Understanding Conditioning -- Volume Seven

Beginning Life All Over Again

It doesn't happen every day that one can begin life all over again -- which one should welcome rather than dread, and fear.  That is probably the great wisdom of life -- that one can always begin anew -- but only by dying to the old, and being reborn in the new.  We know that other forms of life make this metamorphosis -- to fully actualize their existences.

Probably one of the great distinctions of human life, is that we can do it often -- as many times as we choose to -- when we choose to embrace the wholly new.  Some people make a lifestyle of change, and adapting to change, while others will have an unbroken continuity of repeating the same patterns every year of their life -- and not think that it could ever be different.

They will think that life where they are is perfect, or paradise -- requiring no change forevermore -- which is not how we got here, or can ever expect to stay the same.  People don't change because they want to; they change because they have to -- for their continued viability and fullest Otherwise, they deteriorate and die, and refuse to change anymore, despite their present course not working.  That's why people grow old.  They make a critical decision, and refuse to change forevermore -- that kills them.

The obvious ones are the addictions that speed their decline and self-destruction.  Less obvious are the lifestyle habits -- of excessive consumption of what would ordinarily be healthful in moderation -- as eating, resting, thoughtful risk-taking.  

The milestones for a new beginning, are the rites of passages -- into adulthood, maturity and then seniority.  Those are the well-recognized opportunities for beginning life all over again -- that a few take full advantage of, while most refuse to make the leap.   They do not go on -- but fall by the wayside, to watch those who go on -- trek on to the promised land.

That is the story that has been repeated by every people -- since time immemorial. That is the history and evolution of humankind.  It is also the story of individuals -- and the difference they make in their own lives -- that changes the world.  It's not an abstraction or generalization, but the fact of every life, and what gives it meaning and significance -- the real choices people make and actualize.  That's what makes their life.

That is the significance of "retirement," that many dread -- thinking that it is just the continuation of the life they have lived up to now, but with less money.  However, they should have learned by then, how to live on less money -- as the wisdom of their lives, rather than as many still think, that they simply need more money -- and that they'll never have enough, because it is the thinking that makes it so, all things being equal.

That is how one knows one has grown wiser, and not just older; the wiser negates the older, and failing to do so, is what ages people.  That is the indisputable truth.  People who grow wiser, don't grow older -- but because they don't grow wiser, have to grow older.  Older and obsolescence doesn't just happen; it happens because we fail to grow wiser.  That is the hard truth to swallow -- and so we prefer to believe that growing old is inevitable.  We obviously, have not solved the right problem -- rightly.

The solution to a problem, is not the problem -- but the elimination of it -- totally.  Then one can move on -- rather than solve the same old problem, as the great nemesis of one's existence.  That is just the continuation of the old, and not beginning life wholly, freshly new -- because one realizes a much better life is possible that way.

 Your Health is Your Wealth

Health is not something separate from your life -- but is the summation of all one does and is.  There is no good health in spite of it.  There is good health, and good life, only because of it.

That is to say, that the way one is, is a direct result of what one does -- and not that there is no relationship between one's health and the way one lives it.  People have good lives, because they live good lives -- and have bad lives, because they live bad lives.  People who do bad things to their health, have health problems, and its many complications.

The obvious one is smoking; slightly less obvious, is overeating, and eating bad food choices, and not exercising to keep the body well-conditioned -- so that it can do the many things it might want to do -- instead of always explaining that one can't do that -- which eventually becomes everything.

How is a reasonable person to expect that their quality of life and activities will   be severely impacted and limited -- until finally, one needs an army of caregivers to do everything for them -- because one has long given up doing anything for oneself anymore, and think getting everybody else to do everything for them, is their seniority entitlement.  Those are choices people make to become less competent and able -- just as it is a healthy choice to become more competent and able.  

It is not the same -- whether one chooses to be healthier, or unhealthier.  Such choices matter profoundly, in everything one chooses to do -- in one's life.  It's not just health for health's sake, something only vain and arrogant people do.  It is what every intelligent being does -- choose to enhance their chances for survival, and beyond that, actualizing the greatest life one can live -- as the primary meaning and purpose of their lives.

All one has is a chance -- at life.  There are no guarantees and entitlements of the best life -- but one has a chance at it, and that is as much as one can hope for.  The rest is learning what makes life better, and what makes life worse, and choosing to make it better -- every day of one's life.  As soon as one stops doing that, than there is no reason or hope that things can get better -- because one doesn't no the difference, or care to know.

So things get worse -- and one has long forgotten how to make any difference in their lives -- which is their world.  And so they complain about the world not working -- and not just them -- who they think has no part in it.  They see the many ways to fail -- and no way to succeed.  That is their choice -- the way they see the world, as not working, and only getting worse.  

But obviously, the world is working, or there wouldn't be so many people in the world -- setting world records.  People get better, because it is in their DNA to get better -- unless they choose not to.  They sit on the banks and watch the rest of humanity cross the river because they've decided that they can't go on -- and they don't want to do anything about it.  They've lost the will to change.  They now demand that the whole world change for them.

One Thing Leads to Another


A lot of people are very discouraged by thinking of all the things they need to do -- that they never get around to doing anything at all -- and are exhausted and discouraged just thinking about it.

That's because they haven't prioritize what they need to do most -- and first, and the rest will follow from that.  But that doesn't happen just by doing anything -- or anything first.  One merely has to do the right thing first -- and from that, the next right thing will follow.

That right thing for humans, is increasing the blood flow to the brain -- and then the brain so empowered, will determine where the need is next.  And in that manner, one is soon operating at maximum capacity, firing on all cylinders -- rather than wondering why did one do that?  Then while one is trying to figure that out, their next moment of opportunity passes them by -- as all the mistakes, misgivings and regrets pile up -- and one feels lucky just to survive the day.

And the next day is no better -- but the same nightmare of not getting anything right.  One gets up, rushes into one crisis after another -- before the fog wears off and they have a glimpse of how they hoped the day would turn out -- very different from the mess they are already in, and have no way of getting out, but to hope that time will extricate them from that disaster.

And so people who have observed these things in people and themselves, establish a practice of getting their heads right -- before doing anything else, which often consists of prayer or meditation as the first thing they do to begin each day -- religiously!  But one doesn't have to live in a monastery to see the wisdom of turning on and connecting the mind (brain) to every other part of one's body -- as a daily ritual that makes their life work better. 

One doesn't have to do everything -- all at once, from the very beginning -- but doing the one thing almost nobody does before charging out in the world -- to save the world, is the biggest contribution anyone can make to the world -- and that is in achieving that clarity, before one attempts to do anything else.  It is much like the warmup we see every athlete do, before attempting their best -- rather than just randomly making as many attempts as possible -- often injuring themselves in that way.

That is obviously somebody who does not know what they are doing -- or care to.  Not surprisingly, their outcomes are not good -- though they complain loudly and endlessly about being cheated by the world in this way, and can never figure out what they are doing wrong -- of which they never question.  They will insist that they do everything right -- because they think they are doing everything important to do.

That is a lot like the exercise people do -- what they think is important to do, rather than what makes a difference in their lives and appearance -- that those who look healthy, are those who are healthy -- because they make themselves that way.  Even those who should know better, don't think such a thing is possible -- that what they do, is who they are -- because doing and being, have become disconnected in their minds.  That is not the world healthy people live in -- in which everything is related to everything else, and caused by everything else.

So changing one thing, already makes a difference -- leading to the next -- and not that one has to change everything, before one can change one thing, or anything -- which is how a lot of dysfunctional people think.  So when you asked them to change one thing, they tell you of all the things they cannot change -- as their reason, for doing nothing.  Everything is futile, doesn't make a difference, because they fail to distinguish what does -- before attempting anything.

That is what we call preparation -- before one does anything -- which makes the difference in the outcome.  We do that for very few things, when we should do it for everything we do.  The preparation rather than the single attempt, is what defines us -- even more than world (personal) records, because it is what we do all the time -- regardless of the consideration of success or failure.  It is simply the way we do things -- everything in our lives, and not just one or any other will see.  That is the truth of our existence, our being.  That is the life we live.