Cave Series 2: Troglodytes

I look at the cobblestones on the street. They exist. I see a dog. It is playing. I watch a woman walking. I was told it was all out there, that that was reality, but lo! I remember my cave and counter the thought with the experience of the film projectionist.

I am a strange being, I can empathise with sky, sun and moon, and plants and trees, and with animals. And they are always beautiful. I don't judge them very much. But I only seem to see the outside skin of people, their clothes and hair, and I unfortunately judge them as to their beauty or lack of it, whether they look happy or sad, calm or stressed, eyes vacant or eyes glinting life, and so on. Sometimes I walk for minutes on end and can’t see any joy. And then maybe I’m lucky enough to see a dog jumping around with a plastic bottle in its mouth, or a toddler squealing with arms reaching up to the sky. That seems nicer than many of those tired, wrinkled adult faces I encounter on my walks.

The movie projector operator switches on the light and sets the reel in motion and the images magically appear on the white screen. And so to counter my judgemental mind, I picture the realities of people coming into my field of vision as images on my mind’s screen. After all, we are trapped like troglodytes in a Plato’s cave of sense perceptions. How can we see Reality? Everything is filtered through the five senses. This is the way our machine is made. What other avenues of approach do we have? I saw the dog, but then only as an image on a screen. With that attitude, I realise I do not know what a dog really is. Maybe even my hero Cesar Millán doesn’t either, although he knows more than many. I saw a woman, but I willed her onto my mental screen and I realised I did not know what she was either. I am only getting a partial data flow. I have severe bandwidth limitations! Visible light hits a few cones on the retina, and the brain reacts as it is accustomed to. Vibrations in the air as the woman talks to a friend hit my eardrum, and the cochlea transmits what we call sound to the brain, again converting a physical stimulus into a psychological phenomenon, and science can’t say how this is achieved. It’s a trap, “on purpose laid to make the taker mad”, as we sit shackled to our posts in the dark cave, interpreting things we have grown used to. Feasting on impressions in our troglodytical life.

What sense impressions give are raw materials for the mind. It’s up to us to decide what to do with them. And my thoughts are of the same ilk. Why do I have to pass judgement on what I appear to see? Why should I allow myself to have a thought produced from a raw sense perception? Behind all this lies the darkness of the cave. Maybe there isn’t even a cave, maybe it’s just nothingness, brought to life by thinking it’s somethingness. 

Whatever the case, cave-life is what we have, so cave-life must be studied and understood. And then troglodytes blinded by the sun’s rays may be transformed into Seers.

Edward’s Diary Entry 55 – Virtue 8. Austerity (Tapas) / What to do about excess?

Excess, overindulgence, talkativeness, lack of strictness, lack of mindfulness…

Austerity, when it means “tapas”, is a big thing. It is also sometimes referred to as self-discipline. Hindu scriptures lay down various levels of tapas: 1) bodily tapas, including five: cleansing, worship, truthfulness, control of passions, non-violence; then 2) vocal tapas, and 3) mental tapas. So “tapas” enlarged like this touches on other main Virtues of the 26. So let’s try to make it simple. 

Body. Do rituals that enhance something higher: venerate or hold in esteem and dedicate time to teachers, saints and wise men; practise purity of mind, straightforwardness, control of the passions and non-injury to others.

Speech. Avoid unnecessary talk, excited discussion, fictitious or useless arguments, speak only what is truthful if pleasant and beneficial, and only what is pleasant and beneficial if truthful. If not, shut up. Remember you learned language before you were actually self-aware or conscious, and that is why uncontrolled, unmeditated speech should be avoided. It is habit-forming. Read enlightening and inspiring literature, not junk. Worldometers says some 5000 new books are published PER DAY in the world. Your life is short. Can you possibly read what everyone is producing? Choose words, and books, wisely.

Mind. Watch the mind. There is a “watcher” and “that which is watched”. The mere act of “watching” or “observing” or of “being present” and seeing thoughts and feelings come and go tends to tame the uncontrolled fluctuations of the mind. Start slowly with a mental exercise for 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes. Over a period of a few months, if you persevere, you will be able to “watch” for longer. If there is no “watching and waiting” you are acting from habit, and you’re a walking man-machine, or woman-machine, reacting to external stimuli without knowing it. If you’re “watching”, you sometimes realise you have sidetracked or been led off into miscellaneous thoughts. Come back to yourself, start again. And again and again. A mind that is watched is the beginning of your own mind, to be controlled by you, and not by outside circumstances and others.

This is such stuff as austerity is made on…

Cave Series 1: Open Sesame!

I am in a cave. It is pitch black. There is no light. A soft phosphorescence sometimes appears, maybe from the walls, maybe it’s my eyes, I don’t know. They come in soft green, blurry white, royal purple, silvery pink. But they come and go. It’s no use reaching out to them, they disappear. And it’s difficult to know whether you’re reaching out to them or they’re running towards you. It’s too dark.

Calm inside, no sweat, no heat. It’s not cold either. Except for the chill of being chained inside. Well, not literally chained, but certainly trapped in the darkness. I stand up straight, or imagine I do. I shout at the top of my lungs. “Open, Sesame!” The sound deafens me as it bounces off the rocks, the walls, hooting along into every corner and down passageways and coming back again and again. My head echoes. My ears ring. The wait is long. I don’t know which way to shout. There must be a crack somewhere that will open up with these cries.

I then bow down to the floor, and the last vestiges of breath are forced out. I am empty. I cry silently for light to come. I crack my forehead on the hard floor. I say please. I remain crouched like an animal at bay. I say please again. This is my last breath, for sure. There can be no more. Breathing will stop. All will be gone. One more please. Is it over?

It is not over. Air comes rushing in again, a fury of air. It is my first screaming breath. I am a baby again. To make room in my lungs, I stand up, and I repeat the shout once more. I am alive! “Open, Sesame!” And on and on it goes, and I lose track of time. I lose track. I am in a cave. It is pitch black. And there is no light yet. But I shout and shout again, and say please.

Edward’s Diary Entry 54 – Virtue 7. Studiousness / What to do about ignorance?

Lack of cultivation, No interest in learning or studying, unjustified self-assuredness, laziness, lack of interest in the history of your species…

For the Instinctual type (although deranged by society, there are people who understand the world more through moving and acting and by sheer heart rather than feeling or thought), or for the Emotional type (pulsating with sentiment but lacking somewhat in action and thought), STUDY is difficult. For the Thinker, STUDY should probably be curtailed, as these types will suffocate themselves in studying and more studying, and neither feel nor act or do anything; they just intellectualise all the time.

But our modern-day conception of “study” is also a little exaggerated. Yes, we need information – all too true since neither parents nor society will usually give us true information, but only their own points of view. And yes, we need experience from the past – it certainly can’t come from the future! Yes, we need reference works and the opinions of our ancients and our elders, from the knowledgeable. But we don’t need that much information anymore. What we need is information about information: where to get it, how to get it, and what to do with it. And we need 21st-century information, not outdated 19th-C theories projected into the present. We need the bare facts about human life on this planet. We need intelligent, provocative science, not dry repetitions of the world through human eyes and foregone conclusions – that’s not the real world! We need to study bare essentials, and start from scratch again, from ground zero. Question everything, and keep on questioning. We need to study ignorance.

We have to find information on HOW to be studious and combat ignorance, because with all our studying at schools and universities since 1088 (University of Bologna) or 1096 (Oxford), or 1134  (Salamanca), we have forged the modern world – with many advantages, true, but with so many problems: population, famine, water, obesity, pollution, violence, military spending, wars, forest loss, land loss, CO2 emissions, desertification, toxic chemicals,  government deficits, etc. If you, as one of the 7.4 billion human beings on the planet don’t start correcting this, who will? If you leave it to Mother (Nature), don’t worry, she’ll correct it, but lots of people, maybe including you, aren’t going to like her solution! She may start getting rid of the culprit, and the culprit is called “All of Us”. Even elementary civics says “ignorance of the law is no excuse”. And ignorance of world and natural laws is no excuse either. We will be tried and found guilty by Nature if we don’t solve the problem of an inherited, inefficient human mind that destroys the planet due to ignorance.

Step 1. Pinpoint the problem. If you don’t already know it’s your MIND that’s the problem, keep trying other things like blaming others, your parents, your childhood traumas, the government, capitalists, communists, other religions, circumstances, destiny, God, aliens from outer space… until you die:  Then your problem is solved by Nature. You cease to exist. And in a world that is ecological and sustainable – today’s corporate catchwords – “your mind” is recycled. The thinking and feeling “you” that you consider yourself to be has only one chance in this life, no more.

Step 2. Plan for correction. If you do realise your own MIND is the only culprit, find out how to correct it and lay out a plan, a philosophy, a way out of the jungle. Watch out for dependence on belief systems, dogmas, teachings, gurus, father-figures…These only work or help if they allow you to work or help yourself.

Step 3. Apply measures. Once you’ve decided on the Plan, apply your measures and learn on your own. Only you can do this. No one else can.

Step 4. Persevere. Despite difficulties, problems, setbacks, lack of progress, ennui, just keep going. We’re fighting against years, perhaps decades, of wrong thinking, wrong acting, uninterpreted sense perceptions, past habits and behaviour patterns. So we have a long way to go. The only thing we can do is continue, doubt, study, learn, persevere, cultivate true Intellect, seek Enlightenment.

Pretended smartness is ignorance. Recognise ignorance and you start getting smarter.

Edward’s Diary Entry 53 – Virtue 6. Readiness to Make Sacrifices / Worship – What to do about egoism?

Inability to sacrifice, lack of rituals, no sense of higher or lower, self-centredness, egoism, lack of reverence, clinging to the body…

Again and again, we see how “Sacrifice” most often refers to a song by Elton John, a typical mainstream ditty about two hearts living in separate worlds, one of which dreams about a past lover, with a nice catchy chorus. In fact, I like the melody and Elton’s superb delivery. So many songs sound great, but their meanings are simply too simple, either pining/complaining about the past, or getting excited/indignant about the future. There is very little music about the “Present Moment”, isn't that funny, because that seems boring for simple minds living in the past – which is only fragmented memory – and projecting to the future – which of course never really comes.

I have sometimes seen someone in the street sacrificing a few coins for a beggar, and that raises an eyebrow. I know people sacrifice their time to care for dogs or get involved in animal shelters. Family members sacrifice for family. Husband and wife sometimes sacrifice for each other, parents for children, and all this seems good. The difficult part is when it comes to sacrificing one’s concept of oneself for something unknown, theoretically greater. That’s tough.

As we look at more and more of the moral qualities we call “virtues” and their corresponding or related absences (named “vices”), they start melting together like spots on a tiger. Where does one end and the other begin? The opposite of fearlessness is fear of losing one’s own concept of oneself (ego); the lack of purity of heart is due to the infectious vices of the personality (ego); the opposite of charitableness is protecting one’s own property and keeping it for oneself (ego); the absence of anger is the battle to conquer one’s innate violence towards others (ego)… and so it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut used to say. 

If there is no Self-Awareness and everything seems “hunky-dory” – as long as circumstances are favourable – there is no need to study Virtues or Vices. The way you have been brought up and educated yourself is enough for you. But if, and only if, there is something stirring, and you’re not sure what to do about it, let’s look at a THREE SIMPLE STEPS we can take to go forward and combat this vice of “inability or refusal to sacrifice”:

Step One. DEFINE SOMETHING “HIGHER THAN YOURSELF (WITHIN)”. The mind or some kind of intuitive sense, must be convinced that there is something lacking, something missing, and that an effort can be made to achieve that “something”. This can also be a partial truth in that we do not really “achieve” anything, but to start with, our dissatisfaction produces an action towards even this “partial truth”. There is a division between lower nature and higher nature. We are in lower nature. We want to realise higher nature. Therefore, an attitude and feeling of “reverence” has to be produced and promoted. We need to worship, we need a sense of wonder, a feeling of devotion. Not because anybody tells us to, but because what you place in a higher realm in your mind inspires you to attain it. We need to counteract the downward pull of the ego, which only wants to look out for itself, or pride itself on looking out for others. To counteract that effect, we place some kind of Higher Nature, or Overself, Conscious Man, Higher Self, Creator, Prophet, God, or whatever you want to call it – the word doesn’t matter – on a pedestal and we bow down before it, mentally and physically. Anything is good for this: a leaf, a flower, a fish, a face. If you’re really exaggerated, and not squeamish, you can use a fingernail paring or a worm! After all, if you really look at it and contemplate it, you will see that it is far more complicated than any Smartphone you may own. Anything natural is beyond our power to create. If you cannot create a fly, you should not kill it, they say. And we humans don’t create anything – have you ever thought about it? – we just juggle physical pieces around in different combinations. Show me “creation” – and I’ll show you a Mystic. The argument usually revolves around this: since creation is so complex and beautiful, there must be a Creator. And remember, by cutting things down into smaller pieces under a vast array of microscopes, or exploding them up via visible light (Hubble) telescopes, science hasn’t found any explanations – it’s all still a mystery! It’s us – me and you – who have to find out what it all means, not them.

Step Two. DEFINE YOUR “RITUALS”. Once you have defined something Higher Than Yourself, you need to do something to cater to that something, to relate with it. Worship is supposed to be pleasing to the gods – humans have been doing it for millennia. The advantage of worship is that is accumulates energy for you. It makes your mind stronger. The disadvantage has often been that it involves “immoral” or “insane” behaviour, like killing animals (sheep, bulls, oxen, female calves, male calves, doves, pigeons, geese…), cutting throats (lambs), sacrificing virgins, offering up firstborn sons (guess who?), cutting down trees and burning them (Indus river), flagellating backs, cutting faces, female genital mutilation, circumcision, etc.), unnecessarily plucking flowers, squandering resources needed for other things (bloodless offerings like grain and wine, clarified butter, spices and wood), amongst others. Human beings have done all kinds of supposed “sacrifices” for totally absurd and horripilant ideas, for thankless gods who never paid them back, for fearsome gods who supposedly demanded flesh and blood. It’s crazy. So, TODAY and NOW, let’s keep it clean and simple. Certain bodily movements are enough, a few offerings of flowers, incense, candles or whatever you choose, will do – with a repetitious mental exercise for concentration. It’s not WHAT you give, it’s HOW you act. A few coins given here and there – without expecting anything in return. Maybe even a structure for helping others, say an hour a week dedicated to the poor, the needy, or simply a sick relative. Something extra that you do, not because of circumstances, like helping a sick relative, but because you DECIDE to do it, and STICK to your decision, come what may. That is the establishment of a ritual. A ritual builds energy and will. It is not the ritual itself or the physical objects you handle. It is the continued practise of a set of actions, physical and mental, with the unexpected kickback that after a certain time, you are FIRMER, more PERSEVERING, CALMER in MIND and more AGREEABLE in character. If you’re doing it right.

Step Three. PERSEVERE IN YOUR RITUALS. After a time, as mentioned above, what at first seemed impossible becomes easier. What you couldn’t do, you now seem to be doing effortlessly. But when the going gets tough, you stick at it. Impatience is a not a good companion. The mind will begin chattering about why you should quit: "You’re getting nowhere!", "Why are you doing this?", "Why bother, you’ve been at it for some time and nothing’s happening", etc., etc. With minimal Self-Awareness, you know the mind will always want to chatter, so you don’t listen. With more Self-Awareness, you shut its trap almost by nipping the thought in the bud. "It" doesn’t chatter so much anymore. There are times of silence… moments of immense silence and power, and you just experience it, and you have no better words for it than, for example, Albert’s Schweitzer’s “Reverence for Life”. And you deepen in sacrifice… and you see. 

Lucky you. Even a small blessing can be immense.

Call for contributions!

Request: For our upcoming look at virtue 12, Akrodha, Absence of Anger, let’s get specific with some real examples: Send in a description of 1 thing that made you angry in the last few days, and we’ll focus on them. Don't worry, we’ll be discrete and won’t use names. Just send in your story and we’ll deal with it instead of inventing theoretical situations. Either post an anonymous comment on the blog at http://is-ad.blogspot.com.es/ or send an email to: hello.isad365@gmail.com Thanks!

Edward’s Diary Entry 52 – Virtue 5. Self-Mastery/Control of the Senses or the Passions – What to do about perception?

Senses awry. Lack of control, lack of awareness, ruled by passion and feelings, non-rational, gluttonous, reckless, devil-take-all attitude.

This is the “normal” state of human beings. As stated in our “levels of the human heart" taken from Swami Sri Yukteswar: “Most humans are in the Dark State of the Human Heart; thinking and feeling are scattered and diffused outwardly in desires for material things; there is no inner unity, and one's consciousness is directed solely to the outer world of perceptions, in complete obliviousness of one’s true or inner self, of the universe, of any unchanging or eternal truth, of any Creator; therefore there is little respect for either man or nature or the world. This is egoistic man.”

We can classify these “normal” humans into certain groups:

1) Group 1. The Instinctive Animal. This is infantile, child-like man, lacking any awareness of responsibility to the world, a blind human animal that simply “gets hungry, eats, rests, shits and sleeps, and expresses itself in intelligible mono-syllables or sometimes even in high-sounding words and ideas.” The human animal has that advantage. It can talk, and likes to. It seems intelligent enough in that it learns how to assuage hunger and thirst, avoid pain, pursue pleasure, find a partner, reproduce and continue the species. It may be successful in life, in love, politics, TV, anything.

2) Group 2. The Feeling Machine. Governed by a sensitivity towards life, the Feeling Machine may be a sensitive nutcase or a dedicated father, mother or provider, caring for others, abstaining from overriding self, but infusing that very self with all its cares and concerns, its unbridled sentimentality. If it’s too given over to “feelings” it often criticises others for not caring, and even gets mean to others on their behalf. It also gets overly anxious and exceptionally emotional about things that run off the backs of both Instinctives and Thinkers. Feelers get upset about what they see on TV.

3) Group 3. The Thinking Biped. If drawn on canvas, this would be a top-heavy headbrained human with a huge head and tiny legs, full of fantasies and ideas, dreams and words, sentences and phrases, thoughts and more thoughts; analysing, conjecturing, speculating, building premises and beating those of others down to the ground. They are great worshippers of Ego, as it seems man was made to think and Thinkers pride themselves on this ability, prancing and dancing about it, and trying to give the impression that they are Gods on the face of the Earth compared to those poor stupid creatures who just act or feel. The intellectuals, the intelligentsia, the writers, philosophers, thinkers and critics – all cream of the crop. And yet the world seems no better for all that thought – just think about it! 7.4 billion creatures fighting for survival – all supposedly human, all thinking, but all making a general mess of the world, with its violence, killing, wars, hatred, lack of generosity, lack of caring, and man’s awful unconcern for nature and the environment. Thinkers assiduously watch the news on TV and like to talk about it.

4) Group 4. The Beginnings of Self-Awareness. Any one of the above may suddenly get a sensation of being lost in their self-made worlds and start trying to find a solution. If they’re lucky, they may hit on the fact that they were MADE that way – by childhood experiences, parents, siblings, the educational system, by society, upbringing, creed, religion, nationality or race, even by TV. Their personalities, what they thought they were – their egos – may only be ingrained, conditioned reactions to the environment. Then, with a little influx of grace, perfume, spirit or a taste for the beyond, they may start experiencing perplexity. Why am I this way? Who made me this way? Who, in fact, am I, really? Am I this, that or the other? Why do I have the sensation that things are not quite right? How should they really be? Is it my fault? Is it the stars? My destiny? Or was it that joint I smoked once that has screwed me up? What is going on? Why is the world as it is? Isn’t it a little crazy? Do I really belong here? Wouldn’t it be nice to imagine a lovely fantasy world where everything is beautiful and I can write a song about it? Maybe paint a picture? Maybe philosophise a little about it? – Lots of choices. But something’s wrong somewhere. What is it?

When that comes, things start happening… Then we can actually start talking about “control of the senses.” Or “control of the passions”. Until then, there’s nothing to control, it’s all out of control. It’s all just very basic, all-too-human instinctiveness, feelingness and thought-life. And there’s no control on that level. It’s chaos. Anything can happen in this crazy world, just like we know if we used to watch the Evening News and hear its anchorman say, “And that’s the way it is, Wednesday, May 18th, 2016.”

Well, with all due respects – he was a lovely man, Walter Cronkite – that’s NOT the way it is. The world is bigger than a TV screen or a journalist’s pen – however great the team may be. When we self-classify ourselves in GROUP 4, first we protest about the whole world, then we settle down and see that there is more to it than that. Then we see that seeing itself may be the problem, and perceiving, and depending on sense perceptions. Then the instinctive helps, the feeling of something greater helps, and the thinker helps to get things into a clearer picture. And that’s what we do. Using our primitive environment-given human attributes and the basic raw material of personality, we try to make more sense of the universe than our society really does, and by relentlessly pursuing this, we start to understand what Self-Control, Mastery of the Senses, and Subduing the Passions really means. We become the journalists and reporters of our own lives. And the world, suddenly or slowly, is no longer the way the newscasters portray it to us. We have to find out for ourselves what it is REALLY LIKE...

Happy hunting, all you wonderful Self-Aware people!

What if we're all connected?

I was busy this spring tilling earth, seeing earthworms, moving stones, cutting roots and generally getting my hands dirty, sticking them into the soil, and preparing it for some pole beans, snow peas, potatoes, and other natural delights. Anyone who has not dug into the earth to encourage food to grow is missing out on a big life mystery.

This is where my body will be going when I’m through with it. For practical purposes, cremation seems to be the option. It’s quick, tidy, takes up little room, and there’s no constraint on others (if any!) to groom a tomb, or maybe forget flowers. It’s ashes and dust. Good stuff for humus. My mother and father ate some vegetables, and with a little help from Nature, I popped into the world full of minerals and vitamins with all systems ready to go. Isn’t it wonderful? Cycle complete.

So Earth connects us all. And Science News says “Civilisations rise and fall on the quality of their soil…” Rape of the soil, depletion, artificial fertilisers, pesticides, and unrecyclable rubbish are some of modern, petroleum-based civilisation’s great errors. Body and earth are connected, even if we don’t realise it. And we grow or suffer along with our Earth.

Yet we have another connection, as I realised when I shut my eyes and just listened, breathed and watched a new pet I like to observe – my own mind’s meanderings. Sometimes it is so well behaved and astute that I feel lucky. My breath was pushed into the vacuum of a moment’s pause after expiration, and then pressed out after a moment’s retention. And the message came. As each particle of this breathing process came in and out, I took in a particle from the room, from a flower, from the trees outside my window in Spain, from a far-off garden in Pennsylvania, and I thought I detected a tiny portion from Africa, too. Air, ubiquitous air, connects us all. We all breathe, recycle, swap molecules from here, there and everywhere, interchanging one and the same medium. And we are around 7.4 billion at present. We all do this. There is no “my air” or “your air”. It’s just air. Everyone’s, every animal’s, every plant’s air. We’re all atmospherically connected. Will civilisation also fall due to air pollution? Or will air finally bring us all together on another level?

And then, since I received something quite like a gift with that realisation, that old favourite of mine, that funny headbrain, gave me another eye-opener when I asked “What if…?” Yes, if we plants, animals and humans are all intimately connected through air, how is the connection of the distinctly human experience intertwined? I don’t mean feelings or thoughts. Feelings do not necessarily connect. You think they do, like when you fall in love, but they don’t. They come and go. We need to be much more developed to have clean, consciously-created feelings capable of connecting to others and perceiving through emotion, like many animals can and do on a basic level. Thoughts don’t connect either. They divide by their very nature of yes/no, one/or/the/other. So what human experience connects us, if body and earth are twain, and air and life are paired?

It seemed obvious. Our Self-Awareness or consciousness interconnects us and connects us to All. That watching and waiting and observing is a force or power made available to us and used by us, but coming from the remotest regions of the Universe and pervading all. And it is here now. For humans, it is all and everything.

And that’s the Earth-Air-Spirit trilogy for today. Stay connected.

Edward's Diary Entry 51- Virtue 4. Charitableness / Almsgiving – What to do about miserliness?

Miserliness, stinginess, not helping others, meanness, not giving, lack of generosity, 

tight-fistedness, greed.

You observe yourself – a little Self-Awareness will do it... See if you have a tendency to rake banknotes and coins towards you and stuff them away quickly so no one will get at them. See if you ever donate anything. Do you find yourself smiling for no reason, or are you into gouchiness and grumpiness? See if your middle name is Scrooge... Maybe you prefer taking to giving. You don’t smile at strangers who look happy… You turn away and wonder why they seem that happy, thinking "Bah, humbug!" You think you are poorly paid and unappreciated. You pilfer and steal on the side, when no one is looking. You find a wallet in the street and look around to see if someone is watching as you pick it up… etc., etc. You know the story.

Or you do have a tendency to give and help others but... you are always able to come up with excuses… “After all, I’m just scraping by, how can I help others? I have my debts, my mortgage, my expenses – that’s quite enough for me, thank you!” And then you turn around and think your government or some politician should do this or that for certain people, to take the load off your back. Someone else always has to do something, not you.

But remember, your personality was formed much like Charles Dickens formed Ebenezer’s (see picture) – he just invented it based on some other character he might have known – exaggerating here, cutting short there. Who wrote your Christmas Carol story? Who formed your personality? Did you really do it? Or did it just happen, due to circumstances, parents, siblings, society?

Some people seem to lack empathy and generosity. They are too busy with themselves to be concerned about others. They are usually types number 5, cold and calculating, or tough number 8’s, only interested in themselves. They have full-blown egos that command all their attention, preening themselves like songbirds on a branch, hanging onto the twigs with vise-like grips, so they won’t fall off and feel ashamed. Other types may be empathetic, but we don’t really do anything much, do we?

The solution is to look into your upbringing and your present-moment personality and see what’s going on. Do you dare to be brave enough to really do something to help another person – not just a family member or a friend asking for “influence” – but someone you don’t even know? Decide whether it is good to help others – if only a little. Yes or no? Put yourself in a pauper’s or homeless’s position and think if you would be happy to receive a coin for a loaf of bread. A pillow for a refugee’s bed. A blanket against the cold. A warm croissant on a frosty morning. You can always draw the line if you think someone is a wino and needs money for drink. Is it good to help? Would you be happy to receive help if you were in trouble? Yes or no? If you decide yes, then look at your finances and see what you can do.

Don’t say right away you have no money to spare. That’s too easy, it’s habit, isn’t it? You don’t have to go all the way and give half of your earnings in charity, do you? Why not start with 2%, or 5%, so as to eventually get up to the traditional “tithe” of 10% of your income for the poor and needy or for spiritual aspirants or organisations worthy of humankind and human kindness. Do you want to wait for others? They’re not going to start. Only you can start. Then you have to decide where, when and to whom...

Choose wisely, you won’t change the whole world in a day, not even in a lifetime, maybe. But by giving up a little of a physical material like coins, you are giving up a little more of that “spiritual” entity that rules you so cruelly and is called your “ego”. Sacrifice a little, but without expectation of reward. Giving just because you are forced to give or admonished to donate does not make you a better person. It’s the inner attitude that counts. Yes or no? By your example, the world could very well change. Without it, it’s definitely going to remain the same, or get worse. So is the writer right, or not? 

To give or not to give, and how much to give? Those are the questions. It’s your decision, your responsibility – no one else’s.

Edward's Diary Entry 50 - Virtue 3. Steadfastness / Perseverance. What to do about laziness and impatience?

Indolence, laziness, giving up, impatience, too much free reign to senses and passions…

The vices enumerated are from listening too much to the body, to desires and feelings… Leaving for tomorrow what can be done today, saying I am tired, sleepy, hot, cold, etc. and cannot continue. We are uneducated in the fullest sense. We were told to identify with the body, the physical realm, and that there is nothing else. Oh yes, a mind that has to absorb man-made information. But Google provides enough of that now. Education does not mean being stuffed with information. Education originally meant “bringing out from within…” (ex-ducere). What is there to bring out from within and to follow? Obviously it is more than sitting in a classroom and memorising information. There is (1) bodily training – becoming dexterous at a skill with the whole body or a part of it. There is (2) lower or logical mind training – becoming able to use the mind, understand words and meanings, apply logic to problems and solve them, interact with the physical world. There is (3) moral training – sorely lacking – but necessary in that we are left to wander along with no instruction as to which of the desires, wants and needs produced in us are good or bad, controllable or not, useful or harmful, conducive to health or vice versa. And there is (4) higher mental training, or training in Self-Awareness – why do we inhabit this body? What is our purpose in doing so? What is the meaning of our lives? Is there anything else besides the physical world? What is this physical world we supposedly see? Is it outside us? Or is it only a perception of our own minds? Etc. etc. Unless the virtue of Perseverance and Steadfastness is accepted and welcomed, there can be no answers. And therefore the physical realm wins out… and we lose – eventually losing our lives and not knowing why, getting sick or diseased or weak and complaining and whining and finally leaving this world in a state of total childishness, Shakespeare’s second childhood.

So there is no option but to apply Perseverance, understand our limitations (too little prior education of mind) and work from there. Don't chop and change. Make a PLAN and KEEP ON PLUGGIN’.