Junkyard of Pain...
Saturday, October 25th, 2008 10:19 PM
Ethical people recognize their mistakes as simply mistakes. They heal the past and themselves by correcting their errors, forgiving themselves, and learning as much as they can in the process. In this way they gradually become free of the past, their minds cease to be junkyards of painful memories and guilty secrets, and they come fresh and clean to each new moment of experience.
Guilt ridden people see their mistakes as unforgivable sins and punish themselves unmercifully. They do not heal or learn from the past; rather, they continue to punish themselves for it and thereby remain tied to it.
Roger Walsh M.D. Ph.D wrote those words in his book Essential Spirituality. The road from a guilt ridden mind to an ethical one is filled with all sorts of debris that I have accumulated over the years. All through my early years ethics was hammer into my head, but my head was filled with guilt because I felt I was not good enough to be true to my self or anyone else. I had to fake it and talk one game and live another, because I was confused and in a state of shock from being a fragmented human. I created a life that I thought would appease the beliefs of others and my ethics sat in a corner of an empty room in my mind. I knew it was there, but conformity was more important than honesty.
I innately have a sense of honesty, but the desire to be accepted in a society that regards material achievement more than inner responsibility, convinced me to use guilt to function in its place, so living a lie become my first nature. Everybody lies and in believing that, I create the evil that I fear and fight against in daily life.
As St Paul said:
I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
For I do not do the good I want.
But the evil I do not want is what I do.
The road to ethical transformation is filled with the evil I created by my belief system and the expression of those beliefs. Beliefs are thought reinforced by imagination and emotion concerning the nature of my reality. If I want to be ethical I must believe I am.
Jane Roberts puts it this way:
Examine your beliefs, realize that they form your experience, and consciously change those that do not give the effect you want. In such an examination you will be aware of many excellent beliefs that work for you. Trace these through. See how they were followed by your imagination and emotions. If possible, look into your own past for points where recognizable new ideas came to you and beneficially changed your experience.
Ideas not only alter the world constantly, they make it constantly.
The idea of opening closed doors in my mind is a stimulating one. I find my self remembering my innate virtues and begin to express them. Little by little I relax and allow my inner senses to guide my physical expression.
Buddha explains:
Do not belittle your virtues,
Saying, “They are nothing.”
A jug fills drop by drop
So the wise person becomes brimful of virtues.
I am a jug that is being filled drop by drop, and sooner or later I find my self doing things like being with a friend in a time of pain and focusing on them instead of my self; or speaking the truth in a meeting when no one else seemed willing to; or helping a lost child find her parents in a mall or social gathering. I find comfort in being aware of the impact I have on others by being true to my self in each physical experience. Gradually my truth replaces the guilt and I forgive my self for being an empty jug in a fear-filled past.
The ethics that I long to see in my political and social systems start with me, and what I believe to be true. It seems the collective system works as Mark Twain describes it:
Truth is so very precious; man is naturally economical in its use.
It’s time to reach into my bank of ethics and make some withdrawals. By assessing each situation and finding what is true to me innately, I begin to change the system. At times the truth is hidden under a bed of fear and anger and it must be moved by new and fresh ideas; ideas that spring from the ethics that I find so naturally within me.
I have everything I need within me to change the system I created. I have the ability to experience truth in government, religion and social justice. All I need to do is release my guilt and accept my self as being human as well as connected consciousness. If I allow my inner ethics to express my beliefs, they will be truthful, compassionate and addictive in positive change. My ideas change my world and everything in it. Now is the time to become the man made of my ideas and turn a junkyard of pain into a showcase of truth.
www.shortsleeves.net
http://halmanogue.blogspot.com/
