Our Life Here Together

No, we’re not spiritual beings
having a human experience.

We’re not just visitors here,
passing through,
on our way to a better
or worse place.

This is not a boarding school.
We’re not just here to
learn lessons, pass this grade,
take a break back home,
and return for the next grade,
until we graduate and no longer
have to come back.

Our home is not an invisible,
better place somewhere else.

This is our true home.
We were born here.
We’re from here.
We live here now.
We will die here.

We do not have bodies.
We are bodies.
You’re somebody.
I’m somebody too.

We’re human beings.
We’re neighbors.
We depend on each other
for our lives.

What we say matters.
Our words help and harm.

What we do matters.
Our actions help and harm.

The children we see, of all species,
inherit the consequences of
what we say and do.

How we live affects everyone else
for generations to come.

We’re all in this together.
We cannot do this alone.
We all need each other.

We need each other to live
the best lives we can live.

We need to love each other
and help each other live.

Our lives are so short.
We have so little time.

We can do better.
We must do better.
We have to do better
than we are now.

I am committed to doing my best.
I trust you’re committed to doing your best too.

The Odds Were Against You Being Born...Now What?

Dr. Ali Binazir illustrates in a blog post the extreme unlikelihood of you ever being born:

Imagine there was one life preserver thrown somewhere in some ocean and there is exactly one turtle in all of these oceans, swimming underwater somewhere. The probability that you came about and exist today is the same as that turtle sticking its head out of the water — in the middle of that life preserver. On one try.

Dr. Binazir crunched the exact numbers:

The odds of your dad meeting your mom: 1 in 20,000. 

The chances of them staying together long enough to have kids: 1in 2,000.

The probability of you existing at all comes out to 1 in 102,685,000  — 10 followed by 2,685,000 zeroes.

Binazir concludes that the odds of you being alive are basically zero.  

Be wondered by the mere fact that you are alive. You are truly amazing.

You are the culmination of everyone in your family tree and everything that sustained their lives.

You're not rare. You're beyond rare. 

You are a one-of-a-kind, once-in-forever occurrence.

Your life is a once and done opportunity.

What life-story are you writing with your words and deeds?

What life do you want for yourself?

What do you want to give to others with whom you are sharing this mystery called life?

What are the chances of you finding and reading this blog post?

What will you do now that you read it?

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-the-odds-of-being-alive-2012-6#ixzz35PWKMXiT

Answers Not Found On Line...

In the age of the internet, search engines, blogs, and social networking it is easy to believe that the answers to our questions are one quick internet search away. We're not left wondering for long. 

Answers to our questions pop up in the first ten search engine results. You know, the ones that represent the mediocrity of 80% of the human herd. Who looks past the first five?

While it might be true that we can get instant on-line answers to many of our questions, what about the questions that really matter? I'm talking about those questions that move us to wonder rather than resolution.

Is it not amazing that we are alive rather than not?

Why? 

Why are we alive? Why are you alive?

What makes you alive?

How will you make your life worth living?

Duck Duck Go that. No one will know.

Contra Victor Frankl's Search for Meaning

When we use the word "spirituality" as a label for a galaxy of beliefs and practices that have little if anything to do with our spirit, we can distract and deceive ourselves. We can believe we are attending to our spirit when in fact we are attending to something else. 

Many so-called spiritualities are not about our spirit at all. Take for example the search for meaning as Victor Frankl presents it in his book Man's Search for Meaning.

Searching for meaning is very much an intellectual pursuit. It requires hours of thought. We have to ask questions, read, study, think, discuss, evaluate, and reach conclusions about the purpose of our life. Is our life inherently meaningful or not? Is meaning something that we ourselves create for ourselves or is it a given? If it is something we create for ourselves, then is what is meaningful the same for all of us or is it different for each one of us? If we create meaning for ourselves, how do we do it? The serach for meaning is a very heady endeavor.

From the perspective of Thumotics, engaging in the search for meaning has little if anything to do with our spirit. If anything calling it a spiritual endeavor distracts us from our spirit and deceives us into believing that when we search for meaning we're taking care of our spirit when we're not. 

When we engage in the search for meaning we're actually taking care of our mind and mental health. It's a psychological rather than a spiritual endeavor. Frankl was a psychiatrist.

Being spirited, alive, precedes our search for meaning. In order to search for the meaning of our life we must first be alive. We must first be spirited. Without spirit we cannot search for meaning. Spiritedness ontologically precedes our search for meaning.

So, let's be clear: the search for meaning is a mental activity that has little to do with our spirit. Since it is a mental activity it is an aspect of psychology not spirituality. Does this make it any less valuable? No, not at all.