#globalproblems

“Global problems were and are created by statists and people in power, who were not stopped by a good and limited system of government, not the virtuous individual."

Many problems in this life derive from worry about the future and regret from the past. But truth and reality is here now.

The only way for us to recognize true life, true reality, and our true identity, is to recognize and directly engage with the present moment. When the mind wanders into the unknown territory of the future, we have a tendency to begin to desire control over our future, and this creates a problem. Once we believe we can control the future, we limit our life’s possibilities and rob ourselves of the joy that comes with not knowing the surprises that life will bring.

But what is far more robbing to our life, in living mentally somewhere other than the present, is that we live mentally in a place that is not reality, which is the definition of insanity. We do this because we have bought a lie that if we do not have a specific plan of what we will do and what we will accomplish that we will wind-up homeless, hungry, or worst of all – a failure at life.

As Jesus taught:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

I believe that Jesus, in the previous two paragraphs, teaches a truth is quite uncommon and foreign to western society. It is extremely rare that I have heard a preacher speak on this teaching with any true conviction (or from a place of personal practice). But I do often hear sermons in church about personal finance planning. In sermons which speak to the latter (personal finance planning), they even use verses to claim their personal finance advice is biblical and “God’s wisdom on managing your money.” Their first point is generally the tithe, ensuring that your 10% gets to pockets of the good clergymen. But I have never heard the above quoted verses referenced in a sermon about managing money, even though it seems to me that is exactly what Jesus was teaching about.

The Dalai Lama is quoted as saying, when asked what surpises him the most:

“Man; because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.”

Now, I believe that it is good to have goals; however, I use the word “goals” in the sense of that which is in your heart of what is truly your passion to do. A goal is not something to say “I will be this and do this at this exact date and time,” but a goal is something which you know to be an aspect of your heart. When we connect with what is in our heart, and see our true goals, they naturally flow out of us as live in consciousness of who we are. For example, let us say that a goal is love God with all of our heart, soul, and strength. If we were to set this as a goal, without realizing that it is who we are, we will always fail to reach that goal. We cannot love from a place of duty or obligation, as that is not true love. In order for love to be genuine and true, it must be given from a place of total free-will.

What are you doing right now, in this moment (obviously you’re reading this text)? Remember, as you go about your days to fully engage directly with what you are doing in each moment. In this way, you will see a difference in the quality and enjoyment you gain from what you are doing.