Humanity to Opportunity

“A monk once went to Gensha, and wanted to learn where the entrance to the path of truth was. Gensha asked him, ’Do you hear the murmuring of the brook?’ ‘Yes I hear it,’ answered the monk. ‘There is the entrance,’ the master instructed him.”

-Carl Jung in a foreword to the book “An Introduction to Zen Buddhism” by D.T. Suzuki

                I don’t pretend to be a master of Buddhist philosophy, but there is a simple elegance to the above quote. My understanding of most things I’ve learned changes as I grow and no doubt what I see here will do the same as time goes on.

                The brook is always true to its nature. The water in the brook has but one mission, to flow downhill, and in that mission it will not be stopped. Downhill it goes, effortless parting at obstacles, momentarily changing course only to resume its original course at the first opportunity. Nature or man may build a dam that blocks its natural path, only to have the accepting water find an alternate route to continue.

                The water in the brook accepts its own nature. It does not pause to consider whether its fellow water molecules approve of the job its doing. It does not fret over whether its creator wants it to go left or right, it merely goes where it is natural for it to do so. Water doesn’t fear the outcome of its existence or what lies at the end of its path. It simply behaves as water behaves.

                I am human, ironically composed of mostly water, and yet find myself often refusing to be human. I’ve lived in fear of life, afraid of being myself with all my flaws and afraid to address them in change. I’ve fretted over the belief that I was created flawed by a god who would punish me for being exactly as He made me, born into the only circumstances I could have been born into. I’ve reacted with horror to the thought of making mistakes in front of my peers as if my imperfections would negate my very existence.

                And yet, as the water in our brook, momentarily turned aside from my true path by an obstacle, I can once again find the way of true humanity and continue in serenity. My mission as a human gifted with life is simply to live. Any other goal is an illusion and to be recognized as a potential source of misery. I do not need anyone’s approval to be perfect in my humanity; I already am and always have been. Like the uncarved block, I entered this world complete and perfect and only through strenuous effort on my part have I ever achieved imperfection to any degree.

                I embrace my humanity, my flaws, my ups and downs, my pain and my joy. It is who I am at any given moment and given that, completely perfect.

Take Up Your Bed And Walk...

Well for those of you who don't know, addiction gets called a disease in many circles. There's reasons for this, some good, some vague and the label is endlessly and, in my unasked for opinion, needlessly debated from one end of the social spectrum to the other. I know I managed to get myself addicted to various drugs and now I'm not. Cool beans, 'nuff said. The one thing that does bother me about the disease label is what a lot of us do with.

                "My disease wants me dead." I hear this one often, along with "I'm always gonna be sick." Really? Let's talk about that first one. "My disease" isn't a physical entity. It was a way I dealt with life. I couldn't cope with anything. I never learned. I used alcohol to ease the frustration and emotional pain of life. My perception of life, its events and my role in them was skewed and this caused an incredible amount of emotional conflict which eased a bit when I used. Ironically, the more I used this method, the less it worked and the more conflict it created. Eventually I had to dump so much medication on the shit pile, I couldn't do anything else. It's all I thought about.

                There wasn't a malevolent creature crawling around in me, constricting my muscles in such a manner as to cause a bottle to rise to my lips. I simply wanted to feel good. My disease didn't want anything from me. I wanted to feel good. Period. When I took steps to change my perceptions, I found that: a) Life wasn't as confusing/frustrating as I had made it out to be.  b)I could still learn the coping skills I never learned as a child  and  c)I really don't ever have to be miserable again. Pretty cool, all in all. I had to take ownership of my circumstances first though. There was no outside force causing me to behave the way I did, no third party trying to kill me. My thinking was fundamentally flawed. When my thinking began to change, my desire to comfort myself in a manner that by all accounts no longer worked...ceased. Quite contrary to wanting to kill me, the grouping of misinformed human traits that eventually found comfort in alcohol, wanted me to live and be happy. With new direction and input, they are quite happy with their new perspective and looking forward to growing. I don't have to sleep with a psychic gun under my pillow to be prepared for the psychotic killer that wants me dead.

                Now...about this whole "I'm always gonna be sick" bullshit. I found sobriety through a spiritual approach to life. I believe that a power greater than myself restored me to sanity. I don't know what folks who plan on being sick for the rest of their lives are doing, but they might wanna try something different. Stop wallowing in your fucking disease. No need to be so  melodramatic. You aren't using anymore, stop acting like an addict. Typical untreated addict behavior. "Look at me!! Look at me!!" Cheese and crackers, get on with your life and stop looking for an excuse not to be normal. Go out into the world and put the things you've learned to use. Join the human race. Whole lot of "Trust in God" talk going on unless it comes to relinquishing the victim role. Then it's "I'm always gonna be sick." Playing with fire there, hombre. Don't stand too close to me, I don't wanna get anything on me. If you still feel sick, you ain't doin'  it right. Period. Read the manual again and see what it says, don't just spout the party line. Make sure you understand the original instructions and then move along.

                My disease wanted me happy and I just didn't know how to be that way. My disease was my humanity experienced through dirty and scratched lenses. I wear contacts now and like what I see. My "disease," my humanity does too. You ought to give it a try. Shit ain't so bad. Have a nice day, if you choose to.

Right Here, Right Now....

               Living in the "now" is an interesting phrase. We hear it often, are told how important it is, say "Yes, I know" and bob our heads, but do we really know what it means? This was something that baffled me for a long time. Of course I lived in the now, how could one live anywhere else? What kind of mystical bullshit are you trying to sell me? It's taken some time, and like every other concept I come across, its meaning evolves and takes on new meanings as time goes on and experience colors theory.

                Tomorrow hasn't happened yet. In fact, it never happens. Any image of tomorrow we conjure up is illusion. A fantasy. I do spend an awful lot of time considering that magical place though, and I suspect, others do as well. I've learned that expectations cause an incredible amount of suffering and yet, isn't trying to set up the events of tomorrow indulging in the grandest sort of expectations? For my plans to come to fruition, wouldn't an insanely large number of people and events have to behave exactly as I expect them to? "Well," you might say, "I know tomorrow I'll wake up and go to work, just like every other day." Will you? How the hell do you know that? Who told you? If that scary monster under your bed gets hungry tonight, you might not be going anywhere tomorrow outside of whatever passes for Tupperware in scary monster leftover land. Anyways, I've got a lot less control over tomorrow than I used to think I did and there's really not much point in thinking about it.

                Yesterday, ohh boy, now there's a tricky one. Son of a bitch to let go of, ain't it? If you're like me, you've probably spent an obscene amount of your today's replaying your yesterday's. Don't be ashamed, it's not an easy habit to break. Just as hard to remedy is building our now on past accomplishments. Giving a guy a quarter 10 years ago doesn't brand you a generous soul today. I can get a lot of mileage out of what I did yesterday, real and imagined, if I'm not careful. I need to grow. That means yesterday doesn't count. Tomorrow, I'll be different, no point in trying to plan for a situation that I'll have no idea how I'll react in. The only plan I can make is based on how I behave today and hopefully, I'll behave differently tomorrow. That's my plan, heh..heh.. Besides, resting on past deeds is a good way of me not having to check how I behaved today and that's scary shit my friend.

                So, living in the now. How have I come to terms with this little pearl of wisdom? It has everything to do with acceptance. Not that I'm cool with everything that happens, every second of the day. That would be nuts. Life happens and sometimes I step in it. I don't have to like everything. Anybody that tells you they are 100% cool with life is full of shit. Period. If your dog gets run over by a pick-up truck driven by your ex-wife, you most certainly would not be 100% cool with that. What I mean by acceptance is that I realize that everything that happens is the only possible outcome given the events that led up to that thing happening. I can't change the now. But I can live in it. It's the only moment I can live in.

                So, the past is gone and highly colored by my perceptions of what took place, the future has far to many variables to warrant me worrying about it, but I do have now. Very cool place to be.

I Went Down To The Cross Roads...

                I'm standing at a crossroads today. I've been working in the substance abuse field for a short time, thinking that it would be good training for when I finish my schooling. The trouble is, after witnessing first hand and hearing the experiences of addicts and their parents in dealing with the industry itself, I really don't know if I want any part of it. Like any business, it's business is making a profit, and to that end it's a fairly greasy business. Yes, I'm sure the industry has plenty of good folks working in it, I've met many myself along the way, but that's not the issue. This is more of a personal moral issue. Hold on tight because this is probably gonna get weird.

                I am gonna try to explain where my head is at with this in the rest of this post, so just bear with me for a bit. I feel a presence in life. Some may call it God, the Spirit, the Universe or whatever, it has never told me it's name, but I feel it there none the less for that. Since I began trying to develop a relationship with this presence and heighten my awareness in it, my life has undergone some profound changes, all of them positive. It's almost as if my life is proceeding as it should, naturally. I don't consider myself enlightened, after all I didn't discover anything, I just stopped ignoring it. A direct result of this is that I don't have any struggles. If I do stray from the "path,"  if you would, my own spirit suffers dramatically and quickly. Please remember that I am not trying to convince you of anything, this is just my experience and what I feel to be true.

                Folks that subscribe to any organized faith won't have any problem understanding what I say, I'm sure they go through the same thing. If I feel that there is something underlying, running through and responsible for creation and I consider myself someone who is trying to build an understanding  and relationship with that something, I must be very careful to not do or support anything that may offend it. How can I profess respect and insult it at the same time? It's like a christian saying they love their creator and driving a car. Everything about a car, from its method of propulsion and the infrastructure that supports it to what it is made of, rapes creation. As any christian can tell you, you can't love God and piss on Him at the same time. Tends to aggravate him.

                So my conception of what I sense is something that is natural and true. I have no basis to describe it any better, so I won't try. That's not my place. I have to assume that since it answered me, or at least allowed me to tap into it, it is not a respecter of persons. Apparently anyone can join in(lol). That being the case I have to recognize everyone from that perspective. I have no business causing anyone any harm for my own benefit. That would include lying to them. Folks familiar with a 12 step program will recognize this from the instructions they should have received about making amends. You don't go dredging up the past at another's expense just to make yourself feel good. It defeats the purpose if you cause harm apologizing for causing harm.

                How do I come to terms with this? I don't feel comfortable with the compromise of "God understands." Back when I was involved in christianity I was exhorted to separate myself from the world. I can relate to that now. It means just what it says. You can't have your cake and eat it too. For a supposedly godly country, there isn't much for a man to do to support himself in such a manner as to not piss off any god I can think of. You'd be hard pressed to find any industry that doesn't fall into the same category as the car I mentioned above. I guess we've kind of painted ourselves into a corner as a species with our self reliance.

                I really just want to do right and continue to grow spiritually. I asked to be lead and feel that I am being led. The answers seem obvious, either completely embrace the presence or continue to mock it as we do in our daily lives. If I continue to live as I have been, I can't very well tell anyone how to get in touch with a higher power, I would be undeserving of that link myself. I often wonder how people of faith convince themselves that they are their gods messengers or being used or blessed by their god in light of how we live and disrespect creation every minute of our lives. I love that I don't struggle with existence and seem to be on the right path. In beginning to understand how a man should live, I don't want to lose any ground. The spaces in between the knowing are dark places though indeed and sometimes hard to weather. Things work out, they always do. Answers come, they always do. Waiting still sucks though.

He told you to tell me WHAT??

One of the hardest lessons to learn in life is that I'm not special. There probably aren't any special plans for me set in motion by the deity of my choosing and yeah, this very well may be all there is for me. Believe what you want, but you don't know what any gods will is anymore than I do. Before you go quoting scripture and all that, remember, you're only going on what another man told you. You don't "know" shit. That's the essence of faith, believing something someone told you for no other reason than the fact that you like the way it sounds.

                I was always full of grandiose dreams, plans and ideas. That is the main qualifications of a self centered ego, isn't it? Well of course God let me experience all the trouble in my life. He had big plans for me, didn't He? Never mind that I was the cause of all my problems. Never mind that I never had to live the way I did. The Universe's plans hinged on me. Didn't they? Now that I've got some semblance of sanity in my life, It's plans can proceed. Ha!

                I actually believed that for a while. Somehow, my being an asshole for 98% of my life qualified me to be a messenger of God. I was gonna save the world. The funny thing is that this thinking went against everything I was taught. I was taught that all my troubles were of my own making. I was taught that I couldn't..no, didn't even have the right to try to change anyone. And yet, I was going to go on a mission and tell folks how they should live? Laughable.

                Do I have a purpose in life? Well, I'm a biological organism and like every other organism in creation, yeah, I guess I do. That would be to survive. That's the only thing I can be sure of. Haven't been given any other specific instructions. Neither have you. I don't care what you heard on your 700 Club DVD. None of us knows shit.

                I try to avoid telling others how to live, it's dangerous ground for me. I seem to have found some truths that seem to work for me. I might be wrong though. The minute I "know" something, I stop growing. I stop improving. I am claiming perfection in that area. If I start thinking I'm perfect and complete in my knowledge of life, I don't have to focus on myself anymore and that's what got me in trouble in the first place. Thinking I was smarter than the rest of the world and worrying about how it should act. Don't want to go there anymore. I guess if the way I live and think ever impresses anyone I can tell them what I did, but not what I believe. That might change tomorrow. What I think might be truth today, could turn out to reveal itself as a complete absurdity tomorrow. Then what would I do? Spend the rest of my life hunting the people down and tell them I made a mistake? "Woops, fucke'em"  just wouldn't cut it.

                I try to avoid people that claim to be carrying any god's message or doing any god's work. I guess if they were really doing or carrying what they claimed, they wouldn't have to tell anyone...it would be obvious. I can't imagine any higher power needing a lower power as a go between. Heh...heh...didn't need one for Adam, doesn't need one for you or me.

                So yeah, I'm just a guy learning how to accept each moment of my life for what it is. Another moment I won't get back. Hope I made the most of it!

Good advice.

Not My Job Man

Is it ever okay to say, "Fuck'em?" When somebody comes to me saying they want help and then persistently screws up, when can I say, "You know what man, you need to move along?" Do I even have a right to adopt that attitude? I know a lot of folks would say that God never gave up on me so I can't give up on anyone, blah, blah, blah...Well, when do I stop being of assistance and start being an enabler?

                I think after the first time you answer someone's plea for help, and they mess up after you give it, you're off the hook. Anything else is on you. If I ever find myself thinking, "WTF is wrong with this person?" ,  I haven't accepted the simple fact that I can't control anyone's behavior. That's dangerous ground spiritually.

                There's only one thing that someone in a position of teaching can do: Tell someone else what they know. It's the listeners job to act on it and the teacher carries no responsibility to ensure that they do so. Poke, prod and cajole into learning what you came to me seeking? No. Clean up your mess after you didn't act on what you've heard? No. Not my job man.

                Throughout my life, I heard a lot of good advice and was told by many folks how to turn things around. I didn't listen to anyone. An awful lot of people(myself included) experienced a lot of needless suffering due to this. When I had personally had enough though, I remembered everything I had been told and used that knowledge to get on a different path. These people didn't follow me around repeatedly picking me up and pointing me in the right direction, they had moved on. My point is this, I will tell you what I know and then back off. I have no idea how and when that information you get from me will be processed or used. Maybe never. What I've done for someone or told to someone may simply not be enough to turn that little light bulb on in their head.

                Of course, if someone is just asking me how to turn on a computer and I tell them to press the power button and they instead put a pencil in the USB port, no one would blame me for running that person out of the room. Why should it be any different if someone comes to me with their life, emotions and spirit in a shambles?

                Scenario: Someone comes to me with a drug problem and asks me to teach them how to get sober. I tell them the only way I know how to do this: pray, meditate and try not to be a self-centered jerk in the process. Two weeks later, they are still a mess and when questioned if they are doing what I suggested they answer, "No" to any one thing. I tell them to have a nice life then and walk away. "Call me when you're sober, bro." Makes you uncomfortable, huh? Why? I don't have any more knowledge to give. I can't force anyone to act, that would be illegal. I don't have that authority. I don't know when the right combination of  input and experience will click with a person to make a change kick in. I don't know how big the pile of bullshit needs to be for any individual to finally break and become open to a new idea. Either do you. Heaven help the poor soul that we latch onto thinking we are going to be it's savior. No human power can do that.

                My focus is on me. If I continue to worry about my own growth, and take steps to do so, it will reflect in every aspect of my life. My personal relationships grow. I will continue to be a person that meets his responsibilities. I will not introduce chaos into your life, nor allow yours to linger in mine. I learn every day. The more I learn about myself, the more I can impart to someone who seeks.

                There's a great prayer that has tremendous influence in my life. I constantly find myself drawn back to it, to meditate on its words and contemplate their implications. Once I got past the Christian "Thee's" and "Thou's" and focused on what it was imploring, I fell in love with the power of its emotion.

"God, I offer myself to Thee-to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!"

Alcoholics Anonymous pg63

This is what changed my life. "God, I offer myself to Thee-to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt..." I was done trying to fix myself. Nobody else could fix me. I asked what ever power(s) that be to fix me however It saw fit. No stipulations from me. I was willing to be changed into a totally different organism if that was as "Thou wilt." The next part is important too, "Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will." I was unwilling to accept external guidance. Every move I made, every decision reached, every action taken, came from my self will. I was unteachable. The bondage of self kept me immobilized in a state of non-change. The self was rancid. It could not repair it's own decay. Your car won't fix itself. I asked God to do this. Some folks would interject at this point, that God speaks to them through other human beings. But if I'm taught that no human power can fix me, this is obviously not the case. Spiritual folk may impart what they have come to realize, but they don't have the power to fix me. "Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness..." Remove my obsession. The one that no one could help me with. Let folks see that it is gone. Let them ask how it was done. And finally, let me continue to remember this compact. Let me continue to grow. Let me continue to be an example. Not an enforcer. Not a proclaimer or denouncer.

                I can't live by this creed and think I have the power to convince anyone of anything. I can only tell what I've come to believe. I cannot impose my will upon others. It violates this compact I've made. It would seek to put me in charge, which was where I started. I am responsible for my own spiritual well being and cannot presume to be responsible for anyone else's. I would just be getting in God(s) way.

I cannot save you.

Spiritus Contra Spiritum

Why do I need God? Well, I don't. Either does anyone else I guess. I know, I'm just being a smartass but there's a method to my madness....sort of. The guy who made sure I was following the directions to get sober  correctly is fond of saying(not an exact quote),"Some people don't need God to live, but guys like me and you do." What's he mean by that? Why couldn't I just keep rolling the die until the perfect combination of life situations came up and everything became rainbows and sunshine?

                I suppose I need to discuss my understanding of addiction a little bit. The only difference between an addict and a non-addict is how we cope with problems. Yeah, yeah...I know you hear about genetic differences these days but if there's a gene problem that makes me crave alcohol it would stand to reason that a significant chunk of earth's population can't function without satisfying their orange juice craving. They would be seen lying in the streets next to the folks whose lives have been destroyed due to their expensive ketchup jones. And yet, we don't see this.

                A non-addict wakes up in any town America, spills his coffee, curses a bit and then laughs about it with his buddies, thereby processing the event and the stress encountered with it and then goes about his merry way. An active addict wakes up in any town America, spills his coffee, curses a bit, and then curses some more and wonders why this shit keeps happening to him. He then curses some more and wakes up 3 days later in a Mexican prison and then has to answer disturbing questions about his recent activities. No positive coping skills. One woman burns the family's dinner and says "I meant it to come out like that" or hustles up something else real quick with none the wiser while another curls up on the couch with a bottle bemoaning the fact that nobody appreciates her. No positive coping skills.

                I could have rolled the die until I was old-testament old and not seen a rainbow or even had a hint of sunshine in my forecast. It wasn't my life that was the problem. It wasn't genes that were my problem. It wasn't bad associations that were my problem or the places I hung out. I couldn't cope with anything. My only way of dealing with any situation that life had to offer, good or bad, was to self-medicate. It's important to step back and consider the following: How much data has a person collected, processed and stored throughout his life from one second to the next and how much is the multitude of stored and processed data from each second interwoven with the data from every other second and given that this data is used to cope with each new second, just how insanely complicated would it be to sift through each piece of data and modify each relevant one, one at a time to achieve a change in thinking? How was any human going to accomplish that for me? I needed help from a whole new level. I needed a complete psychic make-over. Fast. An obsession doesn't lessen...it's either there or it ain't. There wasn't going to be any "just don't take that first drink" bullshit for me. I told you, I couldn't not drink. I was powerless. If I could just not take that first drink, we wouldn't even be having this little chat.

                Why do I need God? Not the God described in texts. Not the God screamed at me from a pulpit. Not the God that wants me to send a donation so you can build a  bible college in Kenya. I needed something to answer me and show me I wasn't crazy, just wrong. Show me that life isn't a mistake or a curse. Show me that when I sought out help...the Universe fucking cared. I asked and, go figure, I received. Just like that. I didn't have to go it alone and I don't have to be confused every moment of my life. I don't have to figure out how to control events and people, I can just live. Turns out I didn't really ever need to know the "Why" of things. Most of it ain't my business. I was given life, my job is to live it. I don't need a higher presence in my life...I fucking want it. Once you establish a contact, once you get a glimpse of a different way of thinking...how could you not? Don't look for any God someone tells you about. Their description and instructions are going to fall short of the mark. Just look.