Find your center and burst forth through the chest
I was asked to write about my experiences in Buddhism so that they could be put into a report and used for the prison system. I decided to write it as a blog post so that the information could maybe reach a wider audience as I feel it will contain some helpful information.
I started researching Buddhist philosophy in my early teens and while a complicated school of thought spanning close to 2 thousand years there are 2 basic ideals that can summarize the most basic ideas.
- You can only control your life by accepting what is happening and by owning that responsibility
- Your thoughts create your reality
There two points can help improve your outlook on life and will work regardless of what your religion or spiritual preferences are. The first one is actually the most complicated. By accepting responsibility for everything you do you begin to take a personal interest in all of your actions. When it comes down to it every decision that you make is entirely your decision and has nothing to do with anyone else or any past events. In it’s simplest sense this point is telling you not to blame anyone else for your mistakes a you made the decision, and if you realize you made the wrong choice it is up to you to change what you are doing and correct it.
To often in today’s world we make excuses for things that happen. “oh I am a criminal because my daddy wasn’t there” or “I dropped out of school because I got sucked into a gang” are not viable excuses for bad behavior. You made the decision and you continue to deny responsibility thereby perpetuating a stagnant lot in life. Nobody can fix your problems but you and the first step is realizing that you need to fix these problems. Other people may be able to give you the tools but you need to use these tool.
The other part of this is to accept what is. This just means that anything that you did or anything that happened in the past can no longer affect you if you want to move on with your life. A big step in taking control of your life is to not only realize what your mistakes were but to realize that they are no longer applicable to your current situation.
The second part of this is a little more confusing. By saying your thought create reality you are taking the notion of accepting responsibility for yourself and extending it to your entire world. It is as simple as believing spinach tastes disgusting because you do not like spinach. Taste like all things within our world are subject to perception. So when applied to your own life constantly believing that “this is just my life and it will never improve” is destructive thinking as you will begin to believe it and refuse to see in any other way.
In India elephants will stand tethered against their will to a tiny pole in the ground. The reason for this is because at a tiny age the baby elephant is chained with a heavy chain to an iron pole in the ground. Despite the struggling the baby elephant can not break free and begins to accept this as fate. As the elephant grows larger he still accepts his reality of a shackled animal despite the fact that he can easily break free if only he tried. This is what we face every day.
I am not one of those new age crystal loving hippies here to tell you that the world is wonderful and you just need to stay positive, that is honestly crap. The world is full of challenges and obstacles but if you give up then you have already lost. If I wake up every day and right away I think to myself “what a terrible day” how can I ever hope to have anything but?
The same can be said for your interaction with other people. If I wander around thinking how much people suck then I will refuse to see anything but the bad in people, my mind will either ignore the good or rationalize it as thinking they must be up to something.
There are no easy answers in life the most any of us can do on this journey is understand and accept the fact that while there may be trials and setbacks the journey is solely ours and our greatest weapon is our belief in ourselves. Also remember that this is not an overnight realization, I have been studying Buddhism for about 15 years and still have major emotional setbacks. I am just now beginning to realize the solution, hopefully in another 15 years I will be able to fully apply these solutions to my everyday life.
Amituofo
The Road to Hel 