Because Stuff Happens...

Believing in a Lesser God

Webmaster@ADefwebserver.com — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:54:44 GMT

I really like the Prayer of Saint Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is doubt, faith ;

where there is despair, hope

where there is darkness, light

where there is sadness, joy

O divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

This prayer make no expectations of God...

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Taoist story of an old farmer

Webmaster@ADefwebserver.com — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:27:34 GMT

This website (http://www.awakeblogger.com/2008/09/the-10-very-best-zen-stories/) contains the following story:

Once upon the time there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.

“Maybe,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.

“Maybe,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

“Maybe,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“Maybe,” said the farmer.

I read this story on several sites on the Internet. It is interesting reading comments people make about the story. I have read comments such as:

“It shows that you have to take the good with the bad”

“Don’t force things, go with the flow”

I have thought deeply about this story and while it appears to me that it fits with “Stuff-Happens”, I think it provides a window into a deeper truth.

Imagine There Is No Good or Bad

Like the John Lennon song invites us to “Imagine…”, I would like us to “Imagine there is no good or bad”.

kinda scary, isn’t it?

For most it really is NOT easy if you try. Actually you will probably resist trying!

We need “bad” to help us recognize “good”. At first I was a bit frustrated at comments I read about the story because I felt people were trying to “pigeonhole” the story into something simplistic and their interpretation changed what I felt was the real meaning, ‘Stuff-Happens”, period.

Then it occurred to me, could it be that this Farmer, does not believe in “Protective God”?

When he has good fortune his friends “imply” that God has graced him and that he is “blessed”. When bad things happen it is clearly the “evil” of bad luck. It could be the “devil” at work, or perhaps the “punishment for man’s sins” (shouldn’t have eaten that Apple and been cast out of Eden, this sort of bad luck would not happen in Eden!).

But, the Farmer simply says “Maybe” because he appears to believe that anything can and will happen. He takes care of the crops, the Horses, his Son and when “Stuff-Happens” it just happens. Do you think he would pray for the horse to return?

Perhaps he believes in God, but it would appear he does not believe in the “Traditional Protective God”.

Stuff-Happens is Scary

So truly believing in “Stuff-Happens” means “we are on our own”. No safety net and no seat belts. It gets worse, it also means that UNFAIR things will happen. For example, if you swerve to avoid a dog in the street and you hit another car you will get sued for the damages you caused not congratulated for saving a dogs life.

However, if you believe that God is good, and good will triumph over evil (and that you will eventually be rewarded for being good, I know, expectations again) and he will take care of you, then unfair things wont happen (or you will get your reward after you die and go to Heaven).

So while many admire the Farmer and his peace and acceptance, they really don’t want to be the Farmer, too scary!

Respond Not React

Webmaster@ADefwebserver.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:24:58 GMT

Today I heard someone say that we should respond to things not react. This may seem like the same thing, but I believe I understand what the difference is.

I have known for some time that when I say things out of emotion I later regret what I said. This provides a lot of material for my worries (I wonder how that person will react when they hear what I said?). I admonish myself not to say things out of emotion, but emotion always comes, and it seems like it cannot be controlled.

However, If tell myself to formulate a response rather than a reaction this process comes to mind:

1) Should I say anything at all? – When I react because of emotion (we just found out we have to work this weekend!) the reaction is bound to be negative. If I open my mouth to formulate a response, I sometimes realize that there is nothing constructive for me to say. Most emotional reactions are just “diarrhea of the mouth”, useless words spewed out into the world by me to no benefit to anyone including myself.

2) What do I hope to gain by my response? – Again, this stops most responses because, since I should accept all situations and never expect anything, why am I bothering to respond at all? So, unless I am going to say “I refuse to work this weekend”, I should probably not say anything at all. Note, that I have to accept the consequences of my “response” not to work, but I am free to have that response...

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Works Only When You Work It

Webmaster@ADefwebserver.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:16:39 GMT

It’s been nearly two months into this “Stuff-Happens” way of life, and like with most things in my life, I sometimes do it and sometimes I don’t.

I generally find myself slipping back into old ways (planning out everything and expecting for things to go the way I planed), and then when faced with some fearful situation, I remember to just say “Stuff-Happens” and have acceptance of whatever happens, and the fear goes away.

So it’s nice that at any time I can use this technique, and no matter how long it has been in disuse (usually less than a day, I have a low pain threshold), it works just as well every time.

I can’t say that about my diet. I recently got on the scale and it read 217. Now, at 5’ 8” that is about 30 pounds overweight. 8 years ago I was at 245, but only 6 months ago I was at 206. As I usually do, I swore off cheating on my diet and renewed my resolve to “act right”. Of course, I have to be honest with myself and realize that I always slip up and eat a 2500 calorie meal here...

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All Fear Starts With A Desire

Webmaster@ADefwebserver.com — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:09:34 GMT

All the "Fear" we have is because we anticipate losing something that we don't want to lose. This can be as simple as "I want things to stay the way they are now, I fear that things will change". Therefore, any fear we have will go away if we let go of the underlying "want" or desire.

And, we ALWAYS have the choice to let go of ANY desire.

Of course we all have desires...

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Stuff-Happens only works "Now"

Webmaster@ADefwebserver.com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:29:43 GMT

Today I was thinking about an email I sent. I sent some material in error and I figure it will be pointed out to me later. Setting aside that the only "problem" is an anticipated bruised Ego, I started to feel worried about the situation, so I just said "I screwed up, Stuff-Happens" and I got a bit of relief.

But not completely.

Darn, I want to be completely "Worry Free", so I needed to dig a bit deeper and figure out what wasn't working and most importantly, to "do something" that will make this worry, no matter how small, go away.

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Ego - The Spark that starts Worry

Webmaster@ADefwebserver.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:07:06 GMT

Four times this week I had "anxiety flare-ups" and every time was because of ego. I define an anxiety flare-up as anytime I have the feeling of being scared for no reason. It usually lasts only moments but during these times the feeling is felt deeply and completely.

At these times, thinking "Wow look I don't feel good right now. Hey, Stuff-Happens", actually keeps me from making things worse (projecting into the future that I will always feel this way and getting worried and depressed by the thought). However, I started to dig deeper as to why these useless feelings arise...

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Acceptance = We Have No Anger At The Situation

Webmaster@ADefwebserver.com — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:42:32 GMT

As I share this concept of 100% acceptance with others, the question comes up "what do you mean by acceptance? If I get fired from my job that is a bad thing. Trust me I wont like it". If you look up the definition of acceptance, you will find a number of them, so for the sake of brevity (I can see myself reading this years from now and I will be thankful that I quickly got to the point), I will define it as "lack of anger at the situation".

The definition of anger is usually defined as "anytime something we expect to happen doesn't happen" or just "anytime we are disappointed".

An unexpected lottery win

Well now wait a minute, if that lottery ticket I bought, that I never expected to actually pay off, suddenly hits and I win a million dollars, that will be unexpected but I promise I wont be angry!

However, when we check the numbers and that lottery ticket has proved to be as worthless as the one last week, our true feelings come out and we indeed are a bit angry the heavens have not realized how special we are and granted us this small boon. As foolish as it seems to be, we expected to win and we are angry that we didn't.

However, we get over our anger in less than a minute because we remind ourselves, "what the heck was I thinking? a million to one odds, of course I didn't win!"

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When "The opposite of Fear is Faith" doesn't work

Webmaster@ADefwebserver.com — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:08:55 GMT

I do believe that the principal of "the opposite of fear is faith" is correct. Here is basically how it works:

There is a "Higher Power" that will always take care of you.
You have "faith" in #1
When anything happens, you just say "it's ok that I lost all my money, if all that matters is serving my Higher Power I can just devote the rest of my life to helping the poor if needed."
On your deathbed you have no fear because you will finally reside with your Higher Power forever (this is why you don't even fear death)

Now lets put aside all the arguments of "is there a higher Power at all?" and "even if there is a Higher Power, how do we know that #2 and #4 are true?". The point is I can confirm from my personal experience that #1 and #2 will provide a lot of relief from worry and stress.

The problem is that #1 and #2 do not always "stay with us". You can "feel the faith" at the beginning of the day, but later that afternoon you "feel differently". When that happens the fear and the anxiety return with full force. Usually, deep prayer and meditation combined with a trip to your local house of worship can get you back on track, but even then you can find yourself lying awake at night worrying about how you're gonna make the mortgage payments.

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Acceptance = Freedom From Worry

Webmaster@ADefwebserver.com — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:12:38 GMT

This site will feature content about one subject. I expect to have the opportunity to generate thousands of words on this one subject and never once run the risk of running out of more things to pontificate on the subject.

The subject is "Freedom From Worry". The solution, I believe to be, is "Acceptance". There you can now close your web browser or move on to another web site.

So why continue? Well, as some say, "the devil is in the details". Many questions may remain such as, "accept what?".

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