The Dancer and the Beast Perspective

Perspective – you beast!
How dare you foil a simple mind
and confuse old thinking
with an expanse of Life
without time.

Confounding relationships is the ability of two or more people to observe/experience the same moment yet perceive it quite differently. Two people, perhaps on a date, are watching the same movie. For one, it’s exciting and is over all too soon. For the other, the tortured ordeal seemed to never end. Same experience, same “time”, much different interpretations.

Life is personal and strengthens the concept that we (each of us individually) create our life experience. We aren’t at the mercy of a capricious universe (Dreaded headlines: “SUV kills three,” “Gunfire erupts at party.”) Yet those old beliefs (re-thinking the same thought until it establishes itself) still trip up the most ardent truth seeker.

I ran across an intriguing illustration of this in an Australian news story about right brain, left brain functions. The link was noted in Neoneocon’s blog, which is always a source of considered thought.

The spinning lady, or dancer, is moving clockwise. Or counterclock-wise. Or both. Now, to really get sporting, notice when two or more people are observing her. Someone will see her twirling contrary to the others at the same instant. That is perspective.

No matter how hard some folks work, it isn’t possible to force everyone to think the same, thus perceive the world the same. Life is an individual thing. And, as the dancing silhouette demonstrates, it’s an inside job.*

* It’s not the SUV running amok, it’s the driver. It’s not mysterious gunfire appearing, it’s people showing up with guns and pulling the triggers. Use the links to see the dancer do her thing.

The Color Purple

Why do People Complain?

The delightful success of the idea to stop complaining and begin appreciating is awesome. The “Purple Bracelets” that symbolize the movement are showing up everywhere. Rev. Will Bowen, who initiated the exercise at the Christ Church Unity in Kansas City, Missouri, has summarized some of the main reasons people complain:

To Get Attention: The primary need people have is to connect with others. A person may complain to a stranger about the weather or a local sports team as a means of starting a conversation.

To Avoiding taking action: People will complain to avoid trying to improve society and themselves. When someone says, "Everyone in my family is overweight" it excuses them from adopting a healthy lifestyle.

People also complain to avoid social embarrassment. A person who wants to ask someone to a dance may complain that the other person is "stuck on themselves" as a way of excusing themselves from asking and possibly being rejected.

To Pre-excuse poor performance: A person about to sing before a group may complain that they have a scratchy throat prior to performing to lower expectations should they not sing well And someone about to take an important test may complain that they didn't get enough sleep to reduce embarrassment should they not earn a good grade.

To Brag: A complaint may be a cry of superiority. It implies that the complainer feels they don't have whatever fault they are complaining about. People will also complain about poor quality as a means of letting others know that they have high or refined standards. A person may complain about the food or service at a restaurant as a way of letting all who hear know that their disapproval of what's being presented proves they are arbiters of quality.

To Exercise Control: In "The Seat of the Soul," best-selling author Gary Zukav wrote, "complaining is a form of manipulation." People often complain as a means of inciting others to abandon an alliance and switch to their point of view. Complaining is used to build support and power by focusing on what is wrong with another's position. Complaining is used to lobby for a majority position of control.

Many people who are wearing the purple bracelets are also reading Eckhart Tolle’s latest book, A New Earth – Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, or taking the on-line course hosted by Oprah. Tolle also speaks about complaining:

“Complaining is not to be confused with informing someone of a mistake or deficiency so that it can be put right. And to refrain from complaining doesn’t necessarily mean putting up with bad quality or behavior. There is no ego in telling the waiter that your soup is cold and needs to be heated up – if you stick to the facts, which are always neutral. How dare you serve me cold soup… that’s complaining. There is a me here that loves to feel personally offended by cold soup and is going to make the most of it, a me that enjoys making someone wrong.”

Another way of considering it – are you a complainer or an appreciator? Is your general viewpoint one of appreciation or judgment? Which viewpoint is more comfortable?

That purple bracelet – an idea whose time has come!

A Funny Thing Happened

And God said, “Let there be beer.”

Honest.

Colleague and author Dan Baldwin was in town for a book signing at the local Barnes & Noble. We managed to gather some time to feast on crayfish and gumbo (Dan’s an Arizona type and such Louisiana delicacies are not desert fare) and proceeded to commit minor philosophy. The understanding and application of the Law of Attraction is one of our favorite studies. The incredible fairness of the law is awesome. Give attention to lack and get “more” lack. Appreciate health and enjoy more health. The attention is the asking and the universe always answers “yes!”

And sometimes it answers promptly.

“On my way back from a hike in the desert,” described Dan of a typical day hike, “I imagine that cold beer waiting for me in town.”

“Here’s your beers,” said the waiter, appearing suddenly and placing two ice cold draft Killians on the table.

“We didn’t order those,” said Dan.

“But you did,” said waiter.

“No, I think we asked for the check earlier,” said I.

“I heard you order two beers,” declared the determined waiter.

We happily received the unannounced brews and realized how they arrived the instant Dan spoke of asking for them in the desert.

Coincidence? No such thing. You gotta love the law.

Now at Walmart...

This is an exciting time. Whether the result of a certain percentage of people achieving a “higher” state of consciousness or simply good ideas reaching huge numbers of people because of technology, a lot of folks are showing an interest in their spiritual identity (or, as some put it, their conscious self.) I have to consider the Walmart Superstore as a barometer for every day life in America, therefore it’s intriguing to find Eckhart Tolle’s book “A New Earth” on their bookshelves. Oprah’s adoption of the book for her world-wide course has garnered, as I understand, several million “students.” This doesn’t make Tolle a new guru – Truth is Truth and can be presented, spoken, instructed, and understood in countless ways – but it shows to this writer the easy acceptance of concepts unthinkable in the recent past.

Carolyn Myss, for one, has a long teaching record helping people move away from “woundology” as their life focus. The cult of the victim is disintegrating. The teachings of a group of teachers called Abraham, translated via Esther Hicks, is focused relentlessly on the universal Law of Attraction as the determining factor in life experience. Essentially, the more time/effort/energy/attention given something, the more it appears and is experienced. Is a “victim” ever happy? How can a “victim” be happy? Yet a great number of people embraced “victimhood” as their means for a better life. Self-defeating comes to mind.

The wrenching awakening is that the universe, and life, is an internal operation. The ancient teaching “as within, so without” is gaining a fresh comprehension. It can, however, create a sort of identity crisis for someone who’s mortgaged their personality to some external condition, situation, or relationship. They can only be healed/happy or prosperous when some external “cause” acts on their behalf. A lot of people have invested tremendous energies attempting to mold the world and others to suit them. They are uniformly unhappy – what they are attempting is not possible.

Take the fashionable “Green” movement. The greatest service to Earth, nature, etc., is to appreciate it. Is it possible to feel “bad” while appreciating something? In his book “The Power of Now” Tolle plucks that chord: “As within, so without: If humans clean inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.” It’s an inside, personal, job. We are Human Beings, not Human Doings.

The bottom line is a shift from passionate materialism – a world view that every thing is separate and unconnected – towards an understanding of a force that creates “every thing” through consciousness. Learning how to live this consciousness is the thrust. More people are becoming happier - which sharpens the difference with those who are working harder to live a victim.