The Two Faces of Doubt

Doubt is a funny thing. We often times doubt ourselves. Doubt we are capable of what we say we are. Doubt we know what we think we know. Doubt we can accomplish the goals we have set for ourselves. Doubt we can live up to other peoples expectations.




This kind of doubt can be a huge issue if we don't get it under control. I'm not saying that we should always hold our heads up and if we try real hard we'll persevere. If any of you have met me, you know I'm not that guy. I'm simply saying that when it comes to our own abilities and knowledge, our own drive, our own lives; no ones knows us better than we know ourselves. If you have doubts about yourself, examine those doubts, and find out why you have them. Most of the time you'll realize that those doubts are misguided. You are capable of doing what you say you would. You do know what you think you know. You can accomplish your goals for yourself. You don't need to live up to other peoples expectations, you only need to live up to your own.




This is not the funny thing about doubt. The funny thing about doubt is that we rarely doubt other people. We may not always believe 100% of what we hear, but when it comes to doubting others, to challenging what we are being told or shown, we more times than not take the "experts" word on things. But these are the times we need to doubt most.




Now again, don't take literally every word I say here. We don't have to assume everybody and everything is wrong or lying to us or some sort of snake in the grass who's trying to get us. All I'm saying is that when we are presented with information, whether it be facts, answers to personal questions, information regarding what a person will and will not accomplish, we need to take a look at that information and see what we know about it. Research it further, find out how that fits in to what we already know, find out how that fits into our personal philosophy, and make our own decisions based on the information given to us. If we do this we will find that when it comes to other people, the situation is rarely black and white. Sometimes they are right. Sometimes they are wrong. Sometimes they are misguided. Sometimes they understand what we're going through better than we do. One thing we can usually count on though is that most of the time, they'll surprise us.




Like I said, doubt is a funny thing. It can be a huge liability, or a great asset. We just have to teach ourselves the ability to identify the good doubt from the bad doubt and be able to react to it when we see it.

"Our Own Heart is Our Temple"

Quite some time back, I got ordained through an online ordination service. I didn't do it out of piety or out of a desire to start a church, I had done it because I was at home with the kids and got bored. Lately thought, I've been thinking about that. About what it means to minister. What it means to be a reverend. And what it amounts to, for me, is little more than what I do here in this blog. For me, it comes down to noticing something about the world at large, sharing my thoughts on the matter with those who are willing to listen, and holding an open discussion on what exactly the implications of those thoughts are.


I don't generally have the right answers. Nor do I ever feel that my answers are the only answers. But what I do feel is that I am occasionally on to something that might in some way effect the human experience in some small way, and that this is my outlet for sharing these thoughts. And as much talking as I do about what I feel being human is all about, I try to do at least that much listening. The world is my congregation, and my minister, all at the same time. I am all the time reaching out into what the world has put before me and taking away what I can use to make me a better person, and then I come back here and find a way to articulate (however sloppily) those thoughts to you, not to tell you to change your life, not to tell you you're doing it wrong, but to tell you how I perceive the world, and how I have grown as a person.


The Dalai Lama once said "There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; my philosophy is kindness."


We don't need to go and learn everything about any given religion and all the rituals and rites that go with that. We need to learn to be better people. We need to learn to constantly be growing and developing as human beings, and looking to positively impact the world we live in. I'm not saying that I am the one to lead us down that path. I'm simply saying that we can take our learning from anything and everything around us, not just from a minister or a sage or a rabbi or a witch doctor, but from experiences, our own and the experiences of others, and use that to mold ourselves into what we perceive "goodness" to be. Inspiration is all around us, we just have to be receptive to it.

Tell it to the Frogs

There is an old Tibetan story about a frog that goes something like this.

Once, there was a frog who lived his whole life in a dank well. One day a frog from the sea visited him.
"Where do you come front?" asked the Well Frog.
"From the ocean," replied the Sea Frog.
"How big is the ocean?"
"It's gigantic"
"You mean about a quarter the size of my well?"
"Bigger."
"Bigger? So, half as big?"
"No, even bigger"
"Is it...as big as my well?"
"There is no comparison."
"Impossible!" said the Well Frog.
After this, the two frogs set out to see the ocean together. When the Well Frog saw the ocean, it was such a shock that his head just exploded into pieces.

How often do we find ourselves in the position of the Well Frog? We live our whole lives in our own little world. Blinded by the walls we have surrounded ourselves with, ignorant to the mysteries the world has to offer.
We believe that regardless of what others say, we are right. We have the best that life has to offer, and no one can tell us any different.
When we are confronted with what the others around us have, and those things exceed our own, we handle it in a way that is less than flattering, and often times outright bad for us. Why can't we just be happy for our fellow man and their great fortune?
We find that we have spent so much time focusing on our lives and our world, that we are completely unaware of the world that surrounds us is so full of wonder and happiness that when we are finally confronted with it, it's too late for us to be able to enjoy it.

Sometimes we need to reach out, see how the other half lives, and understand what a better place our world could be if we just found a way to balance our world, with the worlds of those around us. What if we spent a little time reaching out to those around us, and seeing what the world is like through there eyes?

The Clinging Fire

"Cling to the power of higher truth" I Ching, Chapter 30


We all have times in our lives when it's easier to let things fall to the back burner than to deal with them. Than to give them the time and attention they deserve. This blog for instance. It has been easier for me to not deal with it than to continue writing. And though I have not continued writing, it doesn't mean that I haven't continued musing.


When we allow things like this to fall by the wayside, we are letting them die. We are taking something we enjoy, something that makes us happy, and whole, and we are refusing to fuel this thing. Refusing to let it continue to burn. But this should not be the case. We should be allowing ourselves to fuel those fires that give us heart in times of need. That give us strength in times of weakness. That give us joy in times of sorrow.


So like fire, clinging to the wood that fuels it's flames, let us cling to those things that fuel our souls. Whatever those things may be, cling to them, and never let them go out. Make life what it can be, and what it should be.

"Don't Let Me Die Still Wondering...."

"...What it was, I left behind...."

What kind of footprint am I leaving on this earth? How am I making and impact on this world, and more importantly, is that impact positive or negative? We are all going to leave our legacy on this earth. I think it's important to know what that legacy is.

I haven't been on here for a while, because I haven't been inspired in a while. I have been looking for inspiration in all the wrong places, namely, anywhere. Inspiration is something that looks for us. Our only job is to be ready for it. I was out for a run today, and my walkman played this song, which got me thinking about what impact I'm going to have and how important it is for me to know what that is. If I don't know that, how can I possibly move on? For a lot of us, a lot of our fear of death stems from not knowing what comes next, my fear of death stems from not knowing what I did before.

I guess what I'm saying is, instead of always focusing on what we have to look forward to, we need to balance that time with looking back on what we're leaving behind us, and decide whether or not we're proud of that. That is our legacy. We can't guarantee any tomorrows in our story, but it's full of yesterdays.

Number 7

A woman nearly died today. She was in the shampoo aisle of her local grocery store when she had a caridac episode. She slumped up against her shopping cart, stumbled to the back of the aisle where she came to a stop when he cart wedged under the counter. For ten minutes, she was standing there, in and out of consciousness, supported only by her arm being caught in her cart. During this ten minutes span, six people walked past this woman. Six people stepped within five feet of a woman who was dying. Six people did nothing to help her. Six people did not even acknowledge her existence. Luckily, there were seven people who walked by.

What has happened to us? What does this say about us as a society? Is this the best we can do?

How is it that six people can walk past a person and not respond to their distress? Are we really that broken as a society? Have we all become so self centered that we didn't notice a dying woman? Or did we notice and just not care?

Obviously I'm disgusted by this turn of events. I had such high hopes for humanity. Unfortunately most of humanity isn't living up to those expectations. We have to come together or we are going to fall apart.

Stop for a moment, and be a human.

Self Centered Preservation

It seems to me that I circle back to a lot of topics from time to time in one way or another, and this is one that I circle back to quite regularly. We seem to be heading down a road of "survival of the fittest" but in a very unique way. Instead of the people who are smart, charismatic, or even just good being rewarded for what they do, the people who are willing to push as many other people out of their way as possible are the ones who reap the rewards. Why is it this way? Why do we allow things to become this way? Most importantly, why do we think this type of behavior is acceptable?

If we were placed into a survival situation, let's say we're involved in a shipwreck and end up stranded on an island somewhere, what are the odds that everyone would team up to improve the situation? Would this group of survivors band together, combine skill sets and resources, and find a way to improve the lives of everyone who is in this terrible situation? Would we hold back some of our resources and some of our skills, in case things get bad? Would we hold out completely and make a run for it on our own? Would we bully our way into getting the best of the supplies for ourselves and make sure we survived, others be damned?

Unfortunately, while we all like to say that we would be in the first group, struggling together to carve out the best of a bad situation, more likely than not, we'd be faced with a tough decision and see more and more people in the last few categories I mentioned above.

My question is, why? Why, do we continue to push toward self centeredness and self preservation, regardless of the lives affected by our actions? If we all spent as much energy on improving the lives of everyone around us as we did on improving the lives of ourselves, maybe we wouldn't have to improve our own lives so much because they'd already be great.

Just a thought....