Identify What You Are Really Good At...

Orlando Massacre

Here is my view of the Orlando massacre:

It was an unprovoked, horrible, gruesome, bloody assault inflicted by one man on many other human beings. It was a glaring instance of life-denying behavior that has inflicted far-reaching trauma on countless others.

Then it was glorified by all outlets of media, including social media. I want to minimize my participation in glorifying it by giving it more attention. Instead I want to draw attention to what I believe is a life-affirming solution.

Some say that the solution to such violence is stricter gun control. I disagree.

I believe a since of divine favor, dominance, violence, and bloodshed are dominant and dominating themes in American culture. These themes the founding Northern Europeans, that include my ancestors, brought with them. The United States of America was founded and is maintained by this Christo-European sense of divine favor, dominance, violence and blood shed.

We are hypocrites to the degree that we feel horrified by violence done to those we consider "us" and justified in inflicting it on those we consider "them."

The solution to the problem is for us to renounce our Christo-European values of divine favor, dominance, violence, and bloodshed and change how we view not just human beings, but all living beings. When we see and value all living beings as "us", related, kindred, with valuable lives to live, then we will begin to do great, life-affirming things together, things that now we only dream of. 

The Spirit of Fire

If it moves, it's alive.

If it's alive, it is spirited.

Doesn't everything move? Isn't everything alive, spirited?

I'm sitting in of my fireplace gazing at the fire I made. The flames dance and sing hums and snaps as they feed on the wood at their feet. They move. They're alive. They're spirited like every other living being.

As I watch and tend the fire, I notice that its spirit varies according to the wood and air it feeds on. When I serve it dry wood with a steady flow of of air, its spirit lifts and strengthens. It dances with delight.

When I serve it damp wood or lessen the flow of are, it's spirit calms. Its song modulates to a hiss of displeasure. Fed too much damp wood and too little air, its spirit departs altogether. It dies.

Fire can be smothered to death with water, earth, and either too much or too little air. 

It's mortal.

Like all over living beings, fire consumes and transforms what it feeds on. Ashes are fire's feces. Like all feces, they can be utilized in beneficial ways by other living beings.

In the wild, fire consumes and transforms. It kills, clears, and opens up spaces to allow in more sunlight and wind. New life comes forth. Thus fire affirms life.

For us humans, fire is both friend and foe. It gives warmth, cooks meals, protects, provides light in darkness, purifies, and helps us forge steel. It also destroys material goods and kills.

It's immoral and life-denying when it kills unnecessarily. It is moral and virtuous when it affirms life even in the taking of it.

We do well to acknowledge the spiritedness of fire. We do well to respect and befriend fire. We do well to not interfere with fire's freedom, except when it threatens our life and goods and those  for whom we care.

We do well to befriend fire.   

  

Spirit-Centered Living, Part Three: Relationships

This post is a sketch about how I relate to others, from spirit to spirit.

As I mentioned in Part Two of this series, I see everyone of us as spirited and alive. As such, I see us doing what we need to do to remain alive and do what we are alive to do. 

Kinship

So, I see a kinship among us all. We are related by the mere fact that we are spirited and alive rather than not. We are also related in doing what we need to do to remain alive and fulfill our purpose.

Because of our kinship, my basic way of relating to others is as a friend rather than a foe. At first, I'm a cautiously friendly. It takes me a while to know if you are a friend or foe to me. Being cautious protects and affirms the value of my life.

Friends

If you are a friend, then my basic way of relating is to accept you as you are and not interfere with you living your life as you choose. I give you space. Not interfering and giving you space is about a mutual affirmation of my life and yours. It's about both of us being free.

The only time I harm my friends, is out of the necessity to sustain my own life and the lives of those in my care. I am personally responsible for the deaths of countless friendly plants and animals that I eat to sustain my own life. 

Since the deaths of others sustains my life, I do well to honor them and their spirit by minimizing the pain of their death, wasting as little as possible of their bodies, and respectfully returning to Earth what remains.

Otherwise, being a friend is about helping each other if and when we need and want help. It is also about enriching each other's lives with gifts that only we can give.

Foes

If you are a foe, my basic way of relating to you is to avoid you. I want nothing to do with you. You go your way and I'll go mine.

If you threaten or harm me or anyone dear to me, then I will aggressively defend myself, family, and friends. In defense I will kill you if I have to. If you are eatable, I will eat you, waste as little as possible, and respectfully return to Earth what remains.

Context

Of course, I do all of the above to varying degrees in the larger context of a declining industrialized system. In that larger context, factory workers kill and process most of the food I eat. I know they do so with no respect for the spirits of those they kill. They make no attempt to use everything to honor the spirit and life of the each one killed but only to maximize share-holder profits.

Even so, I continue to develop my practice of living a spirit-centered life, of relating spirit to spirit, and respecting the life and freedom of every living being. 

Spirit-Centered Living, Part Two: The Spirit of Others

Not only am I alive, others are too. They too are spirited: 

Earth, water, wind, and fire-all moving, all alive. 

Stones, grass, flowers, vines, shrubs, and trees-all moving and alive. 

Every insect and animal, including us humans- moving and alive.

Even the moon, planets, and stars- all moving, all alive.

The spirit, that which makes alive, spirits us all. We share spirit in common.

We all are alive rather than not.

Let this great mystery move us all to wide-eyed wonder!

Some live lives that affirm their own life and the lives of others.

Some live lives that deny their own life and the lives of others.

Those who deny life, make the lives of those who affirm life necessary.

Those who affirm life, make the lives of those who deny life necessary.

We depend on each other.

Has it always been this way?

I don't know. I just know that it is this way now.

Will it always be this way?

I do not know. I just know that it is this way now.

Why is it this way?

I do not know. I just know that it is this way now.

Shouldn't we try to change it and make it better- more life-affirming?

The only way to make it more life-affirming is to deny the lives of those who deny life.

We who affirm life, affirm the lives of all the living, including those who deny life.

Goddesses, Gods, and Spirit, Part Three: Eternal Life?

As mentioned in the introduction to this series, spirit, understood in terms of the Ancient Greek concept of thumos, is that which makes alive. Everything that is alive has spirit and is spirited, including goddesses, gods, and other beings invisible to us humans.

The question I address in this post is whether or not I believe goddesses and gods are eternal. In addressing this question I reflect on the meaning of "eternal", the effects of believing that goddesses and gods are eternal, the meaning of immortal, and the effects of believing that goddesses and gods are immortal rather than eternal.

First, I do not believe that goddesses and gods are eternal. Here's why:

In Western civilization "eternal" tends to mean "always has been and always will be." An eternal god is without beginning and end. He is unchanging. He has no parents that conceived him, no birth, growth, decline, death, and rebirth. Such a god by necessity exists "outside of time", apart from the universe, and in a supernatural/metaphysical realm.

The effect of such a belief is the valuing of a realm, life, and existence that is outside the world we live in. It exalts what is eternal, unchanging, separated from "this world." It values life before and after the life we live in "this world." Those who believe in eternity often speak of going to a better place than this world after they die. Such a belief devalues, and often denies, all that is temporal and mortal, all that changes, and all that is of "this world"; that is, all of nature.

I simply cannot believe is something so life-denying.

Life-Affirming Social Practices, Part 2

Self-Support

When we adults support ourselves we work to obtain for ourselves the water, food, clothing, shelter, protection, and transportation we need to sustain our own lives. We do not expect others to support us. 

When we are self-supporting we do not depend on and add to the burdens of others who are working to sustain their own lives. Some who have others do their work for them are called "leaders" and "business owners." Others are called "dependents", "lazy", or worse. There is little difference between the two. Both live off the labor of others.

There are times when we are sick, injured, or otherwise unable to support ourselves. Then we have to depend on others to some extent.  That is as it should be.

A Reflection

How dependent on others are you for the water, food, clothing, shelter, protection, and transportation you need to sustain your life? It might be surprising to become aware of how deeply embedded we are in the matrix of industrialized consumerism. 

We're so embedded in and dependent on the matrix of industrialized consumerism, that we have lost the skills of obtaining food and water for ourselves, making our own clothes, building our own shelters, protecting ourselves, and providing our own transportation.

Based on your reflection of how dependent you are on the matrix of industrialism, what are some ways that you choose to use the matrix to your advantage? What are some ways that you'd like to liberate yourself? What small steps in the direction of liberation can you take starting today? 

Spirit-Centered Protection

My life, health and well-being are primarily my own responsibly. It is primarily up to me to protect myself from harm and keep myself alive and healthy. It is a responsibility I refuse to relinquish to others. Since protecting myself is about keeping myself alive, and since spirit is that which makes me alive, self-protection is a spirit-related matter.

Spirit-centered protection looks at self-protection from the perspective protecting one's own spirit in order to stay alive and live a healthy, creative, and happy life.

Self-Protection is Inherent to Our Spirit

Based on observations of living beings, I think it is reasonable to generalize that every living being has a natural, basic instinct to protect itself from harm. When we feel threatened  we either fight, flee, or freeze. Self-protection is inherent in our spirit. That which makes us alive has a basic desire to stay alive, unharmed, and healthy.

Self-Protection is Life-Affirming

Self-protection is life-affirming. It is something we do well to become very good at if we value our own spirit and life. If we do not value our own spirit and life, something very serious is wrong and we do well to address it.

Self-Protection Takes Many Forms

For us humans, self-protection takes many forms. It includes breathing fresh, clean air; drinking fresh, clean water; eating fresh, organic whole foods; having sufficient clothing and shelter; sleeping well; doing meaningful work; and protecting ourselves from both predators and natural disasters. 

Being able to protect ourselves is one characteristic of living as a mature, adult human being.

Questioning Relinquishing Our Responsibility to Others

We do well to recognize that often those who encourage us to depend on them for our protection, do us no favors. They nurture a dependence on them that weakens our natural instincts and bodies, and limits our freedom. They put us at risk.

Questioning Self-Sacrifice

We do well to recognize that often those who call for self-sacrifice do us no favors. Those who call for self-sacrifice rarely sacrifice themselves. They call on others to do what they themselves will not. 

However, we also do well to recognize our natural instinct to put our own lives at risk for those who are dear to us. For example, it is natural for parents to risk their own lives to protect their young. It is natural for friends to risk their lives for each other. Such actions to protect the lives of those dear to us and unable to protect themselves, differ greatly from those where we are asked to sacrifice our lives for cowards who clothe their appeal in abstractions of greater causes and higher callings.

Some Question to Consider

How safe are you? Are you giving yourself the air, water, food, shelter, and protection from harm you require in order to not only live but thrive?

What do you need to do to better protect yourself from harm?

What can you do today to take some steps in the direction  of better protecting yourself from harm?

If you have relinquished you responsibility for protecting yourself from harm, what can do to take it back?

Spirit-Centered Breathing, Part 4: Awareness

Once we've tried the basic spirit-centered breathing experiments, we have taken our first steps to no longer taking the air we breathe for granted.

Again, since we have to breathe to stay alive and spirit is that which makes us alive, breathing is a spirit-related matter. So is the quality of the air we breathe.

Our Homes

Wherever you are take note of the quality of the air you breathe. Often the air in our home is more polluted than the air outside. What chemicals and gasses affect the quality of air you breathe in your home? What can you do to reduce indoor pollution and improve it's quality? 

Simply switching from chemical-based cleaning products to vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and hydrogen peroxide can help. Adding air-cleaning in-door plants also helps. And, depending on where you live, opening the windows occasionally to let in cleaner outdoor air can help as well. 

Traveling

When you are walking, riding a bike, driving a car, taking public transportation, or flying take note of the quality of the air you breathe. Is it fresh and clean? Can you take alternative means of transportation or routes where you can avoid combustion engine exhaust and breathe cleaner, fresher air?

Our Destinations

When you arrive at your destination- office, factory, store, restaurant, someone else's home, a park, a hotel- what is the quality of air? How does it affect your spirit? Is the air helpful or harmful for you to breathe?

Conclusion

Unfortunately, in the highly industrialized West, much of the air we breath is polluted. Improving its quality begins with a heightened awareness of how essential clean, fresh air is to our health and well-being and the health and well-being of all the living.

Spirit-Centered Drinking, Part 4: Effect on Others

What effect does our drinking have on the spirits of others? Does it unnecessarily devalue, diminish, and deny the spirits and lives of others or does it help care for, support, and affirm their spirits and lives?  

Asking ourselves these questions might lead us to see that we can easily take for granted what we drink. We can drink mindless of the effect on others.

Asking these questions can lead us to understand that they are not easy questions to answer. Asking them can also inspire us to wonder and ask more questions.

I find it helpful to be specific. What effect does drinking this bottle of water have on others? My answers to this question differ from the ones I ask about drinking this cup of coffee, this cup of tea, and that shot of scotch.

Such questions can lead to me asking, "Where did this drink come from and how did it get to me?"

If I'm drinking bottled water, I can become aware of where it came from and how it got to me. When I do this I am amazed by the complex industrial matrix with which I connect when I take a sip from the bottle of water I hold in my hand. 

After I become aware of the matrix I'm in,  I can reflect on whether or not I want to remain in it or opt out for something more life-affirming for myself and others. If I choose to opt out, I can then explore my alternatives for the best life-affirming choice available to me at the time and take steps in that direction.

Spirit-Centered Drinking, Part 2

Spirit-centered drinking is drinking mindful of our own spirit, the spirit of what we drink, and the spirits of others. 

Here is an exercise: Before you drink water, coffee, fruit juice, tea, beer, wine, scotch, or anything else check your spirit. Focus your attention on the center of your chest, breathe in, breathe out. How is your spirit? How does it feel? How animated is your spirit? Is it warm or cold? How would you describe it? After you have a good sense of your spirit, take the next step.

Drink. Take a sip. Hold it in your mouth and taste what you're drinking. Swallow. Notice how it feels flowing down your throat.

Now, attend to your spirit again. Focus again on the center of your chest. Breathe in, breathe out. How is your spirit now? How does it feel? Has it changed? How?

Take another sip and repeat. Hold it in your mouth and taste what you're drinking. Swallow. Feel it flowing down your throat.

Attend to your spirit, the center of your chest. How does it feel now?

Repeat the steps above until you finish your drink.

Spirit-Centered Eating, Part 3: The Spirits of Others Affected by Our Eating

Everything we kill and eat is the neighbor, child, sibling, and possibly parent of others. What effect does our killing and eating other living beings have on those to whom they are related? Are we mindful of the effect?

Do we take the killing and eating of plants and animals for granted? If so, why? How did we become so thoughtless about killing and eating other living beings?

How might eating habits change by being mindful of the spirits of others connected with what we kill and eat?

Next time you're about to eat something, pause for a moment.  Consider the effect of your eating on the spirits of others affected by the killing of what you're about to put into your mouth.

The Wisdom of Spirit-Centered Eating

Perhaps there is wisdom in us being mindful of our own spirit as we eat. 

Perhaps there is wisdom in being mindful of the spirits of those we kill and eat.

Perhaps we do well to be mindful of relationships affected by the death of what we eat.

Perhaps we do well to treat with deep respect and honor those we kill and eat. On them our lives depend.

Spirit-Centered Eating, Part 2: The Spirit of Our Food

What about the spirit of what we eat? 

When we kill other living beings in order to eat them, their spirits leave at different speeds. For example, an apple doesn't die as soon as we pick it. Its spirit leaves gradually over time. However, the spirit of a freshly killed chicken leaves quickly.

How spirited are the seeds, roots, stems, leaves, vegetables and fruits we eat? How spirited are the fish, birds, and other animals we eat? Generally speaking, fresh, local, in-season, organic, whole foods are the most spirited. The sooner we preserve the plants animals we kill, the more spirit they retain. However, the more processed plants and animals are, the less spirit they retain. 

Try this: eat a meal of fresh, local, in-season vegetables and eat a meal of the same vegetables from a grocery store's canned vegetables aisle. See if you sense a difference in the spiritedness of the two meals. An even easier test is comparing fresh, free-range, organic chicken eggs with cheaper caged, chemically-treated chicken eggs. Can you sense the difference?

Why Practice Thumotic Spirituality?

Thumotic spirituality isn't for everyone.

It isn't for those at home in the status quo of the Western industrialized culture- capitalists and their machine-like factory workers building widgets and providing services in compliance with productivity numbers.

It isn't for those at home in the Western monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in which adherents alienate themselves from non-believers as well as the rest of nature.

Neither is it for those who seek an escape from Western industrialized and monotheistic culture by turning to Eastern religious ways and looking inward.

Thumotic spirituality is for those who can no longer deny the denial of life, destruction, depletion, depression, disease, and death in the wake of the so-called "progress" of Western civilization.

It's for those seeking a life-affirming alternative within Western civilization. 

It's for those who value life, all of life, and want to engage in rather than escape from it. 

It's for those courageous enough to be responsible for their own life in relation with others, blaze their own path out of the Western status quo, and shift the momentum of Western civilization, one person, one step, at a time.

Emotions: A Thumological Perspective, Part 3

Life-Denying and Life-Affirming Emotions

Generally speaking, mind-based emotions tend to be life-denying whereas experience-based emotions tend to be life-affirming. 

Mind-based emotions tend to be life-denying because they are incongruent. They are based on our self-talk and mental images but expressed outwardly in our interactions with others as if they were experienced-based. 

For example, mind-based anger expressed in our interactions with others frequently harms ourselves and others. It's life-denying because it inspires action against those with whom we interact even though they did nothing to prompt our anger. Our anger was mind-based, prompted by our own self-talk and mental images. 

Experience-based emotions, on the other hand, tend to be life-affirming because they are congruent. They are our natural, life-affirming, emotional responses to our in-the-world interactions with others. They inspire us to action that is an appropriate response to what we experience in our interactions with others.

For example, when someone mistreats and harms us we can respond with anger. Our anger inspires us to act by defending ourselves from the threat. Such anger affirms our own life as well as the life of the one who threatened us. It says, "My life is valuable and worth protecting. Your life is valuable and worth correcting."

Guilt: A Spiritual Matter, Part 4

Life-Affirming Guilt

Life-affirming guilt preserves and sustains our spirit and life so that we can fulfill the life-affirming desires of our hearts. It is based in our immediate experience, instincts, and intuition.

It's about our present experience of our immediate past treatment of another living being. 

Life-affirming guilt is analogous to physical pain. The physical pain we feel when we touch fire tells us that fire is a threat to our life. Likewise, the acute guilt we feel after we mistreat, threaten, injure, or end the life of another living being tells us that such actions threaten the other's spirit and life. It re-enforces the value of the spirit and life of every living being.

Life-affirming guilt teaches us on the basis of our own experiences. It teaches us to avoid behaviors that threaten the life of others. 

The feeling of guilt in our spirit teaches us how not to behave so that we may live life-affirming lives in relation to to others.

We do well to recognize and banish life-denying, mind-based guilt. We do well to recognize and develop life-affirming, spirit-focused guilt. It sustains our life, re-enforces the value of life, and enables us to fulfill the life-affirming desires of our hearts.

Guilt: A Spiritual Matter, Part 2

Life-Denying Guilt

Life-denying guilt can prevent us from fulfilling the life-affirming desires of our hearts. It can also give us a bad conscience for fulfilling such life-affirming desires as maintaining our health and well-being, enjoying life, living our life as we choose, and becoming who we are meant to become. 

It's mind-based.

It's guilt felt for thinking about or imagining something even before we've actually done it.

It arises from a mind-based response of not complying with a moral standard that is-

- Some one else's standard

- Externally imposed from childhood and throughout our lives

- Imposed by means of verbal, emotional, and physical coercion

- Mentally internalized

- Benefits those who want power over others

- Presented by those in power as being good for those on whom it is imposed

The mentally internalized message has us say to ourselves, "No, that's wrong! Don't do that. If you do that you're immoral."

For example, it has us believe that we are immoral when we-

- See the world differently than those who would exercise power over us

- Openly share our own unique views with others when those in power want us to be quiet

- Develop our own beliefs and practices based on our own experience rather than the beliefs and practices of those who would exercise power over us

- Stand up to and resist others who try to control us and limit our life and freedom.

- Decide for ourselves when we've been wronged, defend ourselves, fight back, or re-establish justice by revenge. Those who would exercise power over us would rather decide for us whether or not we have been wronged and, if we have, what to do with those who wronged us.

- Enjoy life-affirming sex in any way other than the way approved of by those who would exercise power over us.

- Say anything that might offend those who want to exercise power over us.

- Desire abundance for ourselves and those for whom we care. Those in power would have us be quiet, content with, and grateful for what we have even when we lack basic needs.

Part 3 will present more on life-denying guilt.

Guilt: A Spiritual Matter, Part 1

Like fear, guilt is an acute condition of our spirit. Guilt is real and plays an important role in our lives. We do well to develop rather than diminish our ability to feel guilty. 

Guilt indicates that we mistreated, threatened, injured, or ended the life of another living being. Since spirit is that which makes alive and guilt indicates that we harmed a living being, guilt is a matter of the spirit.

It is more a thumological rather than psychological event. 

While we do well to develop our ability to feel guilty, it is important to understand that there are two kinds of guilt: life-denying and life-affirming.

My next post will be about life-denying guilt.

Fear: A Spiritual Matter

Fear indicates a threat to our life. As such, it is a spiritual matter. How so? Since our spirit is that which makes us alive and fear indicates a threat to our life, fear is spirit-related.

Fear is an acute condition of our spirit. It is a thumological rather than psychological event.

There are two kinds of fear: life-denying and life-affirming.

Life-Denying Fear

Life-denying fear hinders or prevents us from fulfilling the life-affirming desires of our hearts. It is mind-based. Our thoughts (self talk) and imaginings provoke it. 

It's past-oriented in that memories of our own experiences or other's stories of harm inspire our thoughts and imaginings. We speak to ourselves and imagine scenes about things that are not actually happening. They're happening only in our minds. Even so, they provoke fear in our spirit and thereby deny us acting in ways that fulfill the life-affirming desires of our hearts.

Life-Affirming Fear

Life-affirming fear preserves and sustains our spirit and life so that we can fulfill the life-affirming desires of our hearts. It is based in our immediate experience, instincts, and intuition.

It's present-oriented but also about our immediate future. There is a real threat to our spirit and therefore our life. Our life is at risk. There is someone or something that could harm or kill us. 

Taking immediate action to protect and keep our spirit affirms our life. We either freeze, fight, or flee. Since we keep living, we can act in ways that fulfill the life-affirming desires of our hearts. 

We do well to recognize and banish life-denying, mind-based fear. We do well to recognize and develop life-affirming, spirit-focused fear. It sustains our life and enables us to fulfill the life-affirming desires of our hearts.

Wonder! Mystery! We Are Alive...and Sexy!

We are alive and we are very sexy. Look around. We're sexing all the time. Sexing is going on right now as you read these words. Males and females are sexing. Females and females are sexing. Males and males are sexing. Every species is sexing. We're sexing alone, in pairs, and in groups. Orgasms abound all around!

Sex is the second great mystery. Why sex? Many try to explain it by reducing it to either a metaphysical fall into physicality or mere biology. No one knows why life goes on by way of the pleasure and pain of joining genitals, sperm and eggs, earth and sky. It just does. 

Sex is inherent in the great mystery of life. It is a natural part of life. Life and sex go together.

No life, no sex. No sex, no life. 

Human sex is what we humans make it. Healthy humans make sex one thing. The less healthy make it another.

The healthy, those who welcome and celebrate being alive, affirm the pleasures and creative powers of sex free of inhibitions.

 

Only the less healthy, those who despise being alive, make sex life-denying and distort it into something to despise, restrict, and minimize.