Choice

We all know very well what kind of world we live in, a world that is full of hatred, and love; war, and peace; famine, and fortune; inhumanity, and humanity; the bad, and the good; positive and negative, the Yin and the Yang. We have seen all of this in the past few years.

Most wars have their roots in some form of religious rivalry, whether over land or belief, but obviously forgetting they worship the same God. Everything else that is negative is a form of greed or egoism. Rivalries in any form attain nothing. A quest for power has many faces.

It is the positive we must focus on to make changes. We, as humanity, have to spread love, forgiveness, caring,and equality. One on one, family to family, community to community, and nation to nation. We must be grateful for having the opportunity to show our free will in whatever form it takes; many others are not so fortunate.

Many wonder if there really is a God considering that tragedies are allowed to occur. And, if there is a God, whose side is he on anyway? Who is right? Who are the "good guys"? Our Creator is on every side; there are no sides! God lets us create whatever we want to live in. Humanity is responsible,
not God.

It is too easy to blame God for any circumstance we don't like or agree with. Whether it be the passing of a loved one, which some people refer to as, "God took them", or, "See you tomorrow, God willing." God isn't playing favorites with anyone. We are here to learn, from the positive things in life, and from the very deepest hardships. It is more difficult to walk the spiritual path. It takes analysis of our own actions and reactions.

In order to learn we must take responsiblity for our own actions and the frame of mind we put ourselves in. It is a matter of choice. This is where we have free will. Choose to be loving. Choose to be peaceful. Choose to be charitable. Choose to be tolerant.

It doesn't take any effort to be hateful. The ego takes over and no one else can be right or have a valid opinion. "They" caused a bad situation; it's always someone else's fault. Sometimes "they" do cause a problem. But, we have a choice as to how to react. Do we fight back, do we get even? Instead, we can talk things through, or even just walk away. We are most destructive to ourselves when our own ego gets in the way; it becomes a competition of egos. Who is going to win? How far does it have to go before someone gives in? This is what happens every second of every day, somewhere. When we make the decision to remove ourselves from a confrontation, we win. We have released the agravation; We don't own it anymore.

I'd like to paraphrase a little story, you may have heard it before.

The Buddha was visiting a village teaching love and calmness. A man in the village decided he was going to make the Buddha loose his temper and show the other villagers that even a great Buddha has his limits. For three days this man constantly insulted the Buddha and his teachings, called him names, and disrespecting him in any way he could think of. After three days of this constant barrage of nastiness, the man gave up and said to the Buddha, "I have been insulting you for three days, can't you hear me?" The Buddha said, "I can hear you, I just don't accept what you are giving out, therefore it doesn't belong to me. What doesn't belong to me cannot affect me."

This teaching is a valid one. Our ego can be our own worst enemy. Sometimes we take things too personally. We get insulted easily and our ego steps up to defend us. The result is another battle of egos. When one steps up, the other person's ego usually steps up to meet it. We could make the choice not to own the insult as did the Buddha. If we step back from a confrontation, the other usually will too. This gives time to collect our thoughts and approach whatever happens to be the situation with calmness and a clear mind.

This is also the time to remember equality. Their point of view might be just as valid as yours and some sort of compromise might be benefical to all.

How can you relate this to your life?