Twenty things I think I think
your questions and/or corrections greatly appreciated
1) The most important commandment Jesus gave is this: DO. NOT. JUDGE.
2) We naturally evolve in many ways and on many levels as we make our way through life. If our particular religion supports our evolution, we are indeed blessed. However, if our particular religion cannot abide with some aspect of our lives, we must either find a way to live with the dissonance or consider making a change.
3) At times religion can be harmful. Be particularly careful if you’re made to feel that you cannot disagree with any particular teaching. If you mistrust your religion or if you have turned your back on it, that is perfectly okay. You are just fine. God will continue to guide you. He never gives up on lost sheep.
4) This is an essentially benevolent universe. There is a force in the universe which conspires for our good. When we reach out and ask for help, the universe meets us more than half way.
5) If we’re going to thrive, we often need something the world doesn’t readily offer us: We need silence. It’s one of the great blessings of being a monk. Those of you who are not monks have got to find ways to carve out pockets of silence in your own lives. You have to learn now to give others the gift of silence as well. Sometimes your silence is more helpful than anything you might want to say.
6) We need to consciously train ourselves to treasure things we often take for granted: beauty, light, color, reflectiveness, creativity, and friends who lift us out of ourselves.
7) We need to separate ourselves from anything that is toxic, but in order to do that, we have to learn to recognize what threatens our well-being in either the short term in the long run.
8) One helpful way to assess the value or harm of any particular action or activity is to sit back and notice how we’re feeling. If inspired or uplifted, that’s good. If however we find we’re aggravated, worried, angry or simply exhausted, then we need to re-evaluate how we spend our time or with whom
9) When we identify what it is that makes us most truly alive and then go after it with everything we have and everything we are.
10) We must train ourselves to bear with utmost patience the weaknesses of body and behavior of others. We must bear with utmost patience our own weaknesses as well.
11) The more we learn to praise and encourage others, the better it makes us feel as well.
12) We only hurt ourselves when we harbor anger, bitterness, bigotry. or envy.
13) When we refuse to forgive those who have hurt us we keep the pain they’ve caused us alive.
14) Sometimes we do well to remind ourselves to mind our own business.
15) Most of the time, joy is our reward for making wise choices. Joy is in the NOW.
16) The pursuit of joy, however, usually results in its opposite and is usually focused on trying to control the unknown future.
17) Generous people are generally a lot happier than those who are stingy.
18) Those who have struggled and overcome obstacles along the way often have more to offer than do people who have always had it easy.
19) Sometimes it’s difficult to do good without expecting anything in return. Those who regularly do so are particularly blessed.
20) Sexuality, sexual identity and sexual orientation are intensely complex and multifaceted matters. Those who think it’s simply a matter of male/female or gay/straight are the ones the more prone to judging people who are different than they are without having any idea what they’re going through.