The more time I take to learn and study the more I realize there are things already present in ways of thinking in me. Some may call it The Human condition and others may call it a example of "natural selection" and the "natural mind." Ill give you an easy example. GET MONEY This phrase has been in my mind since I can first recall a very old man tell me and I quote" mijo, make money, make it right but if you cant make money." That old man was my very own blood. From when I was little till now the drive for my family has been making money. I grew up in San Antonio tx on the wrong side of town and the wrong street and went to the wrong schools. Seemed we were being bred for streetfighting and "hustling" as it was called back in the day. We did not and it never seemed we would ever break that dusty old habits of "MAKE MONEY" in our minds. Every where I turned it was there. As I leave attachment behind I notice that , as a young man, I wasn't the only one. Further meditation allows me to notice that that thought process is very common. In some ways its even idolized in art, music and theatre.
Woah... take some time to think about that, that mentality of selfishness is available wide spread and very well accepted as ok and normal.
It was thru study I found this
ill cite the version im using after
Tao The Ching
44
As fro your name and your body, which is the dearer?
As for your body and your wealth, which is the more to be praised?
As for gain and loss, which is the more painful?
Thus, an excessive love for anything will cost you dear in the end.
The storing up of to much goods will entail a heavy loss.
to know when you have enough is to be immune from disgrace.
To know when to stop is to be preserved from perils.
Only thus can you endure long.
Now...
I've heard old timers say, and I put my name in that hat, "money only makes a good man great or a bad man worse" silly old farmers, but they are right. So one day I got to thinking, These values, these ways, regardless of who or where I got them were to me worthless. I began to read the Tao, the Bible, the dictionary, anything to find some thing other than what I had. What I found was the exact opposite. In my younger days, head strong and foolish ida laughed and made fun of these things I was never introduced to and didn't understand. Now as my fire grows and as I myself grow I find comfort and wisdom in these words. This idea of selfish greed was passed and engraved into my mind. I wasn't the only one. To be, or to find what verse 44 speaks of is something very attainable. People all around the world experience the free will of everything present in their life....they are happy, grateful and content. You don't have to be a monk and own little or a traveling spirit with a back pack and a bank card to feel that connection. Oh no friends, we can be happy right now, we can be content right now, we can be grateful, right now. Need a reason, look into yourself and notice... notice all around you. My wife and my self do a little practice. When we get overwhelmed, and we do often we stop, look around the house and say, that picture is....of us, im glad we could have pictures, and windows and a roof and walls and then we begin to praise the things we have now which usually ends with , an embrace and "im glad I have you " for every body present. I was always taught never to think of future or ever actually think on the lines of that in my finances. If your like me and find this place to be a very helpful place, please by all means walk this path with me. My hope it that as iron sharpens iron we al can grow together. I wish I had a me growing up. I can honestly say that. But since I am here I will be the me that I wanted and needed to the other me s here lol
We are not alone in our search some times friend, may we share what we learn with one another.
Carlos
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