Suicidal Thoughts

Ever had thoughts of wanting to wipe the slate clean and totally start over? I have. I never went as far as planning a way to do myself in, but if I were a video game, I would have wanted to hit the reset button.

I'm sure I can speak for anyone who has ever wanted to kill themselves, or at least had thoughts of erasing everything and starting fresh. This way of feeling and thinking is always brought on by a tremendous amount of stress (be it mental or physical).

The times I felt like this were years ago at this point, but I can easily remember what I was upset about and trying to avoid. I don't regret going through this depression stage because it played a role in bringing about an awakening within me. Since my shift in consciousness, I can see how and why this is a feeling more common to a whole lot of people than you may be lead to believe.

At the root of this urge to purge oneself of "life," lies a major paradox. You are life itself and will never die. You can move on past this physical world but will still live. So how can you "kill" yourself? You can't. You are only trying to kill your current situation.

Think about it. Who really wants to die? The ego. The identity you have adopted as yourself is in a huge amount of stress. Once separated from the identity, relief is experienced. Who wants relief from the identity? You do. The real you.

It really is like there are two people there. The phrase, "I hate myself," implies a 'hater' and a 'hatee', so to speak. To be unhappy with yourself/life situation is to be a house divided against itself. The solution is to become whole again. But how?

You can die while still living and gain even more life in the process! Sounds like another paradox, but it's true. Allowing yourself to become more aware of the part of you that is the eternal observer, will bring balance to your perspective. There is the part of you that cares so much about the stressful situations (ego identity) and there's the part of you that is good either way and just observes. Allowing yourself to simply, objectively, observe your ego identity and it's drama, you will watch that part of you die. It will start to seem less and less important and less of who you are. It will lose all power and you will regain it.

Killing your body is a waste of time. You will continue on and have to overcome the same tests that drove you to it in the first place. Killing the attachments that cause you stress will achieve all the relief you desire plus so much more! Meditate on theses words and suicide will never seem logical again.

Related posts:

• Why So Serious?
• Attachment and Identity
• Ego Trippin'
  

The Art of Peace

Most of us have heard of the "Art of War" by Sun Tzu. For those who aren't familiar with it, The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy. Personally, I love the fact that Sun Tzu's philosophy makes it clear that "the peak efficiency of knowledge and strategy is to make conflict altogether unnecessary."

In other words, the ideal strategy in war is to win without fighting and accomplish the most by doing the least. This is a Taoist philosophy, and like any perception of great depth, it might appear as a paradox at first.

Although a seeming contradiction, it can be recognized that the goal of any and all conflict, or war is to achieve a greater peace. The illusion of opposites does indeed make it hard to see at times. We can realize this though simply by looking at the root intention of those involved in the conflict. We can also realize that conflict actually helps define what peace is. Peace gives conflict a meaning just the same. Without one, the other would be a constant and therefore unnoticeable. They are two sides of the same coin. They are one.

To further illustrate, check out the similarities in the best fighters and the most peaceful people:

The best warriors are able to maintain a calm in battle. They can be in full motion, yet maintain a stillness with in. They are able to adapt to whatever the circumstances are and make the absolute best out of the situation.

The people best at staying peaceful, blissful, and all around happy are people with the ability to adapt to life just as the best warriors who ever lived. They are able to adapt to whatever the circumstances are and make the absolute best out of the situation.

The art of peace and the art of war have a whole lot in common!

Related posts:
The Pure Paradox
The Illusion of Opposites
The Peace Loving Warrior

Blinding Light and Blinding Darkness

Light is often talked about as the solution to darkness. This perspective does, however, buy into the illusion of opposites. (See Illusion of Opposites) As discussed in The Power of Light/Love, it is all really of the same thing. In other words, there is really only light. Everything else is varying degrees of light or a lack of light. Darkness is often vilified because of the illusion of opposites and the duality that is created as a result.

To illustrate this; take a good look at the relationship of light and darkness and the way we need both of them equally. A person could not use light to see without darkness. To have an over abundance of light would leave us in the same condition as having no light. Definition of any kind could not be observed. Total light is blindness just as total darkness is blindness.

It is the varying degrees and resulting shades of light that give us the opportunity to define our world. Our surroundings vary in color and shades of light allowing us to give definition to what we see. The same may be said for sound and silence, matter and space, and movement and stillness. One could not exist without the other. As a result, it stands to reason that they are one in the same; utterly indivisible.

Leaving behind the idea that light is good and darkness is evil is to transcend the old and relative paradigm that is ego based. The ego thrives off of duality. There must be another for the ego to be relevant. If there is only oneness, the ego loses it's identity; it loses it's purpose. It loses it's power.

Logic will agree that if something is indivisible, then it must be one. It is all one. It is all good. It is all light.

The Illusion of Opposites

You've heard that opposites attract. You've probably also heard that like attracts like. So which one is it? It can't be both. Can it? Actually it is both. The reason why is because the concept of opposites is an illusion.

You have probably heard it many times before. You've heard the stories of people who had arguments or even physical altercations when they first met. Funny enough and often enough; these people then end up as close friends. Some people may call this opposites attracting. On the surface it would seem that way.

Why does this happen? These people are very much alike. This is the reason they had an initial conflict and it is the reason why they would become close as friends. (Another paradox.)

Here is an excerpt from What Is Really Good? on the subject:

The DNA for all humans is over 99% identical. It is the negligible difference; the remaining less than 1%; that gives us the infinite differences among us.

It's kind of like the snowflakes of a blizzard. There are countless trillions of them and yet every one of them is different. They are all made of the same stuff; the same composition; and the one piece of content they differ on gives us the same overwhelming ratio of similarities to differences.

Think about how much more similar opposing forces are to each other than different. EX: Police and violent criminals, armies of opposing nations, gang bangers from opposing gangs, social and political activists of opposing sides on an issue, opposing sides in any contest (sports, academics, business, social, intellectual, etc.); basically any and every situation of conflict imaginable. The only difference in these mostly similar and opposing forces is the piece of content they differ on. This piece of content is which side of the whole they are identified with; which polarity of the situation they are aligned with; which relative opposite they would like to oppose. For the most part, besides this factor, the opposing sides are overwhelmingly similar.

The illusion of opposites is simply an extreme in the overall illusion of duality. There can be no object with out a subject. Funny enough; the extreme nature of an opposite, points more to the similarity the two things have.

The nature of duality is that there can be no negative without a positive; there can be no left without a right; there can be no up without a down, etc. Since one can not possibly exist without the other, it stands to reason that they are one in the same.
They are not separate from each other.
They are not a "they". They are an "it".
What is "it"?
"It" is.