The Five Principles, Part II: Suck it

I will let go of anger.

What that means to me, is I will not force. Which means I will not think I know better, I will not try to impose my will. By “my will” I mean the will that comes from my perspective as discussed in the first two posts, I will not to impose my perspective which is limited by agendas, conditioning, expectations, pain. By fear. I will not let myself try to impose my fear and my agenda over the flowing of things.

How will I know when I’m doing that?

Well, simply, what happens is what’s right. What I actually do and think and feel, that’s the will of the universe. In that way, it doesn’t matter whether I force or not, whether I’m angry or not. If I give in to anger, that’s what I’m supposed to do. If I don’t, that’s what I’m supposed to do.  Results, actions, thoughts, those are not the point. That’s all stuff that happens, orchestrated by the virtually infinite psychological, emotional, practical variables of the universe. The point here to switch the focus from what I’m supposed to do, from what’s “right”, and focus on what is. Focus on being aware of it. Feeling my will to force, to impose. Feeling my fear.

The strife to do the right thing, that’s also anger, as intended here. I don’t mean fuck it, give up, do whatever. I mean that even when oriented toward “the right thing, it’s still a forcing. A trying to guess the will of the world and conform to it. Which is totally noble, but is inaccurate: what makes you think it’s not already happening? It’s the Universe, Bro, it’s the Light, it’s God: what’s happening is its will. It’s not good or bad or pleasant of wrong or noble, it IS. It’s what’s present. The strife for control in born out of our desperation to protect ourselves, masked as a will to find our place in the world, in the Infinite. 

But we’re already in the world, we’re already in the infinite. Trying to identify our place by promoting our perspective actually only ends up resulting in a touching but ineffective, scared attempt to be like “ok, I’ll be in the Infinite, but on my terms”. We’re already in, the Infinite’s terms ARE our terms, the terms that can truly make us happy, happy meaning fulfilled, enlightened, free.

I will let go of anxiety. 
Same principle, based on worry instead of intentioning.

I worry I’m not doing enough, I’m not being enough. How can I be more in touch? Am I doing the right thing? Am I supposed to do this this way?

By all means, ask yourself those questions, I know I do. But again, at a certain point remember to give it up: shift the focus. You ARE enough. I am doing enough, because I’m doing the only thing I can right now, the only thing that IS. I’m doubting, I’m being anxious, just as before I was intentioning, promoting my conditioned agenda, forcing. So I’ll focus on feeling that, on feeling that struggle and fear, on feeling whatever comes and IS there, not on doing it so I DON’T feel, so I "fix" the unpleasant feeling of not being enough, or in control. I will give it all up, just for today, I will give up all protection from what is.
Because whatever our scared, identity-shaped, finite perspective whispers us, no harm can come from the Infinite. No real harm. Only freedom and peace. And understanding.
And I know this, because so it has been in the past.
And because the alternative of keeping on doing things the same, conditioned way (whether I believe it's conditioned or not) isn't bringing me real peace, only more or less convincing illusions of safety and control. And that's not enough anymore.

So I will be grateful and count my many blessings. 
I will be grateful because WHAT IS is what I need, and the Universe is merciful enough to shove it down my throat even when I struggle and scurry up to my Ego begging it to protect me. I will count my blessings not only as all the things that please me , but as all the things that ARE. Because, being so, the please my soul and my path, whether I see it or not, whether I (and by “I” I mean Ego) want it or not. You cant always get what you want, but sometimes you just might find you get what you need.

Well, actually, we always get what we need.

The sooner we shift the focus to awareness instead of intention and fear, the sooner we internalize it and the sooner we can move on to the next thing we need.

Especially since, the more we wait, the more the Universe will need to push it on us harder, the more we’ll build resistance to it (Ego Walls! Worst superpower ever. I mean, totally useful, but at a certain point…we need to give it up), the harder the Universe will need to push it, the more it will happen…every heard of “shit why does this always happen to me?”. Well. It can get pretty un-pretty. And sometimes it needs to. Sometimes we learn, so it doesn’t need to. The more we learn, the more soul happiness , pleasure, fulfillment and joy will be parallel, even in our perception. 
Because our perspective will catch up more and more with the Infinite perspective. With the Will.

Just for today I will do my due work.

What’s my work?

It’s not what I think I should do, or what I want to do, or what’s right I do.

It’s just being aware of what happens.

It could be re-phrased as “just for today, I will suck  it”.

Suck it all up, Bro. Don’t run away.

If you run away, cool, that was your work for today.

But the more we apply the first principles, the more we are able to BE as things ARE. That’s our work.

It gets easier. It’s a virtuous circle. Or rather, spiral. It spirals in place faster and faster.

Just for today I will harm no living thing.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. 
Don’t be a dick. Everything that bothers us about others is a projection or a mirror. Engage it, but use it to look at yourself, not to unload on others. They’re just mirrors. You don’t want to look t yourself, cool, don’t. No need to be all dramatic and smash the mirror. It’s just a fucking mirror.

This also makes a point for vegetarianism.

We’re not in the wilderness, we have options. Is it really worth intentionally ending a sentient life to get a burger?

Maybe. Up to you. Let’s just not pretend we’re not harming living creatures and taking in their experience of death and violence. It’s not wrong or right, but it does have a certain weight that we tend to ignore or not even think of. We’re very health-concerned and, well, what sounds healthy to me is awareness of what we do, and how, and why.
 Do with that what you please, that’s totally fine. I’m (again)on a Buffy kick, so I will re-refer you to: not being judgy, just being observy.

*Quick update, dated November 25th, 2014: During practice today something else came up that I found interesting.
I will give up anger: the Light IS there, it exists. The Higher exists. No need to try and trump it with my agendas/intentions.
I will give up anxiety: the Light cares about me, not because I'm special but because I AM. No need to worry about my agendas/intentions.
I will be grateful and count my many blessings: everything that happened, however harsh in my perspective, came from Light. From unconditional love aimed at bringing me closer to my Self aka the Infinite Light. It's hard to accept it, let alone be grateful for it, especially when it's stuff that hurts. But yeah, that's kinda what it is. Or rather what is IS. CAPS!
I will do my due work: so i will not hide from it. I will not run away. I will be here and feel it. Make space for it and feel it. And learn.
I will not harm any living thing: and I will not take it out on others. Not only I will not run away from it, but I will not project it. I will see it for what it is, no matter the source or circumstance, no matter how I'm used to coping with such things. I will not feel light by throwing at others my heavy baggage and asking them to (or making them) carry it. I will look at what's inside, take what's mine, try it on and see what it's like by looking in the mirror; what's not mine or I don't need to carry, I'll leave.

So, yeah, perspective and insight change, they maintain an inner core of Light but show different things at different times, depending on what we need to see. Which I'd say is pretty nifty.