CHOOSE LIFE

We all have the power of decision. We can decide to turn onto a new road and Choose Life, choose strength, aliveness, compassion and the way of healing for all. This choice needs to be made over and over includes many new steps, which we will cover week by week. In the process we will learn how to give up our attachment to anger, revenge, and other ways of destruction, and other ways of feeling strong. This new choice can seem unfamiliar and uncomfortable, but step by step as we embark upon it, as our well being and happiness grow, it becomes clear where we are going, as we find wonderful companions along the way.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Choose life. Choose life. There are two choices. We can choose life, which includes love, affirmation, getting up again after we've been knocked down a thousand times. After we've been caught in illusion and delusion, we return to the cushion. To choose life, we return to ourselves, to the cushion, to love. The other side, we can choose to stay in a state of rage, pity, anger, revenge. That's another kind of choice that's possible. And when we make that choice, we are the ones who suffer. We are the ones who suffer by making that choice. And many will say, well, I'm hurting so much, so how in the world do I choose life? Which is a very good question. When we are in so much pain, how do we just turn around and choose something else? How do we even know that we've chosen this suffering? It doesn't feel like a choice when it's taking place. It feels like a grip around our neck, like something that, like a heavy cloud that's fallen upon us. Maybe it has. Maybe it's fallen for a moment, but we do have the power to say, no, I'm making another choice. I'm turning the road. You know, we come often to a to a juncture in the road. It can go one way or the other. There might be, I don't know which way to go, I'll go the familiar way. It's scary sometimes to choose another path, another direction at the moment of a juncture or a split in the road, particularly if it's a path we're not familiar with and that we haven't traveled much and we don't know what to expect when and if we take that other road, that other pathway. We don't know what will happen if I give up my revenge, my anger, my dread, my self-absorption and pity. I'll disappear. I'll get lost in this other road. Who will I be? You know, there's a very funny quote, who will I be without my anger? That's a very good question, too, because so many people identify with their anger. That's who I am. And if I don't stand up for myself, which means killing everyone else or knocking everyone else down, well, then I really won't even exist. I'll be taken over. The strange beauty and this mystery of choosing life is that the very opposite happens. Once we choose life, not only are we not taken over, but we begin to feel very peaceful, very happy, very excited to live, very free, And we can bloom like a flower in wherever we are. Choose life. Life blooms. Life moves. Life goes forward. But we're not used to that kind of choice to give up our sense. We're giving up in a way we think anyway, our sense of identity of who we are. But if our sense of identity and who we are has been based upon anger, division, separation, me and you, and I better be the winner, competition. If it's based on winning that kind of a fight, beating someone else out, being better than, being smarter than, whatever. That's a very, very, very toxic and false sense of identity. It's just something that's been conditioned into us by our culture and our way of life. It's not our true nature, our true identity at all. Far from it. The opposite. The opposite. We're here like candles to give light and to give love to all. That's the truth. That's the fundamental truth. And we are also given a choice. And sometimes the circumstances are indeed very difficult. No one's going to say not. Very, very difficult. And our instinct, our conditioning, or our karma will kick in and cause us to have all kinds of feelings and beliefs and images and to go in a direction that's only going to bring more and more pain to ourselves and everyone else so let me say something this study everybody says find compassion be compassionate but no one says how do i do that how how how in the midst of this onslaught of feelings how do i become compassionate and loving and generous and the answer is there are specific Specific guidelines, specific steps, specific activities to take, exercises, you could call them, although that's not exactly the right word, specific ways that we can move along the new road and take a new choice and find that compassion within ourselves. There is actually, believe it or not, a practice of love, by which I mean by the word practice, and it is a practice. Let's face it. When we have certain muscles in ourselves that we've never used, we need to kind of get them going again, wake them up again. We go to the gym all the time to build up our body, but our muscles, our physical muscles, but how about our heart muscles? How about our ability to see life differently to offer love, how do we do that? And many people don't know, and I don't fault anyone for not knowing, because it can be very confusing. And just these little overall statements, well, choose love, choose life, well, how? The answer is, how do I do that? And I would like to dedicate the next... era of the podcast to specific ways in which we can make a choice to choose life. What will take us along that path? What will permit us to choose that? And how do we walk on the path of life? That's a very, very different path. And it's a very, it may be very, it definitely is very strange to many of us. By strange, I just mean unfamiliar, unfamiliar. unfamiliar and it's a very beautiful path though because the pathway of life has support all over it it has good friends all over it it has growth the other pathway the path of anger and arrogance and destruction leads us into a very different direction So let's learn how to walk on the path of life. The very first step, which we'll do a little bit of it today, and I'll do it every week, is to learn how the difference, some of us don't, including me at times, of course, don't even know how, am I choosing the path of life here or am I choosing the path of destruction here? We don't really know. We don't know if something is medicine or poison. We don't know. what will give us nourishment and what will take us down. And so the very first step is to, deep within ourselves, decide, do I want to be positive, loving, healing, and healed? Am I willing to make that choice to take a new path? You know, and many of us also, we don't even, we're not really used to choosing anything because we don't even know we have that power to say yes and to say no. That's really so interesting. The power to change our direction. We have it. We have a choice. We can have water or wine. We can have soda or fruit juice. We can choose. And we can choose to turn around to a new direction. And I would say we'll just start by saying this. And these are the temptations to pull us to the other road. When you see yourself filled with anger and rage and revenge, stop right there and say no. That's taking me to the path of destruction. No matter how justified the revenge seems, no matter how right the anger feels at the moment, no matter how much you're identified with being a strong, tough guy, let's just say no. There's a more powerful way to confront or to deal with the situation. And we can find that other way, which is on the path of life. If there's constant destruction and anger and revenge, we're going to destroy ourselves and everyone else. Just inevitable. That's the simple law of life. So let us together begin by choosing. Just say, I choose life. I choose love. Make a strong choice. It's a very beautiful moment to make that choice. Just making that choice is huge. And whenever you see yourself this week going in the other direction, stop and say, I choose life. I choose love. We'll start like that. I don't want to overwhelm anyone. Step by step is the best. But one choice made deeply and strongly is a huge change, is a shift, and you begin to turn in another direction. Positive, constructive, and helpful not only for you and your family and friends, but for the whole world. Thank you very, very much for listening. I appreciate it. You can find this talk on www.zenwisdomtoday.com. I look forward to speaking to you again next week. Thank you.

UNKNOWN 11:56

Bye.