Post No. 534 - Being overwhelmed

Something I’ve thought of in recent years is that a significant part of the viciousness of modern life is attributable to people being simply overwhelmed – stretched beyond, or at least to, their breaking point.

As a quick example, consider the parent who has had a ‘stressful day’ at work (I’ll explain what that could be shortly) who comes home, tired, ill, feeling unappreciated and even threatened and VERY insecure about survival issues (we need money in this modern world to pay the rent/mortgage/bills and so on), and then has to deal with rowdy, exuberant children. Such a person may well snap, partly as they’re coping has been destroyed by their day, and partly because the children take survival issues for granted. Now, compare and contrast that with the same parent a few months after they have, perhaps, won Tattslotto, have no survival fears, are living in their own, fully owned home. They may well – subject to character traits! –be more able to cope competently with their children’s chaotic exuberance.

Now, that ‘stressful day’. The worst of such days for me is any day I have to resist pressure to behave unethically. I’ve stated to long past employers, and to some clients, that if they headed down a particular direction, I would take the matter up with the Institute of Engineers Australia’s Ethics Committee. I never needed to do so, but there is always the concern about retribution – and it useless to say the law is a help, even if that was the case, as I would still have to find enough money to live while any court cases about dismissal meandered their interminable way through court. Less stressful, but still bad enough, is having to cope with macho workplace cultures and economies built around competition, and suppressing being human (see here). For others, doing the actual work, particularly if it is new, is the main source of stress.

Many people, in my experience, DO live ‘lives of quiet desperation’, as Thoreau termed it – whether it is in the city, or on the land. The desperation is worse in third world nations, where physical survival is even more of an issue, but my experience is that it is present in ‘the West’ as well. As an example, consider this media article: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/oecd-report-poverty-engulfing-many-australians-20140318-350ef.html. 

 

If they’re taken away from their fears around survival, I suspect many people would be better human beings – or, at least, less bad.

In terms of how to do this, I consider two things are required.

Firstly, live more simply. Aspire to smaller, more affordable houses (and make sure that all adults who are going to co-own a house equally share the burdens of paying for it: being the sole source of income is often not easy, and I know too many women who falsely think it is the breadwinner’s ‘job’ to support them in absolutely anything they want [and I have declined to get involved with such people, just as I have declined to get involved with people who are still living in their parents] ) – I personally, for example, could happily spend the rest of my life on a 30 to 40 foot boat (I spent 8 years living on a 24 foot boat, and know others – couples - who live on boats less than 30 feet in length; and for those cretins who think that involves polluting water, the first thing I did when I bought my boat was put a grey water recycling system, and I always used a Porta Potti).

Secondly, know what is important to you, and plan your life around that. I am of the view that too many people wind up in 9 to 5 lifestyles, or have children, or live in the suburbs or in particular ways because of social pressure (expectation! Also sometimes referred to as socialisation) and then, whether they admit it to themselves or not (and admitting something to others is yet another matter). This sort of pressure really is often quite ubiquitous – as an example, there was a busybody I knew when I was living on my yacht who tried to pressure me into going to heterosexual dances (for older people: I was no spring chicken when I move aboard) because she enjoyed dancing with men so much that she could not conceive of a situation that someone else (i.e., a lesbian such as myself) could not. (Despite that, and a couple of other problems, the time I spent living aboard was one of the best of my life, and I am glad I did that. My current partner and I have plans of me building [using the skills I have, which not everyone has] a boat for us when we can afford it, so that I can start being on the water again.)

That incident also illustrates that there is more to making this world a better place than just fixing up lifestyle – things like consciousness raising, etc are still needed, but there is a reason that survival needs are at the base of Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs', and I maintain my view that the world would be a less bad place if people were less stretched.

On that, my nation, Australia, is busily reintroducing the notorious ‘White Australia’ policy by the back door (see here, for instance; most of our current crop of politicians strike me as being incredibly simplistic in their thinking, and immature in many ways – especially spiritually. I was pleased to see that some people are openly calling these aspects of Australia evil, and doing something about it – see here), and one of the current changes is repealing parts of the Racial Discrimination Act , which was very well comments on at http://www.theage.com.au/comment/brandis-race-hate-laws-are-whiter-than-white-20140327-35lv7.html. From my point of view, one of the many problems with those supporting the changes, which are basically about being able to express bigotry, is that those supporting such vicious behaviour have no experience of being flooded by such views. If the proposed changes pass Parliament, it is not the case that one person on the receiving end will receive one nasty comment and that is it, they will be submerged in an environment where such abuse is ubiquitous. That overwhelming overload is what kills people - and I have buried several people driven to suicide by such environments, and come close to being driven to doing the same myself.

This policy is a case of giving the ‘haves’ more power to exclude the ‘have-nots’, which directly and obviously harms the ‘have-nots’, but also promotes an ‘us and them’ mindset on the art of the ‘haves’ which harms them spiritually, karmically, and by increasing to the pressure this post is about. It’s a right proper lose-lose situation.

 


[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"). 

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr 
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux? Morinehtar? Would-be drýicgan ... )

My "blogiography" (list of all posts - currently not up to date) is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project (and join me at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour - and see also here, and be flexible.

I am a Walker upon the Path of Balanced Positivity, seeking Spiritual Maturity. 

• One size does NOT fit all. 
• Don't be mediocre - seek to excel.  
• Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if  the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• Ban the dream interpretation industry! 
• A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
• Housework is for ensuring a home is comfortable to live in, not competing to outdo or belittle others.
• Being accustomed to interacting via certain rules makes those rules neither right nor universal. 
• Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
• Expertise at intimacy and emotional happiness is generally not the same thing as spiritual growth.
• "Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
• Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and/or "they can ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. Indolence vs. perspicacity, and expediency vs. honour.
• The means shape the end.  
• BPLF restraint of uncooperatives is NOT an opportunity for revenge or getting even - even unconsciously. 
• As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
• My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films. 
• All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ... 

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY (who was quoting 19th century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)

Jesus loves you.  Odin wants you to grow up. (Facebook meme, according to John Beckett)

We make our decisions. And then our decisions turn around and make us. F.W. BOREHAM

Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent. Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that. Because we use those names to infantalise females – we keep females in their 'little girl' state by the names we use for them. Get over it. If you want to be taken seriously, get serious. JANE ELLIOTT 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." EINSTEIN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (US Attorney General 1966 Speech) 

Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that -- counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. ... Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." ROBERT F. KENNEDY 1968

Tags: attitudes, awareness, discrimination, hierarchy of needs, ignorance, lifestyles, Maslow, self awareness, society,

First published: Fryrsdagr, 28th March, 2014

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Friday,  28th March, 2014

Post No. 239 - Random thoughts ...

Just a few more random thoughts - on asceticism, art, getting to know one's parallels/subconscious, forgiveness, the benefits of passing over, change vs. learning, and leavening civilisations ...

Asceticism
One of the things which used to be portrayed about Eastern spirituality when I was growing up was that it allegedly favoured asceticism - "denial of the body" through discipline, and forcing the body to endure rigours such as protracted fasting, and living with very little. Well, I now know better - there are those who choose to practise austerity and a rigorous asceticism (e.g. saddhus) - and possibly that is exactly what they need, but they are not the be-all and end-all of the matter: many Eastern people genuinely practise a spiritual life whilst living their equivalent of a "normal" lifestyle.

Where I think a relative form of asceticism has a place is in the lifestyles of us in the West, in the First World. Many of us seem to want "things", and our houses are now much bigger than those of our grandparents, and all of us consumes the limited resources that the Earth has. My opinion is that, as part of being a spiritual being, we should seek to live as materially simple a life as we can. That shows respect and caring (dare I say "love") for the world we live on.

In the four years I was at University, I moved 33 times. As a result, for some decades I had a rule that I would only own enough to fit into a single trailer so I could move easily and readily. That is a rule which is harder to follow here in Victoria, as in Queensland many places are rented furnished, which is not so in Victoria (so I also have to fit fridge and bed, for example, on the trailer). It is also harder with a family, cats, reference books, and my crystals and other magical tools ... but I still try to follow the principle of not consuming unnecessarily out of love for this planet as a spiritual act.

Also, there is an element of choice here: if asceticism is forced because one is living in poverty, then it will not be of any spiritual value. See Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs, which I have mentioned in previous posts (here, and in here).

Art
This speculation was spurred by watching The L-Word. What is the purpose of art? I've heard in recent years the view that the purpose of art is to provoke a response. I disagree - especially musical art.

I used to think that art is about appreciating beauty more - not in the sense of portraying those who the media claim are beautiful people, but things like being able to portray the beauty in everyday people, or the beauty of spirit inside one who has been disfigured (perhaps by an explosion, for instance).

Now, I tend to phrase it a little more broadly, and say that art is about increasing our appreciation of life. To me, much of that is about being shown a beauty I had not seen before, but it may, from time to time, also include something which is challenging or provocative.

I also consider that the opinion of what is art to be subjective, not objective. That means something may be considered by most of the billions of other people on this planet but not by me, and we are both right :)

Getting to know one's parallels/unconscious
It might be useful to describe how to go about this from the point of view of being a totally raw novice, with little experience or development of skill. If I found myself back in that situation, I would probably do something along the lines of the following:

1. Ask, every night before going to sleep for at least a month, to practise in sleep state for the exercises I was about to try (this request goes to your Guides/Higher Self (Overself)/Patron Deities).
2. For the last week of that month, add to the request by also lighting a candle where it will not cause a fire (make sure there are no candles, that it is on/in fireproof containers, is a small candle, etc).
3. In the first fortnight after the month of preparation, begin by focusing my attention on all the sensations, emotions and thoughts I was encountering, with a view to developing my awareness and sensitivity (see this post). I would increase this from an initial 5 minutes to an hour, gradually.
4. During the second fortnight, I would set up a protective circle before doing this, and open the circle at the end. In the second week, I would also add doing a ritual to invoke the energies of the Qabbalistic Sphere of Yesod.
5. During the third fortnight, I would add to the ritual, invocation of Yesod and a shortened check of awareness (say 10 to 20 minutes) by then playing various guided meditation tapes (that I had pre-listened to in a normal state of consciousness so I knew what they contained, to make sure there were no suggestion that were disharmonious to me or my principles), again aiming to get this up to around an hour long session. In the second week of this fortnight, I would also experiment with various incenses to see which ones seemed to me to be giving a heightened state of awareness or increased sensitivity. (All the while during these fortnights I would be continuing the request and candle when going to bed.)
6. Finally, I would aim to either meditate, or pre-tape a guided meditation, with a view to changing my awareness and becoming aware of influences and interactions from my subconscious/my parallels.

Of course, for that to be meaningful I also need to post more about the invocation rituals and guided meditation - which doesn't fit into this post. The Qabbalistic ritual is an adaptation of the fuller version of the "Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram" which I posted here (for simplicity, I left out the visualisation of the Archangels).

Finding out more about your parallels can be useful, as many past lives that we look at may actually be of our parallels, who are, effectively, another part of us and, via our shared unconscious, influence us as we influence them.

Lobsang Rampa has some good comments on the unconscious in "Candlelight".

Forgiveness
Further to my recent post on this, the film "Red Dust", which covers the Truth and Reconcialiation Commission in South Africa, is worth looking at.

Dying can lead to resolution of mysteries ...
One of the things about dying is that one views one's life. In the course of this, and by dint of the greater psychic awareness one has inherently as a result of being in the astral, it may be quite possible for one to find out what is behind mysteries that one was plagued by in the physical. Say, for instance, someone lost their child to a violent crime and the criminal was never found, nor the body found (as has happened in one case here in the 80s): when the grieving parents die, they will be reunited with the child, and they will have a chance to resolve the mystery (unless they have some truly extraordinarily bad karmic debt).

So .. if you find yourself thinking "it's a shame so-and-so didn't find out about X before she/he/ze died", don't - they will find out :)

Is change a better word than learning?
In the field of spirituality, one often is told that one's purpose here is to learn: could a better word be "change" - as in, "change for the better"?

If I think about something such as ... say, helping to organise an LGBTIQ spirituality conference (as I have done in the past, and hope to do so again for MidSumma 2013), I can say that I guess I have learned things like trusting myself more, I have acquired more experience, etc - but if I was to try writing a list of what I had learned, I would struggle. If, on the other hand, I was to try writing a list of how I had changed, I would fly through it - I am stronger, I am more experienced at X, Y and Z, I know more about A, B and C, etc, etc, etc.

So ... is "change for the better" more appropriate than "learning"?

I think it is for me - how about you, dear Reader? :)

One other thought comes to mind here: the issue of balance. Often this is thought of in terms of karmic balance, but there is also the issue of seeing "both sides of the coin", so to speak. You MUST have lives as male and female, for example, to enable you to evolve; you must also have lives of poverty and riches, before you can evolve.

There are other personal sequences where people often try to seek a balance by, more or less, going from one form of extremism to another. Hence, for instance, I have read (and don't actually agree with) a suggestion that Hitler would come back as a vehement preacher in the next life ...

In my case, I have tended to try to balance a life in the military by a life in a religious order. I have tried to balance out a hedonistic lifestyles in one century and piratical life the century before with a disciplined British navy life in the 1800s (I was no-one known or famous, by the way). I tried to balance some lives where I was a compliant, obediant female in the 1700s with a more wilful life in the early 1900s - a bit like teenagers as they are stereotypically thought of today, perhaps :) Unfortunately, going against my father's wishes led to a path that I regret and am still paying for to this day [1] ... so, there is a time, a place and a way to seek to ba;ance things out: better yet, do not fall into the trap of being extremist in the first place :)

Leavening civilisations
Something I am thinking about at the moment is Rampa's comments (in "The Hermit" and "Tibetan Sage") that the "Gardeners of the Earth" (i.e. benevolent aliens seeking to help the evolution of spiritual life on Earth - see the notes in this post) occasionally try to "leaven" the quality of sentient life on the Earth by introducing new civilisations. I have not reached any conclusions about this yet, just mentioning that it is something I am cogitating upon - especially when I see people like an ex's son have six kids, who he is raising in an alcoholic, criminal (well, formerly criminal - I don't know if he still is), violent (again - formerly) environment. The last time I had contact with him, he had a new girlfriend who appeared to be sorting him out ...

but then I compare this with the people who are wonderful parents, and note that they inevitably have fewer kids. Will the world evolve to be a better place under these circumstances? Maybe that depends on whether or not the education system will pick up the slack ...

As I said, I don't know one way or the other ... it is just one of the things currently occupying my mind and my meditations - along with things such as should I try to improve my ability to channel names, which I tend to block because of the expectations that get put on mediums to channel such details instead of the person being helped getting metaphorically off their backside and sharing the responsibility for a good reading by doing their part (such as preparing ... ).

Greed = glamour
One of the main ills of the world, in my opinion, is greed - wanting more than one needs. This is something I also refer to as materialism or being materialistic (probably the more precise reference!), or consumerism. One aspect of this is being sucked in by advertising (including the portrayal of lifestyles on TV), which Alice Bailey refers to as "glamour", being caught like a moth to the glitzy lights of what appears glamorous. (Bailey even wrote a book about the problem ... )

Control through phone messages
Something which struck me as my partner and I continued watching the L Word (which I posted some initial impressions of - not changed as yet! - here) was the control exerted over people by leaving short, useless messages.

A couple of times towards the end of Season One Tina left messages for Bette where she was clearly upset asking here to call, but not saying what could have happened. That left Bette the potential to think Tina could have miscarried, which could have caused Bette to panic or have unnecessary stress. A better approach would have been to say something along the lines of "I have been threatened by a sperm donor's current girlfriend" - which is something Tina didn't do even when Bette did ring. It is important to get emotions out and expressed, yes, but it is also important to have consideration for partners. Did Tina fear Bette would not interrupt her work to call her? Given the unbalanced attitudes Bette had, that could have been the case - but better to know that and deal with it, than to try to exert a form of control over one's partner.

This sort of consideration applies more broadly: I detest getting short, useless messages "call me" from work colleagues, when if they said something useful such as "call me about a potential bid X", I can assess that against my other work priorities, and call it in the order that is best for the company - which is not necessarily best for the ego of the person leaving the message. They think that, by being vague, I will call to find out what it is all about, whereas I generally choose to ignore such messages or put them down at the bottom of the pile. It doesn't take much effort to have some basic manners and consideration.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

Notes:

1. An ex-partner and my current partner were on the opposite side to me in the Second World War, by the way: there are some interesting dynamics in these situations, as well some - in these cases - karmic balancing, as well as love and continuation of relationships from past lives.

This post's photo is yet to be posted.

Tags: lifestyles, asceticism, art, Qabbalah, Yesod, unconscious, forgiveness, death, growth, evolution, greed, glamour, materialism, consumerism, Alice A Bailey, Maslow,

First published: Thorsdagr, 3rd March, 2011

Last edited: Sunday, 6th March, 2011

Post No. 113 - Changes

I have writen a critique of some of my early work to help show that people can and do change. This topic is something I have been thinking more about of late, as I re-read some books which made such a big impact on me years ago: Lobsang Rampa's discriminatory (in my opinion) approach towards women was always apparent, but his problematic approach to same sex attraction was not obvious to me now that I have realised I am SSA, it is :) ). Also, some aspects of "Briefing for the Landing on Planet Earth" (which I am currently writing a review of) are more problematic to me than they were years ago.

I think our needs are a bit like onions: we have one layer of need which is met, say, by a book, then further layers of need are met by other books and, when we go back and reread the earlier book we have a different perspective. This is probably a bit like Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs, but I am looking at one "level" in more detail.

Maybe another way of viewing this is that as we evolve, our views change: I am, for instance, infinitely glad that I no longer hold the viewpoints when I was a child, or even many of views when I was a teenager (some views then were OK :) ).

This has also been stimulated by some of the debate about the films "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves", and the current version. At the time, I quite liked the earlier film (due in no small part to the humour around the way that Alan Rickman played the Sheriff of Notthingham): having recently rewatched it, I am thinking differently ...

(I have, by the way, no desire to see the current version, as it plays with history that I lived through [in a previous life, obviously] too much - for me. Go and see the film if you wish to, or are curious about it :) )

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

Tags: about me, change, cross-fertilisation (ideas), persistence, personal characteristics, perspective, philosophy, evolution, life lessons, learning from mistakes, Stuart Holroyd, Maslow, hierarchy of needs,

First published: Monday 17th May, 2010

Last edited: Monday 17th May, 2010