Honor Thy Mother

Recently I have been fighting with my mother. After a long prayer about the situation in my personal life, I have come to realize that the only way to deal with her is to tell her "I love you" regardless if what she says or does.

For Jesus said "love one another", and this applies especially to the commandment to honor my parents. Jesus also said "love your enemies" and dedicate yourself to their welfare. Yet my greatest enemy is always my selfish desires.

Even though I may mistake my mother for my enemy, the only true enemy is self-will.

So from this day forward I shall try to transform my selfishness into the selflessness as I listen to my mother in respectful silence.

Indeed, Love is the only response to a mother who misuses the commandment to "honor thy father and mother." For this is too the commandment of the Christ: to honor my mother by responding with love to anything she says or does.

All that I am capable of doing is to respond in a loving and compassionate manner, regardless of her behavior. For love conquers all, and my actions from this day forward shall reflect my determination to practice what I preach.

So shall I dedicate myself to honor my mother in a gentle and kind manner for the sake of our family.

The Cult of the Individual: Man-god or Merely Human? (satire)

Selfish as in self-cherishing, the devotee to the cult of individualism would deny she is in a cult. For the ego, when it is in control of your life, will tell you lies to endure its hold over you.

At its root, selfishness is like death: when the world revolves around you, the easier it is to wander through life, impatient with the concerned religionist, flouting your atheism as if it made you better than a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Satanist, a Hindu, or even a Buddhist.

However, the move from religion to psychology and philosophy of Buddhism ensures our life.

Whether we like it or not, a spiritual friend will come for us, either to set us strait or to help us come to understand that the self that wants attention on its merit is solely the root of suffering and sorrow. As such, narcissism is sure to lead the unwary to self-made hell.

It makes this old fool wonder why people would think they are free when they practice no religion. How free are they really when the self tells them: "Oh, it's another religionist! Let's mock him?"

How utterly vain, and foolish are the selfish!

Were they even a bit wise, they'd work in the soup kitchens and help pass out food and clothes to the homeless — I've yet to hear of that, when atheists care about their fellow man enough to dole out food and clothing for those in need.

I do not know if this is because atheists are modest or if they truly care about the rest of humanity. Hopefully, it is the former because the latter sometimes seems to be so far away when the atheists mock religionists of every faith, be it a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Satanist, a Hindu, a Buddhist, or any other organized religion.

For this cult of the individual is surely not a good thing in this post-modern world. Its practitioners often preach entitlement and enable children to carry on the same selfish ideals of their parents. If you dare to confront them with the Truth, then they distort it into a parody of all that is true.

In response I quote Pontius Pilate, "What is Truth?"

---

Originally posted: February 12, 2013 6:37 AM

How to Master Fear

The cause of all fear is self-grasping ignorance, and all the delusions, such as selfishness, attachment and anger, arise from that ignorance, as well as all the unskillful actions motivated by those delusions. --From Tharpa.com

Thus, the antidotes to the delusions of selfishness, attachment and anger are
selflessness, detachment and unconditional love.

Selflessness is best achieved by helping people without expecting reward, to give of ourselves without thought of being a giver.

Detachment is known as letting go, i.e. to not hold onto something as though it were near and dear to you, even when this turns out to be your own life.

Yet to throw away your life needlessly is not detachment, but foolhardiness.

With a healthy sense of detachment, one learns to balance self-preservation with self sacrifice.

Unconditional love is also known as compassion, the kind of love which makes no exceptions, such that one may love another, regardless of whether s/he is friend or enemy.

It may be that selflessness, detachment and unconditional love are the greatest tools a person may develop to remove all delusions, and even ignorance itself.

And no one is excluded from developing their skills in use of these tools.

Yet, only the good of us continue to use them to benefit us all.