We are a nation of people driven not by mercy, not by Love…but by fear of our own survival. We are deeply UNKIND to each other through our basic human insecurity that has become ruthless and willful. Due to our disinterest in maturing into Love in this lifetime, we defer to using government and politics to alleviate our pain and suffering, which only exacerbates the underlying problem.

Every law on the books is about some sort of FEAR we seek to avoid. But what we fail to realize is that living in this type of futility simply continues the cycle of creating more FEARS that must be “legislated.” On and on this goes to the point where we have lost everything that is meaningful because we are so afraid of not being able to SURVIVE.

Why do we choose FEAR over LOVE?

The fear of survival is based in DNA and keeps people living in a pattern of ruthlessness that destroys any ability they have to allow Love to enter into their lives. So they succumb to their emotional process of thought through which they make decisions based in problem-solving the fears of the ego rather than seeing the bigger picture of Life itself and the consequences they create for themselves by trying to avoid problems.

By ignoring the true meaning of Life and living merely to survive, people create within themselves a deep desire for gratification, thus reducing their living down to the mere addiction of gaining gratification to mask their pain.

People struggle in this the world because it is a mere illusion and they are only seeing a small part of its place within them. All people are here to live in the Way of virtue and in the joy that this world is trying to reveal to them. But for most, it is difficult if not impossible to realize that everything is a metaphor for the authentic meaning of Life.

This is the ultimate freedom that no form of government can provide. The problem with our culture and society is that we live lovelessly and are therefore inhibited by our own misunderstandings.

WE ARE NOT HERE TO SURVIVE

We are not here to merely survive and stay alive as long as possible by fulfilling earthly desires in search of a “perfect life” that has no struggle. We are here to cease our resistance to Love as the very essence of our energies and the core of our living. From this posture we learn how to live from the “within.”

We understand that there is a PRINCIPLE CAUSE to our life that is greater than our own survival and, when we attune ourselves to this SOURCE, we find a new SIGNIFICANCE enters into our moment-to-moment living. We become aware of the implications of our actions and how they affect not only the life we are living, but also the lives of everyone on this earth and beyond.

WE ARE NOT HERE TO GET WHAT WE WANT

Greed and selfishness are the motivations that fuel our society into thriving on its own juices of hate and thus, our government acts as it does as the outward manifestation of our inward willfulness toward fear. Everything is about what we “want” and politicians manipulate our loyalties by appealing to this.

We never question our own desires living our entire lives merely following impulses to satisfy them, hence we have become weak and susceptible to everything that causes great sorrow. We never put two and two together and realize that it is our “desire” that is causing our misery.

Buddha teaches living Life as it is presented to us – through the courage of mercy and compassion. We are here to find the wealth of the within and liberate ourselves from the fear of our own spiritual ignorance. We are here to live what lives within us.

Allow me to offer a story that reveals the problem we have with “stuff” as it were:

An emperor was coming out of his palace for his morning walk when he met a beggar. He asked the beggar, “What do you want?”

The beggar laughed and said, “You are asking as if you can fulfill my desire!”

The king was offended. He said, “Of course I can fulfill your desire. What is it? Just tell me.”

The beggar was no ordinary beggar, he had been the emperor’s Master in a past life and he had promised, “I will come and try to awaken you in your next life. This life you have missed, but I will come again.”

The king had forgotten completely (who remembers past lives?) So he insisted, “I will fulfill anything you ask. I am a very powerful emperor; what can you possibly desire that I cannot give to you?”

The beggar said, “It is a very simple desire. You see this begging bowl? The emperor acknowledged it. Then the beggar said; “Can you fill it with something?”

The emperor said, “Of course!” He called one of his viziers and told him, “Fill this man’s begging bowl with money.”

The vizier poured some money into the bowl…and it disappeared! He poured more and more money into the bowl and the moment he poured it in, it disappeared! The begging bowl remained empty.

By and by the rumor circulated throughout the capital and soon the entire palace had gathered to watch. The prestige of the emperor was at stake. He said to his viziers, “If the whole kingdom is lost I am ready to lose it, but I cannot be defeated by this beggar.”

Diamonds, pearls, emeralds…all of the king’s treasuries were being emptied. The begging bowl seemed to be bottomless. Everything that was put into it – everything – immediately disappeared and went out of existence. Finally it was evening and the people were standing in utter shock and silence. The king dropped at the feet of the beggar and admitted his defeat.

He said, “You are victorious, but before you leave please fulfill my curiosity. Just tell me one thing: what is this begging bowl made of?”

The beggar laughed and said, “It is made of the human mind. There is no secret…it is simply made of human desire.

Our lives are predestined by our own hand. It matters not what we do in this world until we come to the place where we realize that “happiness” is not what life is all about. Love is what we are here for and no matter what we do in the course of our living, everything will revert back to what is unfinished for us individually in this life.

We must all one day realize that we create suffering in this life by trying to control what is uncontrollable, thus neglecting the Love we are here to surrender to. We are not here to live “happily ever after.” We are here to fulfill our lives through Love, and to mature into this Love through the patience and mercy of living a life filled with the essence of meditation and compassion.

Chuang Tzu taught freedom in its simplest form. If you understand…much can happen within you:

“When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten
When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten,
When the Heart is right, ‘for’ and ‘against’ are forgotten.
No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions:
Then your affairs are under control.
You are a free man.”