Wisdoms from the Journey - Vol IX (Oct 14 thru Aug 16)

Reborn in a New Morning
(06/10/2016)
With all the reasonable, injustice-fueled rage I was feeling this morning --
over war-mongering & Monsanto-pandering Hillary stealing the nomination from
Bernie Sanders (and probably the election from the American people) … over Bernie
seemingly caving in and leaving millions of his decent-hearted and highly
motivated supporters hanging … over Elizabeth Warren & Al Franken both
endorsing Killary for President (two of the mere handful of, I thought; moral folks left
in the U.S. Congress -- WTH?!?!?!) … over Obama's smug, baby-killing mug doing
the same … over so many millions of Americans openly & avidly supporting
either a bigoted narcissist or a deceitful sociopath … So much sound cause for
rage there was & is, and yet leave it to my dear Friend Scotty to bring me back to
Peace. Leave it to him to remind me this glorious morning that our lives are
Meaning-full and Good no matter what evils are whirling around us; that we
always have the opportunity (many opportunities, actually) to go forth every single
day and be the Force for Good that we wish our “leaders” would be.
Thanks for that, Scotty … You're a Good Man.
“I don't talk much about God, because it is such a loaded term. But I do like
to talk about Hell, because I've lived it. And every time I was there, it came in
the form of a terrible psychosis in which reality and fantasy were merged. There
was no weeping … Weeping was long gone because it is a symptom of humanity.
There was however, very much gnashing of teeth. I understand why Catholics
believe in purgatory, because I've lived that too, after being not baptized by
water, but by flame.
And yet regardless of the how literally correct or incorrect those
metaphysical extrapolations may be, baptism by the flame of honesty always
leads to a void-like state where an earnest person can learn, if they choose, to
slowly build up meaning through compassion -- and thereby let past cruel
intentions melt away into oblivion.
I've had several near-death experiences over the course of my life, and to
this day I still have doubts about every single one. But I do know they have all
helped me to reformulate the person I want to be -- a person who embodies
compassion, and thus feels pain instead of joy when witnessing the floundering of
others. When you choose to deeply feel the pain of the other as if it's your own,
you'll always much rather help than hurt.”
~ Scotty Mühlleib
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