, is an ever greater thing to know.  “There’s gold in them thar hills” – or in this case – the priceless jewels of who we are await us when we come to know ourselves.  Getting to know our self is one of the greatest things in all existence.  When we do this, we then come to understand more of our relationships with God, with others and very importantly, our relationship with ourselves.

Surprising, but true.

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