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Modern doctors and physicists tell us that the human body completely renews itself every five years. Some "parts" of the body renew themselves faster, such as the lining of the stomach changes every week, the liver is regenerated in six weeks, the skin in a month. Our present bodies just didn't exist five years ago. Mainstream culture, however, is still firmly rooted in 17th century physics, and we continue to view our bodies as "machines made of matter", a set of pumps and pipes, joints and muscles and we tell ourselves that "naturally" parts wear out. Our society believes that parts degenerate with age, get clogged and malfunction. Yet, none are more than five years old. So how can we now explain this process of aging or of a disease that lasts more than five years? Some scientists believe our bodies are patterns of energy maintained by mental images held in consciousness. We have "learned" our mental images from our society and its Newtonian worldview, and so we persist in the "danse macabre" which only lasts "three score years and ten". What do you think would happen to aging and disease and hardened arteries and immobile joints, scars and degeneration if we changed our worldview? What would happen if you held your body's image as vital, healthy and youthful based on the information that every single atom and molecule will be fresh and new within five years? How old do you think you really are?.
Do you know why it's called INNER peace? Because you can have it while the OUTER world seems to be going to hell. Well, it doesn't have to be so extreme. Recently we told someone about a couple of very tiring weeks we had had and they said it was so nice we could overcome these "obstacles". We smiled, because we didn't think of them as obstacles. It was simply life, a bit more demanding and tiring than usual, and sometimes we got crabby, but "inside" we always knew that all was well. It's sad that some people believe that once they've "got it", or are of an expanded consciousness, that "bad" things won't happen anymore, that people around them won't die, that they won't lose their jobs, that they won't be angry at anyone, etc. They are looking for a field of bliss that can only exist inside, not in the outer world. All sorts of challenges continue to happen. However, our definition of whether they are "good" or "bad" changes when we realize that they are all part of the ebb and flow of life. It's really how we view them and handle them, rather than whether or not they are in our life that matters. As Shakespeare observed, "There's nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so." The phrase, "In This World But Not of It", comes to mind. This certainly doesn't mean we become cold fish, emotionless and unfeeling. In fact, we usually feel more intensely, are more fully engaged in life, because we know our inner immortal essence. We don't have to keep experiences at arm's length because of fear. It's sort of like being on a roller coaster, we "know" we won't be harmed and so we can yell and scream and truly feel the excitement. We told someone recently we don't get upset by being upset. We just look at these things as experiences. They are our experiences. They are not US.
The sense of "Judge not..." seems to be that there's something 'wrong' with judgement. We make selections by our preferences, we make decisions by our discernment; but we've allowed the word "judgement" to include these other ideas and that's where the confusion begins, and it usually ends with "mine" is the only choice that's "good". We may like the color blue more than green....well, that's a preference. But we go too far when we judge green, or trenchcoats, or tattoos, or fancy cars or pick up trucks or twinkies or even liver! to be "bad", and anyone who likes green, or trenchcoats or tattoos, etc....must be "bad" also. This leads to a whole cycle of fear based on 'us' vs 'them', whether it be in the classroom, the ethnic war zone or with our beloved. 'They", afterall, are not 'us'. When we believe that, when we have defined them as 'other' than ourselves, then we tend to defend ourselves against them, we must protect 'us'. However, in a general way, they are us! We are all made of the same Godstuff, the same starstuff. Think of your own body, it's all made of the same "you stuff", but your eye certainly looks alot different than your lungs, your toes alot different than your teeth, all the diversity works as a great whole. And all the "parts" need different attention and care, yet they all need the same air and food. We're different but the same. And so are people, and so are cities, and so are countries. Just as our preferences serve us in some way, theirs serve them in some way also. When we accept the abundant diversity of life and realize it expands and adds richness to our own experience, then we can enjoy our own preferences and not judge them the only good ones that exist, and we can let others enjoy theirs and not sneer at the "wrong" choice they made. The next time you see someone eating a peanut butter and pickle sandwich, instead of saying, "you're so weird!" and limiting your own experience.... perhaps even ask if you can try it. You may just open up your world, or maybe you'll find out that you really don't like peanut butter and pickle, yet be happy someone else is feeling enjoyment and satisfaction. Then, too, if you decide to share your roast beef sandwich and ask, "do you like it", will you be disappointed if they say "no"? Were you asking for their honest opinion, or just looking for agreement with your preference? Acceptance builds bridges while eliminating barriers; and we don't want to burn our bridges, for what happens if next week we change our mind and we suddenly like green, do we become them? Finding Unity in a World of Duality Imagine yourself standing before a large, complex painting, one you find very appealing. Now get up really close to it and focus on only a tiny part of it. You might find some murky greens that are not pleasing, maybe even some black, dark, forbidding splotches. Now take a step back and see more of it. Does it make more sense, does a picture start to unfold, do the colors complement each other, does that murky green now add just the right counterpoint? Now step further back, is it becoming more beautiful? Life is like a painting too. This morning you may have picked up the wrong toothbrush, or poured too much cream into your coffee. If we stopped time at that instant, it may have looked 'murky green'. Yet, a few minutes later, an hour later, a week later, you're not even conscious of that instant any more. Within whatever time frame we "choose to live" we may make a big deal out of things, or not. We may resist the black and murky green colors and strive only for the pastels; or we may look at our lives from God's point of view and stand back and see the whole painting. We'll notice a harmony, a balance, a wholeness. We'll see complements instead of contrasts, we'll see the Unity of it all. We'll see that the first stroke complements the last and the last complements the first. We'll see harmony and the cycles of life as part of the big picture, instead of focusing on just one corner. If any of you have studied high mysticism, you notice there is not so much a taboo against killing. It's because the focus is on the immortality of the being. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most violent spiritual texts ever written; yet Krishna tells Arjuna there is nothing that can be killed. This is hard for us to comprehend; we who get upset about a mere traffic jam, but it's looking at life from a much larger perspective, from God's perspective of eternity. So often we strive only for the happiness, the bliss, and forget the richness of life; the complements, the light and the dark. Remember that phrase, "a blind man cannot know darkness"? Sometimes standing back from a future time of a week from now can give us a totally new perspective on our wonderful, harmonious life. From what point of view are you looking at your life?
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We've heard about "judge not, lest ye be judged", but how in the world can we ever make a decision? We'd all be sitting in the first restaurant that we ever walked into saying" I don't know, I just don't know what to choose".. 