Does it sound cheesy to say, be merry, don’t be dismayed?
My favorite Christmas song says relax, don’t be upset.
Sounds impossible.
Violence and mayhem spray the outdoors, indoors, even in churches when we least expect it. Fires devour our land and our homes. Earthquakes, floods, disasters.
If all that doesn’t throw us into fear, we could ponder the usual nagging stuff like global warming, drought, idiot politics, immature missile-launching leaders, failing health care, big pharmacy, and the misguided belief that we are at the mercy of our genes. (We are not.) We may fear our personal slide toward disrepair, atrophy, anxiety, depression.
What’s the easiest way to forgo fear, release worry, and not be dismayed?
*Recognize that everything is illusion. *
Take a look at Buddha and his long-eared wisdom. (His heavy earlobes signify wisdom.)
2500 years ago Buddha told us everything here is illusion.
Even our own body is an illusion.
He wasn’t the only one to say so.
How many delusions do we face right now?
How many lies are exposed?
How many secrets are revealed?
How much chaos is rising?
We’ll see more chaos in the next few years, but –
We have a choice to live in fear or to strengthen our inner world, our inner reality.
Stability begins here, inside me.
I do not have to be shaken and carried away with the bad news of the moment.
I do not have to be dismayed.
Okay, I probably will be dismayed when the next hit smashes, yet I remind myself there’s a greater reality beyond the human sphere.
What’s the biggest human illusion of all?
What drives so much fear on every topic?
What delusion pushes the biggest threat?
It is the belief in death.
It is the belief in personal annihilation.
It is the belief that I am my body – that when the body dies, I dissolve.
This is just not true.
This is an illusion.
This is the illusion broken by that Guy who is born on Christmas, in our tradition.
He tells us,
There Is No Death.
Hey, folks, it’s just a body.
You are So much More than your body.
This is one of His biggest messages, addressing our most pressing need, which is to have no fear.
Most of us fail to hear it.
If you can convince yourself there is No Death, if you can convince yourself that you are so much more than a body, if you can convince yourself that your being has other places to go, if you come to know that this dramatic earth plane is simply an arena of learning for each of us, then your dismay with everything will naturally lighten up by several notches.
Meditation helps you gain perspective and balance.
In other words, let go.
Let go again.
Chaos, yes, but it has a purpose in shifting the earth, in shifting the human heart, in shifting our deeper awareness.
Tidings of Comfort and Joy. Yes.
Death No Such Thing
Conversations with Jerry and Other People I thought were Dead
(Thanks to my daughter who set up this photo-op, and my friend who gifted Buddha to me 😉
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Joystream Health 