Tentative Conclusions on MAPOL

If life is a mystery, then discovering life's secrets requires thinking like a detective. Being a good detective requires looking for clues. Where do you look for clues? If there were twenty people at the scene of an accident, only one or two would be good witnesses. What makes a good witness?

I don't enjoy having conversations with people whose sole purpose is convincing me of their point of view. More enjoyable, and valuable, is a purposeful conversation, a mutual discovery. Most people are not interested in discovering the truth; most people are interested in defending their exisitng beliefs.

If you google "meaning of life" you'll find over thirty five million results. If you google "purpose of life" you will find over fifty eight million results. There are a lot of opinions, theories, and viewpoints about the meaning and purpose of life (MAPOL.) If you are a seeker of the truth how do you cull through this mass of information? How do you find quality information, worthwhile clues, reliable witnesses?

Some will claim they can end this search immediately; they might tell me to look in the bible. "All the answers are there," they might say.

Others will agree: the bible has the answers, but only their bible, or their interpretation of the bible.

Some will insist I am on a wild goose chase. There is no meaning and purpose to life. Life is what you make it and it is different for each person.

Any point of view that ends the search for the meaning and purpose does not go far enough. Although I have not found the answer to this question, I have found good clues, better witnesses. Some individuals have spent their life studying these issues; many supply good insights or information that might be useful in solving this mystery of life. Others dabble: power and glory seekers, charlatans, and delusional thinkers--these ideas, too, are included in the millions of results showing up on Google.

A good clue holds up to intense scrutiny, fits with the body of evidence. In regard to the MAPOL, there are constant themes that continue to reappear over thousands of years and across all of the world's population. These to me represent real clues, not answers, but sign posts that lead in a certain direction. Let me try to express some of my tentative conclusions. They are primarily the results of my life experiences. I am also including books, individuals, and general subjects that have impacted me.

1-We cannot determine the MAPOL in our existing condition. We do not have the intelligence or the tools. We have a limited perception of reality. (Plato, Einstein, Gurdjieff, Jung)

2-We have tremendous potential that we do not use. There are methods that can be used to tap this potential. Once we begin to tap this potential the world and our lives change and expand. (P.D, Ouspensky, Cosmic Consciousness by Joseph Bucke, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill)

3-The primary method of tapping our potential requires two activities. The first is to be more present in the moment, less reactive, less controlled by our programming, and more free to witness the now. The second is to learn to get along with each other, to be more kind, compassionate, understanding, and generous--to experience a certain feeling of love for all organic life, especially those close to us. (Jesus, Eckhardt Tolle)

4-Once we begin a real search for the MAPOL, we recognize at all times, in all situations, and all relationships, that things may not and usually are not the way they seem to be. This viewpoint helps keep us more objective and less subject to brainwashing. The greater our objectivity the more free we are to progress on our path. (Theoretical Physics, Beelzebubs tales by Gurdjieff, Khrisnamurti, Buddhism)

5-In physical reality there are laws that govern actions. These laws can be discovered and used to improve our lives. We have not discovered all these laws but will continue to discover more and more. (Theoretical Physics,

6-There is a spiritual reality. This reality cannot be seen by our ordinary senses. There are different laws that govern this reality that can also be discovered and used for our benefit. (Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death by G.W.Myers, Boris Mouravieff, Rodney Collin, The Seth Material, Rudolph Steiner)

7-There is a hierarchy of energy. This is expressed in many ways by different traditions and teachers. What it means is that there are more refined substances that vibrate at a higher or faster level and more dense substances that vibrate at a slower or lower level. It is possible to learn about these levels of energy, how to use them, contact them, or invoke their presence. (Kaballah, Alice Bailey, E.J. Gold, Millie Benoit)

Writing this blog has been a good exercise for me.

Esoteric Decisionmaking

It's very difficult to make decisions regarding important matters. I consider important matters to be those that impact your life, those that involve change. People who easily make decisions usually do so out of impatience, boredom, laziness, or, in most cases, fear of the consequences of doing nothing. This is why most of the important decisions are made when we are young and don't know, don't think, or don't care.

One reason that real decisionmaking is rare is that when we get old enough to make an important decision we recognize how poor we are at predicting outcomes, how afraid of being wrong. Also, we are more content living in known conditions (even if they are less than ideal) than experiencing the unknown. Decisionmaking assumes there is a choice involved; for the most part, as we get older, we become more crystallized in our views and real choice is impossible.

Understanding our inability to make real decisions is critical to our personal development, to our ultimate freedom. Real understanding is not just an intellectual knowledge of the meaning of the words. It is also an emotional feeling that resonates within us, stirs us to want to do something. I believe that if we really understand our situation, and our inability to choose what we really want, except when it is accidentally thrust upon us, then we might develop the necessity required for real decisionmaking. We will not want to live one more moment in a state of slavery.

This is a basic idea within the esoteric tradition. It is fundamental to any understanding of spirituality. Spirituality has nothing to do with God, Heaven and Hell, Angels and Demons, or the existence of an afterlife. These are topics for discussion; they may be as enjoyable to some as playing Sudoku or rooting for your favorite team. Spirituality is, simply, work on yourself. This work, in the beginning, requires seeing your existing condition, and then as you understand what you, your friends and family, and the world are up against, developing the necessity, the energy and the will for change.

I believe that we are living in a time that is going to require real decisionmaking. Catering to the whims of the masses, doing what is popular, change for change sake, and seeing possibilites as either/or rather than as parts of a larger spectrum of choices will not help us. We need to break free from our existing patterns of thought and action. Actually, I believe, from what I have been taught, and what makes sense, that only a small amount of us need to become real decisionmakers.

It would be valuable if those that see the truth of this can recognize each other and work together. This transcends geography, race, religion, sex, economic class, age, or any of the other ways we classify each other. It is not about forming groups or joining organizations. Those who are interested in real work and willing to let go of those existing beliefs that separate us can make this happen each day in their own small way, in their own lives, with whomever they contact. The consequences of this can be incredible.

Thoughts on Aging

I worry sometimes about getting old. It helps that my father is almost 97 and that my cousin seems young at 85 but there are certain unmistakable signs that I am getting up there. I always was one of the youngest ones at most business meetings. Now I am usually the oldest. I find myself going to bed earlier and never thinking about going out at night. Also, I find it hard to plan for more than two or three years ahead. I remember when I was younger thinking in terms of five or ten years into the future.

Physically I feel fine, although I am more conscious of the need to take care of myself, watch what I eat, and in general treat my body more gently. Actually, I am a little more lenient with myself than I was in my thirties and forties when I felt more urgency to keep my weight down and exercise vigorously. I felt more pressure to not have any physical problems, or aches and pains. Now I accept them more easily without as much concern. I still have hypocondriacal tendencies, but they definitely have moderated.

Mentally, though, I feel that I have not aged but am seeing things more clearly. I don't have the mental stamina that I once had to work day after day in a concentrated way. However, I am able to get things accomplished more quickly with less effort. I feel like I have less clutter, interfering with my thoughts, and that I can more easily penetrate to the heart of situations. It has helped me to recognize in all areas of life that things are not always the way they seem to be and that I cannot know for sure that I am right even when I feel confident that I am. This has prevented me from becoming too judgemental or set in my ways. I am not as impulsive or impatient and am able to step back a little from problems and look at possible solutions from different angles.

My goal in these writings is to be as honest with myself as possible, not to glamorize or exaggerate except when I am obviously or subtly being a little humorous. As I read this I am starting to feel a little better about this aging process. There are downsides, to be sure, but there are also advantages. A big advantage is that the pressure to produce significant results from my actions to prove to the world and my parents that I have value has been replaced by a desire to have productive days and make progress where I can.

It is interesting to me also that as I have become older I see more clearly the problems in the world and the degree to which things are screwed up while at the same time I am less concerned about fixing them. This does not mean that I don't care or that I have given up. I just don't have the same anxiety or frustration about things that I had when I was younger. Now there might be those who have a different experience and find themselves with more anxiety and frustration as they get older and realize how little impact they have on the state of the world or how little they have accomplished in their lives. I am not troubled by this at all.

I have come to see that there are very few absolute truths. There are choices, though. We make them every day. One of the ways to improve our lives is to learn to make better choices, and not to repeat the same mistakes. As we grow older we can choose to free ourselves from our past attitudes and behaviors so that we can enjoy the remainder of our lives or we can remain entangled in our past and give up the possibility of freeing ourselves. We can age gracefully and unburden ourselves, or we can take on more clutter and weigh ourselves down. In reality we can begin making this choice at any point in our lives. I would recommend doing it sooner rather than later.

Do We Control our Thoughts?

If you spend any time observing your thoughts you will probably be shocked at how mundane self-centered, and repetitive they are. Almost all of us have a limited range of repeating thought patterns that takes up most of the time of our thought life. I have been told by people who know about this stuff that each of us has seven primary thought patterns. These may include food, sex, money, family, work, health, sports, or some derivation of any of these.

Since we usually don't think about what we think about (think about that fact) we live our lives, for the most part in a partial dreaming state in which we are constantly being barraged by a stream of repetitive thoughts. If you don't care how you spend your time and your thought patterns don't trigger a negative reverberation within your being this is not a problem. Matter of fact it keeps you out of trouble and enables you to get through the day without having to put any effort into thinking.

However, if you become aware of the quality of your thoughts while you are alone, which is most of the time, you may begin to recognize that you have very little control of your thoughts. They are primarily influenced by external stimuli or habit. You have been programmed to think in certain ways and it is very hard to escape from this condition. So your thoughts are controlled by what is going on around you and by your programming or both.

Now this entire conversation might sound like mumbo-jumbo and your reaction might be so what or what is he trying to say. What I am trying to say is a few things. First of all, most of the problems in the world are caused by this easily observable phenomenon that for the most part we don't control our thoughts and that most of our actions and feelings are influenced by this limited range of thoughts that we don't choose. Secondly, except for the very few, we are all equal in this situation. Even though who appear to be more together or more organized or more successful are usually that way because of circumstances rather than conscious choice. Thirdly, there is a possibility to overcome this. We can begin to observe our thoughts and then we can begin to choose what it is we want to think about. If we can learn to be more conscious in our thinking our decisions will be more objective and our lives will improve. This is the one of the main lessons that I have gotten from my spiritual searching. There is the possibilityof thinking on a higher level, one in which we are more free and have access to a greater intelligence. This makes a lot of sense to me. I wonder if I explained it clearly.

Limitations of Logic

Logic is definitely overrated. It is useful at times but it has limitations. If you can understand the limitations of logic that is a big first step, in my opinion, towards personal development and happiness. Experience is more valuable than logic. Objective observation is more valuable. Intuition is also more valuable. The biggest problem with logic is that it fools you into believing that you know more than you do or that you have a greater understanding than you actually have. It prevents you from investigating the possibilities that might be considered illogical.

It is logical to assume that people will act in their own self-interests, but oftentimes they don't. It is logical to believe that when you make sense people will understand you, but they don't. It is logical to assume that if we work hard and do the right things our lives will be positive. However our experience doesn't bear this out. It is logical that our physical reality should consist of physical components that have substance, but the results of quantum physics has taught us that physical reality does not have solidity but shifts back and forth between a wave and particle depending on our position of observation.

Shit happens, and logical outcomes, especially in the big and important events in our lives are rare. Where does this line of reasoning lead? It leads to a softening of our views, a more fluid, lighthearted, and non-attached approach to life. We need to lower our expectations in any individual situation but maintain the less logical viewpoint that everything will work out in the end. Where logic is most valuable is when we realize that the world in which we live is unpredictable and much of it still remains a mystery. When we come to the realization that we do not know and that no one knows for sure what will happen tomorrow then we can begin to enjoy our lives.

I want to be clear about this. I am not against logic as a tool in our arsenal for trying to understand our lives and make the world a better place. It is only one tool, however. We need to develop others, those that enable us to hold opposite opinions simultaneously. We need to be more creative in our thinking, emotions, and actions. We need to cultivate our intuition so that we can take risks that make sense and offer us the opportunity to make real breakthroughs in our relationships and businesses. Our major enemies are fear and habit. I have no question we can do it, although this view is quite illogical.

Results of 45 years of inquiry

There are times when it seems that no one understands what I am saying, I hate to admit it but these times are frequent. This does not include those times when I am communicating with my wife or kids or friends about practical matters or reporting about what is going on in my life. These communications are usually successful.

What I have difficult with is communicating the results of my spiritual, philosophical , and psychological studies. In studying these area, including religion I have encountered many theories, ideas, opinions, imaginings, and other speculative viewpoints that require some level of faith to accept. What I am looking for is to narrow my searching to those ideas that I know are true, those that do not have to be accepted on faith but can be proven by observations and are duplicated over a period of time. Here are a few of the ideas which have been proven to me.

1- There is a limitation to what we can understand through logic. The most obvious proof of this is our inability to logically imagine how we were created. We then must ask who created our creator and on and on. There is no logical conclusion to this critical question and yet we exist or we would not be asking this question.

2- It appears that the answer to our inability to logically answer the creation creation is that we are thinking dualistically and linearly, as if everything has a cause and one thing follows another.
There is another way of thinking or observing that perceives the world as a unity where all things are connected and there is no time as we usually know it. The past, present, and future are all occurring at the same time. This idea cannot be communicated but can be intuited or experienced.

3-I'm not positive of this one. But since logic is limited and there is another way to look at our world that is different than logic, there must be a way to develop ourselves or free ourselves from the shackles of logic. All mystical traditions speak about states where we are free to see the world in an unobstructed or expanded way. There are teachings which give us practical methods to awaken ourselves from our limited state and connect with a higher state where logic is transcended and the universe appears in its non-dualistic reality. I have had enough experiences, through LSD, meditation, yoga, moments of consciousness, and unique energetic shocks to conclude that there are other states available to us.

The result of these three points is that there is hope for our future. There is the possibility that we can learn and grow and that our actual mechanism of perceiving the world will change. When this happens to enough of us the nature of our planet will be different.

excessive talking

I was on the phone today for five hours discussing various business situations. It cut into my tv and poker time and I'm not sure whether any of the conversations moved me closer to making money. There is always more talk than action in business and most of it is wasted. I'm usually good at limiting talk and cutting to the heart of matters. I find though that most people need to talk more than necessary because they're lonely, insecure, bored, or addicted to hearing themselves speak.

I talk a lot myself at times, and theoretically there is nothing wrong with talking if you are expressing yourself clearly and accomplishing something with your words. Useless and excessive talking are problematic though. They waste your time and the time of those who are listening and even more importantly drain energy from you and your audience.

Anyone who is interested in personal development should be aware of their talking and its effects on those with whom they are communicating. When you talk too much or talk without consideration for the feeling of your listener, it is harmful to your business and personal relationships. Developing your communication skills requires real honesty with yourself and the ability to objectively assess your impact on those around you.

Becoming a good or great communicator begins with being a good listener. Being a good listener requires the ability to pay attention, to be in the moment, and to look beyond the words to get at the real intent of the one who is speaking. Women are usually better at this than men, although it doesn't have to be this way.

Most of us feel that we are the way we are and there is not much we can do about it. If this was true there would be little hope for improving our personal situations, our family lives, and our world. We can be better communicators. We can listen with more intention, with more effort, and a desire to truly understand. We can speak with more sincerity, which is at the heart of all successful talking. Real sincerity comes from a commitment to being open and expressing how we really feel and what we really want. Sincerity combined with clarity and directness is very powerful.

To have real conversations with real people to explore important questions in a spirit of caring and sharing is what I want in my life. I always envisioned myself sitting in a cafe with Socrates and his friends discussing the meaning and purpose of life as the ideal way to spend my time. Until I can find out how to achieve this I guess I'll have to settle for tv and internet.

Scale and Probability

For the "seeker of truth" or the "good life" it's valuable to understand the meaning of scale and probability. Scale is the middle ground. Probability is the degree to which what you believe will happen does actually happen. The right understanding and application of both scale and probability enable us to more clearly navigate the world and increase our chances for success.

In all discussions and decision making there are degrees of truth and many possible outcomes to all occurrences. What you believe to be true may not actually be true. What you think might happen might not happen. Recognizing this gives you an advantage: the ability to adjust to new information or to changing situations.

Faith may be considered the courage to move ahead even though you are not positive you are seeing things correctly. Belief is different; belief does not allow for deviation from what you presently think. Most organized religions stress faith as an ultimate value, when they really are referring to belief.

What I am talking about is a way to approach life, a humility that comes from the continuous recognition that things are not always the way they seem to be; in fact, they may be the exact opposite. Our present level of understanding is limited when compared to what is possible. It's easy to understand the difference between our basketball ability or even that of a high school star to that of Michael Jordan. There is no comparison. Michael is on a different scale.

There is also a tremendous difference in our level of understanding of the meaning and purpose of life and the understanding of an Aristotle, or Buddha, or Jesus. We can learn from them as we can learn from any authority in any subject area. When we approach life with acknowledgement of our limitations and give up the necessity to constantly justify or defend our positions we create the opportunity for real communication and progress. We do not know the truth about all things, or almost anything. What we can strive for is to move in the direction of getting closer to the truth. This is the purpose of our lives and is the ultimate source of happiness. This is the meaning of ethics.

Why Worry? Be Happy.

It's easy to worry. No effort is required. I've always been a worrier. About, everything, including my kids, my health, my finances, my daily productivity, my addictions and my inability to control them. It can get a little discouraging. What is important though is that you don't let worry paralyze you or cause you to act in self-destructive ways. This is especially relevant now.

Fear, worry, anxiety are all around us. It's difficult to be positive when it seems that the economy is collapsing and you don't know whether or not you'll be homeless in six months, three years, or some time in the future. And even if our economy does improve, there are a host of other concerns, from terrorism to environmental destruction, and all the little things that preoccupy us each day.

I've been fortunate in my life. I've been open about my feelings and my weaknesses. I have met a few people who have helped me. I can think of three ways that I have learned from others to combat worry.

#1 Be grateful for what you have. (Taught to me by Brady Grace in a moment of intense anxiety.)

#2 Take care of your basic needs. Eat healthfully, exercise, and try to improve yourself each day (Taught by my father over many years. He actually lives this way and is ninety-seven.)

#3 Have productive days. A productive day is one in which you do something for yourself, you do something for someone else, and you do something to make the world a little better. (Taught to me by G.I. Gurdjieff in his final book Life is Real Only Then When I Am).