There is pleasure, and there is bliss.
Forgo the first to possess the second.

You do not what you should; you do what you should not.
You are reckless, and desire grows.

But the master is wakeful; he watches his body.
In all his actions he discriminates, and he becomes pure.

He is without blame,
Though once he may have murdered his mother and his father,
Two kings, a kingdom and all its subjects.
Though the kings were holy and their subjects among the virtuous,
Yet is he blameless.

The followers of the awakened Awake.
And day and night they watch and meditate upon their master.
Forever wakeful, they mind the law.

They know their brothers on the Way.
They understand the mystery of the body.
They find joy in all beings.
They delight in meditation.

It is hard to live in the world and hard to live out of it.
It is hard to be one among many.
And for the wanderer, how long is the road
Wandering through many lives!

Let him rest.
Let him not suffer.
Let him not fall into suffering.

If he is a good man, a man of faith, honored and prosperous,
Wherever he goes he is welcome.
Like the Himalayas, good men shine from afar.
But bad men move unseen like arrows in the night.

Sit. Rest. Work.
Alone with yourself, never weary.
On the edge of the forest live joyfully,
Without desire.

It is likely that many of you reading this message are already “over the line” and have been for years, and you will use this as just cause to give up. Why keep reading? Ahy keep trying to meditate when the human instincts to merely live from genetic pride and vanity are so intense? Why not just live in the apathy of the pride of human hubris and let the lethargy of human futility have its way?

This is the argument that the pedestrian mentality purports as reality. The pedestrian mentality lives by force. Force and power impress this type of mentality, and hence, a great deal of pressure and even violence are necessary to do much of anything in this world.

It must become obvious to you that the hubristic mentality is the most futile endeavor of a lifetime that leads to living an incomplete life where lovelessness reigns supreme. Most people live “over the line” and because they see no immediate repercussions, they come to believe that there are none in this world.

There are!

The repercussion is simply that we surrender the ability to Transcend, leaving us to live in the “hell” we have created for ourselves through spiritual indifference; diminishing our lives to the cherished darkness of our unconscious minds that hold fast to genetic dispositions of self-righteousness through hate, revenge and arrogance.

So, how do we change? Is change even an option and why should we change in the first place? How does one know if the “change” is the “correct one?” People believe they have their own lives to live and it’s not up for grabs or interpretation. Ah, but it is!

Most people can not accept responsibility for their own predicaments. It is always someone else’s problem that causes their inconveniences in living. They can blame others for a myriad of reasons and always make themselves out to be the hapless victim.

None of us is a victim to others. It may appear that way to our pedestrian mentality, but it is simply untrue. We fall to our perceptions that are interwoven with our genetic heritage and biases. Our problems in this world are not due to others; they are due to how we look at everything from the diametrical state of mind that can only believe that it is “right” and everything else is wrong. This is the hubris, this is the mental acuity of the pedestrian mentality. There is no inner observation, just pure assumption. We never doubt that we could be “wrong.”

We never consider that the way we sit within ourselves might be the issue. But to explore within would cause us to lose our confidence in how we survive in this world as “us” against “them.” When our idea and method of the living is merely the state of our survival through self-righteousness, we have stepped “over the line.”

We can never comprehend the Truths of this Universe when we are dilly-dallying around in the conventional mind that merely seeks to survive through DNA and genetics.

In the Panchadasi, which is a part of the Advaita Vedanta (an ancient teaching found in Hindu texts), there is a profound teaching. If you can allow this teaching to resonate within you, there will be an instant awakening of the Light:

“How shall I grasp it? Do not grasp it. That which remains when there is no more grasping is the Self.”

This is living in the Life of our Karma. To discover the authentic “Self” is the ultimate antidote for our reckless and merciless mischief in this world. Only you can change your lifestyle to fit the Way and come out of human self-destructiveness and into the Light that is Love. It will take effort…but you can do it.

In closing, the brilliance of Lao-Tzu:
“If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.”