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Where we find ourselves on the Tree Of Life is determined by CHOICE and by LIFE itself. We can stay where we are, or we can climb the Tree of Life through Taking Risk, Learning and Growing, thereby gaining Wisdom and finding our bit of enlightenment. WE ARE OUR CHOICES.
The source of your Human Dignity is your Power of CHOICE. Empower yourself through Choice. Life itself determines where and when you get choice. You have no say about the earthquake that just hit, but you do have a lot of choice in how you react to it, and what you do. You walk a path through life, where you can only move forward and never backward, and you cannot see very far ahead. Life will create forks in your road, as well as obstacles, events and challenges, but at each fork in the road, each obstacle, each event and challenge, you have CHOICES. Sometimes, the only available choices may totally suck, but you still have choices. Most people are lazy are afraid, so they give their choices away to others, or do nothing and let life choose for them, sleepwalking through life. Empower yourself with Choice.
CHOICE vs. FATE & DESTINY
I do not believe in Fate & Destiny, at least as most define what that means:
FATE: The development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power. In other words, Fate & Destiny implies that a God or some other supernatural power is determining what will happen to you and to the world.
This is opposed to a natural course of events that I will call Life:
LIFE: The development of events beyond a person's control, as determined by natural events of the Universe. Even many religious people in the world believe that a God set the Universe in motion, but does not intervene in the course of people's lives, nor in the planet's natural evolution.
POWER OF CHOICE: What Life does not control, we can control through our own choices. You can choose to let other people choose for you and determine your life, or you can Empower Yourself through your Power of Choice. You can choose to take fuller control of your own life.
Your CHOICES heavily influence the PROBABILITIES of what life will throw at you. For example, if you choose to live in Seattle or San Francisco, you know that eventually an earthquake will happen. You have no choice about when the earthquake will hit, or how big it would be, but your choice to live in an earthquake prone city greatly increased the probability that you will be in an earthquake. I live in Seattle, so I do not need to worry about killer tornados, but earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes are a different story.
But there are some things, like a meteor striking the planet earth that you can do nothing about. However, that too is a matter of probabilities. Since we are constantly being hit by meteors, it is only a matter of time before we get hit by a really big one. We could take the threat more seriously and start building a planetary defense system to destroy or break-up any large meteors. If we do nothing and get hit by a massive meteor, is it God's fault or human kind's stupidity? Not only do we make choices as individuals, we also make choices as a town of people, as a city, as a country, and as a species.
Believing in FATE is dangerous, because you can start believing that your CHOICES make no difference, so why bother doing anything or trying anything, since fate will determine everything. There are people who believe that we can destroy our planet, exploit it, deplete it, and pollute it, and God will rescue us. If there is a God, why in the world would God choose to rescue the people who chose to destroy its gift?
The foundation of Human Dignity is CHOICE. Our human dignity is based in Choice. Choice determines who we are. We punish people by removing choice from their lives, locking them away in prison where everything is regimented. As we get sicker and sicker, approaching death, it can feel like we are loosing our human dignity because our viable choices start to narrow and people poke and prod your body and doing horrible procedures on you. Dying with Dignity means, "Give me the CHOICE TO DIE on my own terms."
Life will throw unexpected things your way, perhaps derailing your big plans. When that happens, just make new choices and set out on another course. Who is to say that your old path would have been the best path for you? This is just life. Instead of expending more of your life lamenting what COULD HAVE BEEN and WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN, get on with life and live it to the fullest. If it means having to go back to school, or starting over doing something else, try to enjoy that process as much as you can.
IT IS A CHOICE TO ENJOY LIFE.
Was it Fate that I would be born Gay, Autistic and into a very dysfunctional and abusive family system, or Fate that I would start develop arthritis so very young? I say NO, but one way or the other, there I was. It was up to ME to live the very best life I could, no matter what challenges and consequences my life and my choices brought me.
CHOICE - HOW TO LIVE LIFE
WHO YOU ARE at any given moment in time and space, is the summation of all of your choices up to that point. Your choices determine your path through life. They determine how you see and interpret the world you live in. They determine your character, your beliefs, your value system, who and how you love.
In conclusion, your life is all about your choices and life's influences. Most people delegate their choices, and thus their lives, as they are told to by other people and institutions, while others go through life on cruise control. It is like SLEEPWALKING THROUGH LIFE.
The question is, how active will you be in choosing you own destiny. Always remember that when you blaze new trails, the way may be smooth at times and very difficult at times. There may be danger at times, many mistakes made, and hopefully much learned. Instead of SECOND-GUESSING yourself and BEATING YOURSELF-UP for mistakes made, remember instead that we can LEARN and GROW through our mistakes. To fully LIVE and to fully LOVE, we must take RISKS. When we take risks, we make MISTAKES. We cannot LEARN and GROW without making mistakes. People who do NOTHING, make no mistakes. The more risks you take and the more you push yourself, the more mistakes you will make. It is all part of the LEARNING CURVE OF LIFE. We will never be perfect, so why do so many people hold themselves to an expectation of perfection?
Most people, including me at one time, live their lives waiting for the end of a journey. I put off having fun and enjoying life, waiting until exams are over, waiting until I got my degree, waiting until I got a job, waiting until I get a promotion, waiting for retirement, waiting for vacation, waiting for the weekend. The next thing they know, your life may be about over and you have not done the fun things you wanted to do, or gone traveling like you wanted to do, your kids grow up and are gone and you hardly noticed it. People put their lives on hold for a better day.
I worked like a maniac, in a very unhappy life, pushing myself HARD to be the very best, learn more, and save enough to retire early. I did achieve my goals and retired at age 34, but I was burned-out, I had no idea how to enjoy life and I was a mess. I came-out (Gay) to my shipmate friends and was hatefully rejected by two-thirds of them. Then my partner left me. I tried to kill myself. I realized that I could no longer live as I had. I had to find a new and better path, or die, which is exactly what I did.
I learned a very harsh lesson in life, FIND ENJOYMENT IN EVERY SINGLE DAY. I waited to enjoy life, and when I got to a place where I did start to enjoy life in a major way, I had few years before my arthritis was crippling me.
The ideal is for you to get the most out of your life, AS YOU ARE LIVING IT. Find a way to enjoy studying, being in school, meeting people and making friends, and do this all your life. I live a life full of pain and discomfort, so my daily challenge is to extract as much enjoyment as I can, despite the pain and nausea.
No matter how bad it gets, there are bits and moments of happiness and beauty, but one has to CHOOSE TO LOOK FOR THE GLEAM OF DIAMONDS IN THE MUCK, THEN CELEBRATE THEM WHEN YOU FIND THEM. When you choose to see, it is amazing what treasures you can find in the most bleak of circumstances.
Don't spend your days beating yourself up, wringing your hands, worrying, second-guessing yourself, being afraid of failure, being unhappy with your progress. Try instead to do the opposite and take daily inventory of the good stuff happening in your daily life, and think about what you learned from your mistakes, think ahead with hope.
If you do this stuff enough, it will become a habit of life and you will be happier for it. Greet people with a smile, stand tall, shoulders back.
Buddha said that if you have no expectations, you will have no disappointments.
CHOICE AND COURAGE
Writing it all down, reading what I wrote, saying it out loud, is so much easier than actually living it. Life can seem so very out-of-control, where it overwhelms us and seems like there are no choices, no way out. Dealing with a terminal illness can feel like this, or being trapped in the rubble of an earthquake. The truth is that life can indeed overwhelm us and defeat us, and then it is time to let go. The challenge is to discover when to keep fighting and when to let go, then to find the courage to do it.
Choice takes courage, and since we live and exist through choice, living life to its fullest takes great courage. It can be so much easier to stay locked up in an apartment watching TV, sleeping, going to work, eating, watching TV, again and again. This was a choice to live like this, but is it truly living, or only existing? It takes Courage for this person to open the door and go out to a social event. For a compulsive gambler, it might take just as much courage to stay at home with the family, and not gamble.
It takes even more courage to CHOOSE to do the RIGHT THING, to CHOOSE to be a GOOD PERSON, for seldom is this the easiest or most convenient path.
Depression is a terrible curse that robs us of CHOICE, blinds us to it, and distorts and twists the truth about the choices we do see. There can be no greater courage than to CHOOSE TO LIVE, to CHOOSE to FIGHT YOUR WAY BACK TO TRULY LIVING, on faith alone, to give life another chance, and perhaps allowing those who love us, to help us.
Then in the end, can we find the courage to leave this life, to save another, to spare others, or when it is our time? This we will never know until we are there.
I have many heros in my life, almost all of whom are unsung heros, the greatest one being me, yes that's right, me. How seldom we recognize the true hero within, the tremendous courage we have shown in our lives, making very difficult choices. If you cannot find your hero within, then maybe it is time to choose to live life more fully.
I once found myself in a pool of vomit, gasping for air, after trying to die. How easy it was to risk my life for others, and so horribly difficult to save myself. The greatest act of courage in my life was to choose to live. Then I found the courage to choose to reinvent myself and to overcome the challenges of my Autism. A day of crisis will come to all of you at some point in your lives. Please find the courage to do whatever you need to do, to live life to its fullest, while you can.
The gift of life is a single shot, and it races by like a shot. Please endeavor to push yourself forward into experiencing the abundance of what life has to offer. Strive for it, do it now, for there is precious little time.
HUMAN NATURE - CHOICE: GOOD VS EVIL
Basic Genetic Human nature, left on its own, and found in many different varying degrees, is based foremost in:
These can be part of Human Nature too, but are also learned:
GOODNESS requires active CHOICE, which is driven by COMPASSION, or in some, FEAR of a Hell and the REWARD of a Heaven.
There is no external devil or Satan1, it is our human nature that is our constant temptation. It is our Power Of Choice that allows us to choose a better path, which ultimately leads to more happiness, fulfillment and serenity in life.
I am a Humanist, centered in compassion, so my goodness comes from active CHOICE. Parents can start instilling the will to choose a path of goodness, OR imparting a value system largely based in Guilt and Shame, the offer of a heaven and the threat of a hell. But other forms of value systems have worked too.
I do not believe in a God, a Heaven or a Hell. Yet I have always chosen to work for the benefit of others and have striven to be a good and compassionate man. I have made my share of mistakes, but hopefully I have learned from those mistakes.
History has shown that people raised with the best of moral examples have turned evil.
History has also shown that people raised in an environment of evil, can choose a path or goodness.
So there is still a lot of individual choice in a person's value system, no matter what your upbringing.
It is easier to Hate than it is to be tolerant, understanding, and loving. It is easier to say, "THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT," that to take responsibility for your own choices. No matter how low on the social ladder you are, human beings have a basic need to feel superior to others, superior to other classes of people. If you cannot raise yourself up, it become necessary to tear others down.
I believe in finding balance in all things. I therefore indulge my natural human nature at times, but not in ways that would ever harm others.
It is healthier not to see your human nature as an adversary, or as evil. It is part of who we are. But what we can do is choose not to give into those aspects of ourselves that would harm ourselves or others. For example, sexual drive is part of our human nature. Many Christians want you to suppress this aspect completely, no masturbation, no sex, and when you are sexual, it must only be for procreation, with no joy. But this is very unnatural, and in attempting to do this, it typically causes much worse problems and imbalances.
CONCLUSION: Our internal dialog, debate ,and even temptation is a good and natural thing. Temptation and debating that temptation is no bad, wrong, or a sin. It is the final choice that matters. If you were to feel any guilt or shame for temptation or for your darker human nature, I would urge you not to do so. We are good people by being tempted and then choosing to go a better way. All humans contain the same darker elements and better elements—it is what we choose to do with them determines the content of your character and what kind of person you are.
The foundation of Human Dignity is CHOICE.
The key to goodness is COMPASSION.
The salvation of humanity is LOVE.
CHOICE - YOUR PATH THROUGH LIFE
Who are you? You are the sum of all of your choices in life. How we see the world is a choice. How we interpret things is a choice. From the moment we open our eyes, we start making choices. We interpret everything we see, and interpretation is choice. My brothers are Identical twins, but are very different people. Maybe one looks at the sky and sees a blue sky with clouds, and maybe the other one sees clouds with a blue sky. Each has his own unique personality, individuality and vision of the world, all based on billion upon billions of their own choices, despite being genetic duplicates.
The trouble is that most people sleepwalk through life, letting others and life make all of their choices. Many people do not feel that they have much of any choice in life, blaming it on all on fate, yet that is a choice too. We have much more Choice than most people ever come close to imagining. Just because YOU don't feel that you have much choice, does not mean it is not there. You can CHOOSE to see CHOICES. Depression is an illness that narrows choice more and more, where you are unable to see options and choices.
Some young people map out their future life, while some, like me, had no clue what to do with my life or what my future would be. No matter how well or detailed you plan your life, I can guarantee you that you will end up in a different place than you expected.
Let us say you are walking along the pathway of your life, when suddenly and unexpectedly a metaphorical tree falls across your path. Choosing this particular path through life may have increased the probabilities of this happening, but you certainly had NO CONTROL over that tree falling across your path. BUT, now that it has fallen across your path, you now have CHOICES. This is like a fork in the road. You can choose to just GIVE-UP, sit down and wait to die or wait to be rescued. OR, you could choose to forge ahead, either through and over the tree, or around to the right, or around to the left. Each of these choices may be fraught with its own dangers. So choose. If there are two of you, do you Choose to follow or lead?
What if you were injured by the falling tree, do you wait for rescue or try to drag yourself for miles to find help? What if the only way out is to cut off your own hand? What if you have been trapped for days and you are in horrible agony, do you use your knife to kill yourself? Sometimes all of the choices may seem terrible and may not feel like choices at all, but they are choices, and it can empowering to remember that despite how bad the situations is, there is still choice.
In the case of the Nantucket whaling ship Essex sunk by a large sperm whale in 1819, the crew of 21 were stranded in whale boats 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) west of the western coast of South America. They could have followed the trade winds to some relatively nearby islands, but there were rumors that they were inhabited by cannibals, so they went the other way. They found Henderson Island, which had a natural spring, but in a few days they realized there was not enough food to sustain them there. Two of them decided to stay behind and the rest got in the boats again.
When they ran out of food, they started eating their dead. Nearing the end of their journey, only one boat was left and only four were still alive. They drew lots to decide who would die for the benefit of the other three. A young man named Owen Coffin, Captain Pollard's young cousin, whom he had sworn to protect, drew the black spot. Captain Pollard offered to take his place, but Owen refused. Then they drew lots to determine who would kill Owen, and it was Ramsdell, his best friend who would do it. Then another man, Ray, died. 95 days after the Essex sank, a ship found them. The two survivors were delirious and gnawing at Owen's and Ray's bone marrow. There were many very difficult choices they all had to make.
If I cannot do anything about my impending death, I can still do a lot with the time I have left. If I agonize over what WILL happen to me later, I will not be able to actually LIVE the time I have left. I CHOOSE to set aside that which awaits me, and instead maximize the time I have left. Since I experience a lot of physical pain in my every waking moment of my life, there are limitations to what I can do. But there is still a lot I CAN DO, as long as I am willing to look for possibilities.
1 Repeated in the bible is the notion that origin of SIN is from within us. The desire to sin IS NOT put into you from an outside source; it originates inside you, it is your own evil desire. Temptation does not come from a Satan outside of us, it come from the Satan inside of us, our own Human Nature.
Jesus was no less realistic in his view of the evil in man when he said: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22).
In James 4:1, he says, “Where do wars and fightings come from, come they not hence, even of your lusts?" James 1: 14, he says, "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own evil desire and enticed." The DEVIL is your own evil desires, your own base Human Nature. This is the root of ORIGINAL SIN, the sin of being human, which means having the ability to CHOOSE to do wrong.
©Matthew Barry 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014
The source of your Human Dignity is your Power of CHOICE. Empower yourself through Choice. Life itself determines where and when you get choice. You have no say about the earthquake that just hit, but you do have a lot of choice in how you react to it, and what you do. You walk a path through life, where you can only move forward and never backward, and you cannot see very far ahead. Life will create forks in your road, as well as obstacles, events and challenges, but at each fork in the road, each obstacle, each event and challenge, you have CHOICES. Sometimes, the only available choices may totally suck, but you still have choices. Most people are lazy are afraid, so they give their choices away to others, or do nothing and let life choose for them, sleepwalking through life. Empower yourself with Choice.
CHOICE vs. FATE & DESTINY
I do not believe in Fate & Destiny, at least as most define what that means:
FATE: The development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power. In other words, Fate & Destiny implies that a God or some other supernatural power is determining what will happen to you and to the world.
This is opposed to a natural course of events that I will call Life:
LIFE: The development of events beyond a person's control, as determined by natural events of the Universe. Even many religious people in the world believe that a God set the Universe in motion, but does not intervene in the course of people's lives, nor in the planet's natural evolution.
POWER OF CHOICE: What Life does not control, we can control through our own choices. You can choose to let other people choose for you and determine your life, or you can Empower Yourself through your Power of Choice. You can choose to take fuller control of your own life.
Your CHOICES heavily influence the PROBABILITIES of what life will throw at you. For example, if you choose to live in Seattle or San Francisco, you know that eventually an earthquake will happen. You have no choice about when the earthquake will hit, or how big it would be, but your choice to live in an earthquake prone city greatly increased the probability that you will be in an earthquake. I live in Seattle, so I do not need to worry about killer tornados, but earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes are a different story.
But there are some things, like a meteor striking the planet earth that you can do nothing about. However, that too is a matter of probabilities. Since we are constantly being hit by meteors, it is only a matter of time before we get hit by a really big one. We could take the threat more seriously and start building a planetary defense system to destroy or break-up any large meteors. If we do nothing and get hit by a massive meteor, is it God's fault or human kind's stupidity? Not only do we make choices as individuals, we also make choices as a town of people, as a city, as a country, and as a species.
Believing in FATE is dangerous, because you can start believing that your CHOICES make no difference, so why bother doing anything or trying anything, since fate will determine everything. There are people who believe that we can destroy our planet, exploit it, deplete it, and pollute it, and God will rescue us. If there is a God, why in the world would God choose to rescue the people who chose to destroy its gift?
The foundation of Human Dignity is CHOICE. Our human dignity is based in Choice. Choice determines who we are. We punish people by removing choice from their lives, locking them away in prison where everything is regimented. As we get sicker and sicker, approaching death, it can feel like we are loosing our human dignity because our viable choices start to narrow and people poke and prod your body and doing horrible procedures on you. Dying with Dignity means, "Give me the CHOICE TO DIE on my own terms."
Life will throw unexpected things your way, perhaps derailing your big plans. When that happens, just make new choices and set out on another course. Who is to say that your old path would have been the best path for you? This is just life. Instead of expending more of your life lamenting what COULD HAVE BEEN and WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN, get on with life and live it to the fullest. If it means having to go back to school, or starting over doing something else, try to enjoy that process as much as you can.
IT IS A CHOICE TO ENJOY LIFE.
Was it Fate that I would be born Gay, Autistic and into a very dysfunctional and abusive family system, or Fate that I would start develop arthritis so very young? I say NO, but one way or the other, there I was. It was up to ME to live the very best life I could, no matter what challenges and consequences my life and my choices brought me.
CHOICE - HOW TO LIVE LIFE
WHO YOU ARE at any given moment in time and space, is the summation of all of your choices up to that point. Your choices determine your path through life. They determine how you see and interpret the world you live in. They determine your character, your beliefs, your value system, who and how you love.
In conclusion, your life is all about your choices and life's influences. Most people delegate their choices, and thus their lives, as they are told to by other people and institutions, while others go through life on cruise control. It is like SLEEPWALKING THROUGH LIFE.
The question is, how active will you be in choosing you own destiny. Always remember that when you blaze new trails, the way may be smooth at times and very difficult at times. There may be danger at times, many mistakes made, and hopefully much learned. Instead of SECOND-GUESSING yourself and BEATING YOURSELF-UP for mistakes made, remember instead that we can LEARN and GROW through our mistakes. To fully LIVE and to fully LOVE, we must take RISKS. When we take risks, we make MISTAKES. We cannot LEARN and GROW without making mistakes. People who do NOTHING, make no mistakes. The more risks you take and the more you push yourself, the more mistakes you will make. It is all part of the LEARNING CURVE OF LIFE. We will never be perfect, so why do so many people hold themselves to an expectation of perfection?
Most people, including me at one time, live their lives waiting for the end of a journey. I put off having fun and enjoying life, waiting until exams are over, waiting until I got my degree, waiting until I got a job, waiting until I get a promotion, waiting for retirement, waiting for vacation, waiting for the weekend. The next thing they know, your life may be about over and you have not done the fun things you wanted to do, or gone traveling like you wanted to do, your kids grow up and are gone and you hardly noticed it. People put their lives on hold for a better day.
I worked like a maniac, in a very unhappy life, pushing myself HARD to be the very best, learn more, and save enough to retire early. I did achieve my goals and retired at age 34, but I was burned-out, I had no idea how to enjoy life and I was a mess. I came-out (Gay) to my shipmate friends and was hatefully rejected by two-thirds of them. Then my partner left me. I tried to kill myself. I realized that I could no longer live as I had. I had to find a new and better path, or die, which is exactly what I did.
I learned a very harsh lesson in life, FIND ENJOYMENT IN EVERY SINGLE DAY. I waited to enjoy life, and when I got to a place where I did start to enjoy life in a major way, I had few years before my arthritis was crippling me.
The ideal is for you to get the most out of your life, AS YOU ARE LIVING IT. Find a way to enjoy studying, being in school, meeting people and making friends, and do this all your life. I live a life full of pain and discomfort, so my daily challenge is to extract as much enjoyment as I can, despite the pain and nausea.
No matter how bad it gets, there are bits and moments of happiness and beauty, but one has to CHOOSE TO LOOK FOR THE GLEAM OF DIAMONDS IN THE MUCK, THEN CELEBRATE THEM WHEN YOU FIND THEM. When you choose to see, it is amazing what treasures you can find in the most bleak of circumstances.
Don't spend your days beating yourself up, wringing your hands, worrying, second-guessing yourself, being afraid of failure, being unhappy with your progress. Try instead to do the opposite and take daily inventory of the good stuff happening in your daily life, and think about what you learned from your mistakes, think ahead with hope.
If you do this stuff enough, it will become a habit of life and you will be happier for it. Greet people with a smile, stand tall, shoulders back.
Buddha said that if you have no expectations, you will have no disappointments.
CHOICE AND COURAGE
Writing it all down, reading what I wrote, saying it out loud, is so much easier than actually living it. Life can seem so very out-of-control, where it overwhelms us and seems like there are no choices, no way out. Dealing with a terminal illness can feel like this, or being trapped in the rubble of an earthquake. The truth is that life can indeed overwhelm us and defeat us, and then it is time to let go. The challenge is to discover when to keep fighting and when to let go, then to find the courage to do it.
Choice takes courage, and since we live and exist through choice, living life to its fullest takes great courage. It can be so much easier to stay locked up in an apartment watching TV, sleeping, going to work, eating, watching TV, again and again. This was a choice to live like this, but is it truly living, or only existing? It takes Courage for this person to open the door and go out to a social event. For a compulsive gambler, it might take just as much courage to stay at home with the family, and not gamble.
It takes even more courage to CHOOSE to do the RIGHT THING, to CHOOSE to be a GOOD PERSON, for seldom is this the easiest or most convenient path.
Depression is a terrible curse that robs us of CHOICE, blinds us to it, and distorts and twists the truth about the choices we do see. There can be no greater courage than to CHOOSE TO LIVE, to CHOOSE to FIGHT YOUR WAY BACK TO TRULY LIVING, on faith alone, to give life another chance, and perhaps allowing those who love us, to help us.
Then in the end, can we find the courage to leave this life, to save another, to spare others, or when it is our time? This we will never know until we are there.
I have many heros in my life, almost all of whom are unsung heros, the greatest one being me, yes that's right, me. How seldom we recognize the true hero within, the tremendous courage we have shown in our lives, making very difficult choices. If you cannot find your hero within, then maybe it is time to choose to live life more fully.
I once found myself in a pool of vomit, gasping for air, after trying to die. How easy it was to risk my life for others, and so horribly difficult to save myself. The greatest act of courage in my life was to choose to live. Then I found the courage to choose to reinvent myself and to overcome the challenges of my Autism. A day of crisis will come to all of you at some point in your lives. Please find the courage to do whatever you need to do, to live life to its fullest, while you can.
The gift of life is a single shot, and it races by like a shot. Please endeavor to push yourself forward into experiencing the abundance of what life has to offer. Strive for it, do it now, for there is precious little time.
HUMAN NATURE - CHOICE: GOOD VS EVIL
Basic Genetic Human nature, left on its own, and found in many different varying degrees, is based foremost in:
Greed Sexual drive A desire for power and to feel Superior to others, which includes the desire to Dominate others, Subjugate others, Impose your will over others, and Control over others FEAR Believing that you are fundamentally better than othersThese can be part of Human Nature too, but are also learned:
Cruelty Revenge & Retribution Jealousy Arrogance Cooperating with Others Towards Common Goals Some people are born with a nature that is biased towards being more social and more cooperative, while others are born biased more towards being less social and more towards individuality and independence. Some are born with a more gentle nature and some with a more aggressive nature. Mate-Bonding Kindness Self-Sacrifice GOODNESS requires active CHOICE, which is driven by COMPASSION, or in some, FEAR of a Hell and the REWARD of a Heaven.There is no external devil or Satan1, it is our human nature that is our constant temptation. It is our Power Of Choice that allows us to choose a better path, which ultimately leads to more happiness, fulfillment and serenity in life.
I am a Humanist, centered in compassion, so my goodness comes from active CHOICE. Parents can start instilling the will to choose a path of goodness, OR imparting a value system largely based in Guilt and Shame, the offer of a heaven and the threat of a hell. But other forms of value systems have worked too.
I do not believe in a God, a Heaven or a Hell. Yet I have always chosen to work for the benefit of others and have striven to be a good and compassionate man. I have made my share of mistakes, but hopefully I have learned from those mistakes.
History has shown that people raised with the best of moral examples have turned evil.
History has also shown that people raised in an environment of evil, can choose a path or goodness.
So there is still a lot of individual choice in a person's value system, no matter what your upbringing.
It is easier to Hate than it is to be tolerant, understanding, and loving. It is easier to say, "THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT," that to take responsibility for your own choices. No matter how low on the social ladder you are, human beings have a basic need to feel superior to others, superior to other classes of people. If you cannot raise yourself up, it become necessary to tear others down.
I believe in finding balance in all things. I therefore indulge my natural human nature at times, but not in ways that would ever harm others.
It is healthier not to see your human nature as an adversary, or as evil. It is part of who we are. But what we can do is choose not to give into those aspects of ourselves that would harm ourselves or others. For example, sexual drive is part of our human nature. Many Christians want you to suppress this aspect completely, no masturbation, no sex, and when you are sexual, it must only be for procreation, with no joy. But this is very unnatural, and in attempting to do this, it typically causes much worse problems and imbalances.
CONCLUSION: Our internal dialog, debate ,and even temptation is a good and natural thing. Temptation and debating that temptation is no bad, wrong, or a sin. It is the final choice that matters. If you were to feel any guilt or shame for temptation or for your darker human nature, I would urge you not to do so. We are good people by being tempted and then choosing to go a better way. All humans contain the same darker elements and better elements—it is what we choose to do with them determines the content of your character and what kind of person you are.
The foundation of Human Dignity is CHOICE.
The key to goodness is COMPASSION.
The salvation of humanity is LOVE.
CHOICE - YOUR PATH THROUGH LIFE
Who are you? You are the sum of all of your choices in life. How we see the world is a choice. How we interpret things is a choice. From the moment we open our eyes, we start making choices. We interpret everything we see, and interpretation is choice. My brothers are Identical twins, but are very different people. Maybe one looks at the sky and sees a blue sky with clouds, and maybe the other one sees clouds with a blue sky. Each has his own unique personality, individuality and vision of the world, all based on billion upon billions of their own choices, despite being genetic duplicates.
The trouble is that most people sleepwalk through life, letting others and life make all of their choices. Many people do not feel that they have much of any choice in life, blaming it on all on fate, yet that is a choice too. We have much more Choice than most people ever come close to imagining. Just because YOU don't feel that you have much choice, does not mean it is not there. You can CHOOSE to see CHOICES. Depression is an illness that narrows choice more and more, where you are unable to see options and choices.
Some young people map out their future life, while some, like me, had no clue what to do with my life or what my future would be. No matter how well or detailed you plan your life, I can guarantee you that you will end up in a different place than you expected.
Let us say you are walking along the pathway of your life, when suddenly and unexpectedly a metaphorical tree falls across your path. Choosing this particular path through life may have increased the probabilities of this happening, but you certainly had NO CONTROL over that tree falling across your path. BUT, now that it has fallen across your path, you now have CHOICES. This is like a fork in the road. You can choose to just GIVE-UP, sit down and wait to die or wait to be rescued. OR, you could choose to forge ahead, either through and over the tree, or around to the right, or around to the left. Each of these choices may be fraught with its own dangers. So choose. If there are two of you, do you Choose to follow or lead?
What if you were injured by the falling tree, do you wait for rescue or try to drag yourself for miles to find help? What if the only way out is to cut off your own hand? What if you have been trapped for days and you are in horrible agony, do you use your knife to kill yourself? Sometimes all of the choices may seem terrible and may not feel like choices at all, but they are choices, and it can empowering to remember that despite how bad the situations is, there is still choice.
In the case of the Nantucket whaling ship Essex sunk by a large sperm whale in 1819, the crew of 21 were stranded in whale boats 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) west of the western coast of South America. They could have followed the trade winds to some relatively nearby islands, but there were rumors that they were inhabited by cannibals, so they went the other way. They found Henderson Island, which had a natural spring, but in a few days they realized there was not enough food to sustain them there. Two of them decided to stay behind and the rest got in the boats again.
When they ran out of food, they started eating their dead. Nearing the end of their journey, only one boat was left and only four were still alive. They drew lots to decide who would die for the benefit of the other three. A young man named Owen Coffin, Captain Pollard's young cousin, whom he had sworn to protect, drew the black spot. Captain Pollard offered to take his place, but Owen refused. Then they drew lots to determine who would kill Owen, and it was Ramsdell, his best friend who would do it. Then another man, Ray, died. 95 days after the Essex sank, a ship found them. The two survivors were delirious and gnawing at Owen's and Ray's bone marrow. There were many very difficult choices they all had to make.
If I cannot do anything about my impending death, I can still do a lot with the time I have left. If I agonize over what WILL happen to me later, I will not be able to actually LIVE the time I have left. I CHOOSE to set aside that which awaits me, and instead maximize the time I have left. Since I experience a lot of physical pain in my every waking moment of my life, there are limitations to what I can do. But there is still a lot I CAN DO, as long as I am willing to look for possibilities.
1 Repeated in the bible is the notion that origin of SIN is from within us. The desire to sin IS NOT put into you from an outside source; it originates inside you, it is your own evil desire. Temptation does not come from a Satan outside of us, it come from the Satan inside of us, our own Human Nature.
Jesus was no less realistic in his view of the evil in man when he said: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22).
In James 4:1, he says, “Where do wars and fightings come from, come they not hence, even of your lusts?" James 1: 14, he says, "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own evil desire and enticed." The DEVIL is your own evil desires, your own base Human Nature. This is the root of ORIGINAL SIN, the sin of being human, which means having the ability to CHOOSE to do wrong.
©Matthew Barry 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014
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Where we find ourselves on the Tree Of Life is determined by CHOICE and by LIFE itself. We can stay where we are, or we can climb the Tree of Life through Taking Risk, Learning and Growing, thereby gaining Wisdom and finding our bit of enlightenment. WE ARE OUR CHOICES.
Writing some of this reduced me to tears, especially the CHOICE AND COURAGE section. I was thinking of my life and the lives of so many of the people I have worked with over the years as a Peer Counselor, and our common bond of seeking a better life, and to find peace from our inner struggles. I have witnessed tremendous personal courage from these people, and it has been an honor working with them all. What great courage to choose to work hard to change your life for the better, taking on the most difficult frontier possible, our minds. I dedicate this to all of you out there who share our journey.
Please, live life to the fullest, for there is precious little time.
To see a larger size version of the Tree Image above, you can find it here: [link] (People In a Tree).
Writing some of this reduced me to tears, especially the CHOICE AND COURAGE section. I was thinking of my life and the lives of so many of the people I have worked with over the years as a Peer Counselor, and our common bond of seeking a better life, and to find peace from our inner struggles. I have witnessed tremendous personal courage from these people, and it has been an honor working with them all. What great courage to choose to work hard to change your life for the better, taking on the most difficult frontier possible, our minds. I dedicate this to all of you out there who share our journey.
Please, live life to the fullest, for there is precious little time.
To see a larger size version of the Tree Image above, you can find it here: [link] (People In a Tree).
© 2010 - 2024 inspiredcreativity
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Human Nature is not what u have given.. that is actually learned behavior.
After choice is choiceless awareness.. which is the clarity of living life. This quality is rare for we don't understand ourselves.
After choice is choiceless awareness.. which is the clarity of living life. This quality is rare for we don't understand ourselves.