I read a magazine article that discussed the idea of life after death.  It touched on such topics as Jesus Christ arising from the dead, the triumph of life over death, what might await us beyond the grave, life everlasting, the abyss of death, afterlife, and heaven.  The article illustrates a human preoccupation with thoughts of death.  The thought of death for most tends to be immersed in emotions of fear and anger and, for a few tortured others, as a release from the pains of the world.

It would seem that human beings would be happier and more at peace with themselves if they could learn to live in the moment and learn to enjoy the experience of material existence while it lasts.  Since death is inevitable for all living creatures, why should one be preoccupied with it or worry about it?  If there isn't life after death, wouldn't it be prudent to enjoy the opportunity of life in the here and now rather than making ourselves miserable worrying about the end?  If there is some kind of conscious existence after death, then why should we worry or be concerned about it as long as we live a peaceful, productive, and loving life?  Human beings are the only creatures on earth that are preoccupied with their own death.

Believing is different than knowing.  A belief is a filter.  When you observe or interact with life through a particular belief filter, only certain information gets through to you--information that's aligned with the belief you're looking through.  The tuning and filtering mechanism won't allow any other information through than what you're tuned to.  The belief filter lets in only information that's aligned with and conforms to the beliefs you're tuned to and the reality of the moment gets blurred.

You are operating through your beliefs without noticing it.  Beliefs are adopted in a moment when you were something less than rational.  Belief precedes experience.  Beliefs affect how you live your life and your relationships with others. The only difference between us is our beliefs.

Knowing the difference between belief and knowing requires understanding the relationship between the two.  Belief is based on rigid assumptions and hearsay and knowing is based on knowledge gained from an going experience with reality.  To develop an understanding of our own mental programming requires us to know the difference between beliefs and reality.  To expose our self-sabotaging beliefs requires us to experience reality without judgment, separation, or distortion.

Beliefs act as hidden reefs and barriers to our operation as healthy, creative, happy individuals.  Before we can create, we need to uncover our limiting beliefs.  The road home is to let go of all the behaviors and beliefs that stand in the way of the true you inside.  Feel alive, experience something, and then let it go and go on to experience something else.  Be in the flow, in harmony, feel the differences.  Avoid locking yourself up with blind rigid beliefs.

Those who tell us we can have whatever we want, can be whoever we want to be, and have full control of our lives are merely playing into our desire to avoid the discomfort of feeling or knowing our vulnerability.  True wholeness has nothing to do with getting what we want.  We achieve true wholeness only by embracing our fragility and some times our brokenness.  Love demands that we allow the destruction of our old self for the sake of the new.  Life did not intend for us to be inviolable, but to be used as fodder for its workings.  We are meant to be chewed up and digested and transformed into the blood and sinews of the world.

11-08-05 (37)

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