Not Etched in Stone

Today's Reminder is:

"Just because your 'Truth' works for you, does not mean it is etched in stone for all Eternity."

Truth does not need a stone to be understood as self-evident. Truth is not unyielding nor unmerciful. Truth is the Soul of Compassion. When we embody Truth, it works for us. Yet stones are worn away into dust taking with them the ephemera of past truths etched upon them.

Times change. Things evolve. Knowledge is gained. Understanding is enhanced. Wisdom comes. A student arrives a teacher departs. These things must change as it is their nature. So must you and your 'Truth' change and evolve or be worn away to dust.

Surprised?

Today's Reminder is: 

"It is no surprise to you when you cut yourself and you feel pain. Why then are you surprised by the circumstances and apparitions in your life? 

Both are the impersonal application of the same natural organizing principles and operational rules which manifested these results in your life. 

The only difference between them is your refusal to accept they come from the same source."

Life is a complex flow of energy interactions governed by the conservation of energy laws. All states even conscious states are subject to the laws. Social interaction and societies also are subject to the conservation laws. Some of the interactions can and will be physical. Some of interactions are emotional. Some of these are intellectual. 

These interactions lead to experiences and results. Some of the results lead to higher entropy states of order while others lead to lower entropy states of disorder. Some of these states are pleasant while others unpleasant. Yet they all come from the same general rules of the conservation of energy. 

We do not live our lives outside the conservation laws and we cannot deny their functionality. The sooner one realizes this the sooner they can optimize their efforts toward achieving intended results.

History

Today's Reminder is: 

"Our vision of history and historical 'truth' is distorted and dimmed by our desire to place our civilization at the apex of social and political evolution. The reality is that history is a myth we tell ourselves to support an unjustified belief in our own superiority."

History is made by individuals making choices. 

Social groups are made by inventing a shared history based on 'historic' individuals. Look at the cultural icons of a culture and you will find an individual or group of individuals that the culture as appropriated as their "totem".The common cultural tag line is "We are great because we are [fill in the individual's name] followers." The group takes the deeds of those individuals who made history and claim those deeds make the group superior. 

You are not your culture nor your ethnicity. Your place in the world is not dependent on your ethnicity or your culture's place or status in the scheme of things nor on the actions of an iconic figure of some other time in history. Many cultures and ethnic groups emphasize the importance or place of their group with in the social milieu. They attempt to convince each member of their importance and status is derived from the group rather than the individual. 

This distortion is a method of "social" survival for the cultural or ethnic group. The notion of social and personal "superiority" based on culture, ethnicity, philosophy, or religious theology is false. Those groups that insist on "social" or "moral" superiority simply because of membership need either to change that false belief or face eventual extinction.

The notion that an individuals 'place' or 'status' or 'specialness'  in the world is conveyed simply by being a member of an ethnicity or a culture or religion or philosophic belief is not true. Instead it is a memetic function of the culture used to transmit and maintain a group's cultural identity and social cohesion. 

To put it simply, "you" are not "black" or 'white" or "yellow" or any other shade. You are not English, Anglo-Saxon, Irish, Latin, Germanic, Gallic, Hispanic, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Bharati, Nihonic, Buddhist, Taoist, Bonist, Arabic, Turkic, Mongolian, Han, Mandarin, Korean, Zulu, Tutu, or any of the other thousands of cultural, ethnic, or religious groups. 

You are you. 

Certainly, you are a product of a culture and its associated memes. 

Still, You are you. 

Unique. Different. Special. 

This is because You are You. 

The proper way to look at this is: You are not your Culture or Ethnicity. Your Ethnicity or Culture is You. Now ask yourself what do you want your culture to represent? Positive ideas? or Negative? Uplifting or repressive? Freedom giving or freedom taking?

At some point some cultural and some ethnic beliefs need to be disallowed or forgotten. While others just need to be 'enlightened'. Social groups need to become self selective based on the desire to improve everyone's place in the world and not just an exclusive group. You have the power to make these changes.

You are the future of your culture. How will you shape it?

The Unspoken Law of Karma

Today's Reminder is: 

"The Unspoken Law of Karma is: 'If you follow a certain course of action almost anything is likely to be realized but some realizations are more likely that others.'  So what is actually going to happen if you do thus and so?"

 Many people do not understand that cause and effect are not necessarily directly chained together. You know -- The punishment must follow crime or reward must follow a good deed. 

If you look around with open eyes you'll notice it rains on the Righteous and the Unworthy. The sun shines on the Bad and the Good. Flowers and fields grow for the Powerful and the Weak. Why would that be so?

Like many laws of nature, reward and punishment fall along a statistical line.  You are less likely to be punished for a good deed than a bad deed. You are more likely to be punished if you do something that deserves punishment. But will you? Look at who you are... look at where you are. Look at what you have done and what you are doing.  

For example: Attempting to free prisoners of an oppressive government by your self is not likely to get you a reward from the oppressive government... and reporting "patriots" to an opressive government might get you a cash reward [and you name on a list somewhere].

Think! How does this plot line usually end? Don't like the potential results? You always have the option to turn around. There is always an opportunity to do thing in a positive way. There are ways to accomplish your goal.

I once knew a man who claimed to be a rodeo clown. His day job was to fire people. He was good at his job. He lied to them. He deceived them. He played his victims and eventually they succumb to his mission. He did his job five days a week and took his pay with a smile. There was no conscience shown in his behavior. No sense of regret. It almost seemed certain he was rewarded for his behavior. Was he? Does it really matter?

In the long term this self proclaimed "clown" will pay for his behavior and his choices... but the important thing is to recognize that the "karmic fate" of another person has nothing to do with you. The Universe can deal with them without your assistance. 

It's not your role [or place] to judge them. If you become a self-proclaimed "avenging angel you fall to the same level as the person that has harmed you and you will pay a price for playing the same evil game as they.

So what is likely to happen? Can you be rewarded for bad behavior? Possibly... in the short term... but don't count on it.