Category Archives: Philosophic

Philosophic, Religious

Do we need pacification?

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Sometime babies cry for what seems like no reason at all. The may have clean clothes, a clean diaper, they may be nice and warm, they may be well fed. Yet they just cry. Seemingly inconsolable.

Then along comes their mother, who gently and lovingly picks them up, craddles them and allows them to suckle. All is well and the room that was moments ago rended with miserable sobs is now utterly silent in comparison. All is calm.

Tonight my little baby was clamoring for pascification. His mother was not home, having stepped out to run an errand. Being inadequately equipped to pascify my son in a motherly way, was left only with a pascifier. I offered it to him many times and tried holding him in many different positions. Finally, one combination worked and he finally settled down.

As the calm settled in, I found myself asking my baby what it was that could cause him such anguish and discomfort. As I held his tiny hand and rocked him tenderly I wondered how one so small and with so few cares could find it needful to carry on so boisterously.

As this scenario played out, the thought struck me that perhaps we (adults and such) are also at times in need of some pascification. Perhaps our Heavenly Father often hears our clamoring and complaining. Then, as he holds our hand and lovingly rocks us so gently, asks us, “why does one so small and with so few cares, carry on such as if you had something to worry about?”.

It pascifies me, to think that one so powerful, great, and filled with the concerns of an entire universe actually takes the time to comfort each and every one of us, His children.

How often do we recognize the comfort he gives to us? What truly do we have to worry about when the Master of the Universe is our Father in Heaven?

I know He lives and loves me too. The Spirit whispers this to me and tells me it is true.

I love you Father. Thank you for everything.

Philosophic

Money is NOT a Goal

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I just had what I consider to be a profound thought. I like using analogies in my life. They seem to help myself as well as other people around me. Analogies are a way of helping people see life from another perspective.

Money is NOT a “goal”. Although it can be and often is a goal that people make, so let me clarify. The accumulation of money is not a GOOD “goal” to set. Let me further clarify “good”. The goal “accumulate money” is not a effective goal. It is actually a rather absurd goal, by itself.

GOAL: “It is my goal to accumulate a million dollars.”

We know that money is just a tool. Therefore, let us change the word “dollars” to “hammers”.

GOAL: “It is my goal to accumulate a million hammers.”

That goal does not make sense.

Unless it is a supplementary goal attached as part of a shopping list to a larger and more philanthropic goal.

The goal to accumulate a tool does not make sense by itself. This is because a goal to accumulate a tool invariably requires you to ask the question, “What am I going to do with that tool?”.

If my only purpose and goal in life were to accumulate a million hammers, I would say that my life was in fact pointless.

However, combine that “shopping list” goal with a more philanthropic goal and everything starts to change.

GOAL: “It is my goal to help one million people each build their own dream home.”

Each of those million people are going to need some tools to build their home, including a hammer. In that case, accumulating hammers actually makes sense. It makes sense because the hammers are not the end goal. They are merely supplementary to the main goal.

The moral of this blog post is this: Don’t set goals for tools, unless those tools supplement a philanthropic goal. Before you set a goal for money, make sure you know what you are going to do with that money. The possession of money is in itself useless. The spending of money without a purpose wasteful.

If you need help making good goals, I would suggest to you the book, Drawing on the Powers of Heaven.

Philosophic

Beat the Status Quo

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I was out running this morning. While I ran I was listening to a podcast in which Dr. Paul interviewed Jarom Thurston. It was an excellent podcast about how has made the choice to do what he though was impossible and run a 135 mile race.

Jarom Thurston running Badwater

As running usually does, it got me thinking about things. That is one of the wonderful benefits of exercising my body. It usually wakes up not only my body but also my mind and my spirit. I think more clearly and am more in tune with the universe.

Anyway, I got to thinking about barriers (aka walls, obstacles, challenges, hard times in life). Barriers are not put in our life for us to stop at. Instead, barriers are but mile markers. They are hurdles to go over under around or through. The were put in our life to challenge us and to make us better. We become better when we give up the comfort of the status quo.

Continue reading Beat the Status Quo →

Entropic, Philosophic, Religious

Comfortable is Boring

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Have you ever started a new project, or a new job, or a new hobby, or a new experience? If you have then you have probably felt that feeling of fear, or panic, or discomfort at not knowing what you are doing, or where you are going, or how you are going to do accomplish what you need to.

That fear/panic/discomfort is natural. It is an indicator to let you know that you are at the edge of your experience and about to step out of your comfort zone. Stepping off the edge of fear and out of your comfort zone is the point at which you start exploring and expanding yourself. At that point you can begin to learn and grow and become more than who and what you were the moment before you when you were still being comfortably afraid. Embrace the fear of the unknown. Come to thrive upon it and your horizons and perspectives will explode, opening to you a whole universe of possibility.

Do not be afraid to make mistakes. If you did everything perfectly the first time you would be a god. And since you know you are not a god yet, it makes sense that you still have some things to learn, thus, you still have some (likely many) mistakes to make. Mistakes are only bad if you choose not to learn from them. Mistakes can be painful, uncomfortable, and humiliating. Find joy in recognizing mistakes when you make them and take care to learn from them so that you do not have to repeat them.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Education, Philosophic, Science

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

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I have yet to find a TED talk that I do not like. This was was absolutely fascinating. Her description of seeing herself as a spirit, feeling huge, and wondering how she fits in her little body and how peaceful it was to be in that state was fascinating to me.

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

“Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.”

Feel Good, Philosophic

What is The Work of Byron Katie?

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I was once again listening to Dr. Paul’s Podcasts and he and the person he was interviewing were talking about “the stories we form in our mind about our experiences.” In essence, how we allow our experiences affect us is greatly determined by our perception of reality. We all perceive reality differently (which makes me wonder how any of us communicate anything successfully).

Most of this podcast that I listed to this morning had to do with “The Four Questions” that were created by a lady named Byron Katie. The four questions help us analyze our perception of events that we find personally offensive or painful.

This is Byron Katie:
Byron Katie

“The Work is a simple yet powerful process of inquiry that teaches you to identify and question thoughts that cause all the suffering in the world. It’s a way to understand what’s hurting you, and to address your problems with clarity.”

Take a moment to visit her site and click on one of the “The Work in Action” video links. Let me know what you think.

Never mind. I think everyone should watch ALL of the “The Work in Action” videos. Really quite amazing, painful, humiliating, and entirely necessary that everyone in the world understand the concepts that she is trying teach.