Meaning.

Meaning.

Someone (possibly Robert Byrne) once said;

"The purpose of life, is a life of purpose."

Fundamentally I guess we all would agree with this statement, this idea of what reason there is to be here and walking, talking and breathing upon this planet at this time. But as I look around me and even further afield I see that people have very differing views about so many things, that the purpose for being here is not this clear for the majority. (I hope that I do not speak without wisdom here but I feel the need to discuss this topic openly so that we can all have a better chance to review our thoughts about what constitutes a happy and contented life.) Lives become clouded by thoughts other than what purpose, other governing principles and many varied ideals about what you have to do to live a happy and fulfilled life. Sadly many of the people on the planet do not evidently feel that a real purpose is happening to them. Dis-accord and suffering to achieve this goal is the main factor why many of these people do not feel happy or blessed, but I venture that if they had the time to step away from their situations, they would see more clearly the state of affairs ruling them and their thoughts.

Imagine for a moment, what circumstances need to change to make your life feel as though it had a solid reason for you to play your part in it. Would you then begin to feel more connected and sure of the reason? Could the days spent in doing mundane and ordinary things then be reason enough to bring you joy?

Perhaps we could all do well to reconsider what motivates us and for what reason we live the lives we do. What stirs us to make that long journey to work and back in the weather that is not going to inspire us. To arrive at a job that has no real satisfaction and is maybe not even meeting our financial needs sufficiently enough to relieve us of the frustration at having to do it at all. To be hanging by a thread of doubt about its continued safety in a world governed by greed and profit chasing and people who have little conscience about others welfare and human rights. And then to be told that your work is hardly sufficient to deserve your pay, so you had better work harder and more diligently.

O.K, so not everyone is in this situation, I agree. But many are, and this is in developing and first world countries, let alone the third world.... Challenge me please if I make bold statements that do not reflect even a tiny part of the truth that faces millions of decent people daily. The possible repossession of their homes, the loss of gainful employment, the evident happiness waning under pressures to conform to the status quo and trudge through life as if there were no reason at all, except perhaps to be at the beck and call of others.

I am sure that if we were able to re-evaluate our particular situations we could come to several new and enlightening conclusions about what is indeed important not only to us, but to everyone who desires a more substantial reason to be here. The liberation from our thoughts about the mundane could prove life saving, even necessary for our continued existence as a species on earth. Please take some time to look frankly at why you do what you do, and for whom. Give yourselves a firm pat on the back for your patience and diligence to support your families despite the economic downturn, and for all your efforts to maintain human dignity towards others. We are all in this together and we are all a very important part of the solution too. Your choices will have direct and indirect impact on the future for everyone. 

 

Live the life you were born to live and see what beauty and joy there already is in your lives. Make time for the preciousness about you, the people you love and have yet to love more. Open your hearts up to the family we are as a Human Race, and take stock of all that you can do to benefit as well as contribute towards its continuation. Be observant of all sentient beings and life forms with whom we share this planet, and respect them too, as you would your closest friends. Be bold and full of courage, let your inner light shine from every thing you say and do, from your very being......

Don't be good for nothing, be good for something...!

Find the purpose that is yours to live.

With all the love and light I possess,

Peaceful Warrior.

Book by Dan Millman.

What is the Ego ?

What is ego ?

Well that can depend greatly upon your level of honesty and also cultural identity and upbringing. I mean to say that we don't instantly say, oh yes I am an egotist, or yes I have an ego and happily live with it. Nor do many of us really notice that we have one nor see it operating in us. I'm not saying that we actively deny it, merely that we may be unobservant of it.

In our western culture ego is heavily tied up with the identity of self, who we believe we are and how we demonstrate that. Celebrity and social status are all about how we view ourselves and how we believe that others view us.

It is similar in eastern culture too, but far less concerned with materialism in the main, though that appears to be changing to come into line with western ways.

Dictionary description;

ego (ˈiːɡəʊ ; ˈɛɡəʊ ) 

Definitions

noun

Word forms:   plural egos

1. the self of an individual person; the conscious subject
2. (psychoanalysis) the conscious mind, based on perception of the environment from birth onwards: responsible for modifying the antisocial instincts of the id and itself modified by the conscience (superego)
3. one's image of oneself; morale ⇒ to boost one's ego
4. egotism; conceit

Word Origin

C19: from Latin: I

Synonyms

View thesaurus entry = self-esteem, self-confidence, self-respect, self-image, self-worth, self-assurance,

What if I were to say that you are not that at all? You are not who you think you are, nor what others think you are.

What if you are not the job you do, the car you drive, the beautiful people you hang around with nor the wealth that you have accumulated?

You want to dunk my ass in the lake on a stool don't you? I can tell.

No?

Good, then please consider what I am saying and see if it doesn't resonate within you somewhere.

Who are you?

Who really are you?

Now you are having thoughts about this topic, and questions and or criticism of what I'm saying are no doubt popping into your thoughts too. So Ask, who is the one, the person, the energy talking that is your thoughts? Is that you, the real you? Are you not in fact the awareness that is considering what is now going on in this confusing mele?

We cannot truly ever detach totally from our thoughts, though this would be an advantage in contemplating truth about who you are, and ego awareness. This is no doubt why some of us meditate, to clear the mind of thought, long enough to just, BE.

Decarte once said, 'I think, therefore I am'.

Ground breaking at the time and for many years since. But go one step further, who or what is asking the thought to come into existence?

I feel sure that this famous statement was actually fundamentally flawed. Monty Python got it closer, when they said, 'I drink, therefore I am.'

I venture to say that this asker is not the Ego, but our true self. (The energy that we are and will always be.) Not the Psyche, but the soul or the spirit.

 

Ego, is a construct, much like time is a construct, to explain and rationalise something hard to describe otherwise. Ego I now observe is something that tries to dictate to me who I should be, so as to find identity and therefore self worth. A place in society, my social group, community and the wider world. An identity made up of false beliefs about what is seen as important, therefore should be to me/us. Ancient civilizations were set up on the ego as much as any today. The role of a person within that society was dependant on either what job they did, or what their parents did. They had no choice, except at the behest of someone higher in that heir-achy.

And for a very long time few ever challenged this idea/belief.

Jesus, Buddha, Mohamed and several others came and went, showing us the door and leaving us to decide whether to enter and be free. What do you think Jesus meant when he said, 'Know the truth, and the truth will set you free?'

Back in the 60's a group of individuals really challenged that and stood up and defied the roles and social class of the past. Hippies were seen originally by society as drop outs, lazy no good individuals who had no moral codes, who wanted to do nothing but challenge the will of the greater good. Actually it was the complete opposite. They were the catalyst that made us wake up and look at the way we had been sheepishly following trends without question. Ego was also involved in this movement, but it had a mainly positive drive towards sharing and opening of our joint consciousness. 

 Click for video.

But back to ego's ways.

What have you witnessed in your behaviour that gave you rise to wonder what had motivated you?

I saw and see ever more clearly in myself, the games and role playing that I had previously and still use to manipulate situations on rare occasions. The phrase 'drama queen' is not unheard of, nor the 'poor me', shy sad retiring trait of some. Aren't these the ego in it's constant game of attention seeking, to build an image of self worth? Even if that is initially negative, at least it is there to get us attention, or draw attention to us, the desperately needy Ego.

What are the needs of Ego?

Well surely we can estimate that we feel somewhat happier when we are recognised as a success, in our chosen profession, life role. Don't we get a glow when someone recognises our talent, our light our attempt to be noticed. I have been watching myself with keen observation for some time now, and I am sick of my personal ego's attempts to sequester and gain attention from others through begging and subtle requests for attention. I wonder to what level what depth the previously unobserved pathology had been digging holes and burying stores of ego treats for me to find in days of lack. The proverbial ego squirrel.

Now I am saying to my ego, give it up, let go of the need to control me and fu@% off....!!!

I hope that you all, the millions of devoted readers of my fantastic blog, and needy followers of my self accredited thoughts, can smile happily at the use of my increasingly important (to you) wordiness and abandonment of my personal ego. I totally renounce it and won't let it ever get to me again, where it could make me believe the world revolves around me, and where everyone else's life would be void if my light were to be extinguished suddenly, without warning, leaving you all groping in ignorance.....Nay.....

Oh and if you want my autograph they are purchased at my website, Big heads r us. £50....

Seriously I hope that this post has helped us all, me especially to gain some awareness of the pitfalls of becoming and living under ego's grip.

Some of the blogs that I read would not be quite the same if it were not for ego and its caveats of prescribed humour, so take what I say with caution, or a pinch of salt even.

May the love of the universe guide and protect you, as you question this ego in yourselves, and see what validity it has to be there.

Much love n light.

Peaceful Warrior

xx

Atonement.

Atonement.

Did you ever do something that you felt was so terribly misguided and even wrong? Something that had an affect over another person or persons who may well have become driven to revenge or another act of rebalancing in the universe?

Sure we all have done things we regret and wish we could undo. Would the regret ever heal the wound? Would saying sorry ever be enough?

Like many others I have played out the scenarios in my head time after time, to see what might have made the difference, but I always come back to the reality that this will forever be a lesson of life that needs to be considered as a help in the present moment, if I would ever want the future to be based upon a brighter truth. Nothing that I could ever do now would change the reality of what has passed, and I can only hope that the damage may lessen for the offended party.

The worst thing besides the original act of injustice, is the regret. If only... what if? Many times I chose to reconsider the options open to me at the time and realise that many more things could have been done, that would possibly have effected a different outcome. I was foolish, immature and short sighted if not blinded by fear or hatred, that helped me to make bad decisions and let down not only myself, but my desire for personal integrity.

Sadly I have to conclude that no amount of remorse or regret will ever be able to change the things said and done, and that my only saving grace is that maybe the 'other,' would find a place in their hearts and memories to forgive. They may well not be able to ever forget entirely, but a level of forgiveness could lead to some peace for all parties involved. We all scrutinize our behaviours eventually and the way in which we viewed our need to respond or retaliate at the time for what we conceived was being done to us. But would we ever be able to say, no-one harmed me, everything that happened was as a direct result of my own choices? Possibly not, this is a very courageous thing to say, let alone believe. But it is my new found view about the past, that this in fact was true at that time, and was another of those things that led to my actions and subsequent events.

Ever heard the expression, 'you are your own worst enemy?'

Yeah, well now I know that for a long time, a large part of my past, I was the believer of non of this. I felt 'right' about everything and therefore resisted the advice, council, and help of many people, especially those I was close to and others I wanted to be close to.

They may well have realised how stubborn and hard headed I was, and well done to them for sticking to their guns so to speak and holding true to their resolves, and or applying empathy towards me in respect of my blindness.

But in respect of the regrets, I now realise that they have no further value towards peace of mind, and must be put aside, or the load I will carry will be a continual burden my whole life. It is not that easy to forgive yourself it would seem. Theoretically it should be as easy as saying it. 'I forgive myself.' But the reality is not so fast acting. Forgiving oneself, must come from a point of knowledge that the 'act,' the 'offence,' cannot be changed. Blaming oneself and taking responsibility have to be acknowledged, thought they are not necessarily both the same thing. I was responsible for my actions, but other factors can take some of the blame for them. As I said before, naivety, inability to reason, stress, fear and desperation can all be factors in why a person may have acted out of line with their normal character. This is not meant to be an excuse, merely a way to understand and therefore forgive myself for some horrible things. Things that still to this day remind me of my need to be brave in the face of danger, courageous in the face of fear, innocent in the face of dishonesty, and loyal in the face of love.

I am not about to get into details about the what's and how's, but sufficed as to say I now remember them all in great detail and wish to free myself of the regrets and allow remorse to do its part in the healing process. It will then be possible to move forward to the point at which I completely forgive myself for acting inappropriately, badly and without total decency and integrity.

I am truly sorry..!

If anybody reading this would be so kind as to forgive me any indiscretions towards them, that I may or may not be aware of, this would be of great service to me in clearing any blockages still present. I intend to be a man of peace, a man of integrity and a valiant warrior of light. I realise humbly that to be this I must clear away all hindrances and obstacles that would stop me from achieving this aim. And beg your help and support in doing finer works and being a better person.

I pray that everything that I have ever done that has caused bad blood, resentment and confusing interpretations of my actions be absolved here, and my atonement, be this open plea for forgiveness.

I throw myself at your mercy and declare my intention to go on to more productive outcomes henceforth.

Thank you for taking the time to review this topic with me.

Humbly yours.

Peaceful Warrior.

What a thoroughly engaging story.
Thank you Ian.

The Camino de Santiago.

Camino Frances.

 

 

 

The Camino de Santiago, otherwise known as ‘The Way’ or Pilgrimage has been walked for more than 11 centuries. People as well known as Napoleon, Charlamagne, Francis Drake, Walter Raliegh and several Popes have all done this walk across the north of Spain to reach Santiago de Compostela in the region of Galicia. It is believed that the bones of St James (San Tiago) (San Jaques) are buried there under the Cathedral. James was reported to be the follower of Jesus Christ, who had gone to spread the gospels after the death of his Messiah. These days it is walked by people, like me, who are not religious, but do and can respect the traditions of our forefathers, despite the bloody history we have witnessed. (particularly in the name of God and Christianity) Over these 1100 years as you can imagine, millions of people have gone to do their respective pilgrimages, to seek some divine forgiveness from their sins and repent before returning home. Back in the day, they would travel in from all across what is now Europe, or arrive by ship from other continents and then begin their ‘Way’, struggling day to day hardships and eventually reach Santiago if their faith and will were strong enough. They would no doubt return the same way, on foot, back to their homelands. These days of course the many that come only walk in one direction, and the Camino Frances has accommodated all of these Pilgrims, who then return by air sea, car and bus.

There was a custom attached to walking the ‘Way’, (actually many) but in particular the carrying of a burden from your home, which you would leave on the Camino and return without. It usually took the form of a rock, something large enough to be a discomfort but one that reminded them of their sins. They would then leave this closing in on Santiago de Compostela (Literal translation, Starfield) at the place known as Cruz de Fero, (Iron cross) and carry on walking until Santiago where they hoped to be absolved of their sins. Some then walked the further 90 something kilometres to the west coast, where they would bath in the Atlantic ocean and become clean from their sins and toils (often this was the only bath they took on the whole journey…) and then go to Finestera where they would symbolically burn some item of clothing. This must have been very costly as few people had many clothes anyway…

Some of these traditions are still observed, not necessarily by religious people only, but in a way, the Camino comes to those to have done it, to mean so much more than just a walk. The most commonly chosen path, from St Jean Pied du Port in France, crossing the Pyrenese into Spain at Roncesvalles over the top of a mountain then along the Meseta at over 800 metres above sea level, and then all the way to the coast, is a journey of some 850 km. It will take a normally fit person about 5 weeks of daily walking, the rest of us about 7/8 weeks. So this is anything but, 'just another walk'. In this day and age there are far more facilities available to us, the men of old would have slept in poor accommodation or out in the open air. The most common of these places to stay today are the Albergues. (Gites)(Pilgrims Hostels) But obviously in larger towns there are all the luxuries your money can buy. These Albergues offer a bed (you bring your own sleeping bag) and bathrooms, sometimes cooking facilities in the villages or towns that don’t have restaurants. I’m not kidding you when I tell you that this pilgrimage is often very basic. BUT, and here is the great BUT, you cannot possibly ignore, the closeness it gives you to share with other people. Out walking you can see no-one all day, or a hundred people, but when it comes time to bunk down, you are in a ruck. Like the scrummage on the Rugby field… I’m kidding again… But there are people, and you will have to adopt new ways of tolerance and understanding, if you are not keen on people, and I for one recognised and welcomed this intrusion into my space.

Why would any sane normal person do this to themselves you may well ask?

Good question, and one for which I have an answer…. (You probably guessed this) though it might not be one you welcome. Are you ready? Do you want to know what it is?

O.K. then, I’ll tell you my observations.

You are bored with your life, can’t seem to get any further. Friends don’t get you, you feel like a stranger in your own town, so to speak. Things don’t add up any more, and dare you say it, least admit to yourself, you are not happy. You thought you were, you have all the things that the world has told you that you should collect to ‘Be’ happy. You have a job, but it doesn’t fill you with great joy. Life is threatening to make you blow a gasket, and the world seems to be falling apart from greed everywhere you go. Things were so much better when we were kids weren't they we complain, we had none of the stresses of the modern world and we remember ‘being’ happy.

Well then, here's the magic. For all its discomforts, the poor quality mattresses, the cool water showers and the snoring of others in your dormatory, you will receive some of the best personal training that you’ve had in your whole lifetime, since childhood, to refocus on the importance of stuff, things, people in your life. Just imagine, the Mother-in-law won’t seem as offensive, friends will become more dear to us, and the items that we take for granted everyday, will be the luxuries we once dreamed they would be. Our Wives, Husbands Children will be far more important to our happiness, or the relationships we have with them, than any other people or material things. We will want to go out weekly with our wife who we loved once, for a meal, for an evening away from the routine, because we will see just how loyal she has been to us all these years, when other more exciting offers came along. We will make better use of our time with friends instead of coming up with lazy excuses to avoid them, because we will re-know that they are part of the reason for us to be happy, more than the new laptop or car we just treated ourselves to. And we will be more understanding of the neighbors rowing about the very same things, because we once did that and have learned to let it go..!!

We all could become stronger, more useful members of society, and sharers of more that we are dreaming of being with our new found freedom from stress. Walking this kind of distance in a couple of months can do something more for us than help us with unwanted calories, it can save our very lives and give us new reason to go on. It can give us the ‘time’ we need to reflect on the past, and choose again what we want from our future, by becoming far more ‘in-tune’ with ourselves and what is really important, living in the present moment. It can quite literally show you how to get the best out of your life…

You may not believe me, of course, so try asking someone who has done it. You may find that you already know some, but they will certainly be amongst you, changed if not wholly, then perceptibly. My experience had proved so dramatic that I went back and did another the following year, to really get to grips with all that I failed to achieve from the first attempt to rid myself of the negativity and stress that my life had become. I wrote a book about the inner journey that came as a direct result of this Camino, and for a small contribution (ALL MONEY GOING TO CHARITY) you could buy and read it.

Selling my book is not my aim from this account, it is there if you need more information. My aim is to BE the change I know I can be, by doing the things that I dreamed that I could, and am doing daily, with this blog, my website and my future projects. Why not read about them and help me, and in turn yourselves by sharing your stories and real life experiences with the project,

  ‘Imagine, walk with a stranger make a new friend.’

Walking has helped me to get focused and become a more responsible member of society, and it can help you too. Join with me in the project and lets create a better world for our children and generations to come, and be happy ourselves by doing this. True happiness comes from within, there are no shops selling any of it. The faster we realise this and bring out that happiness through our awareness, the better for us and our families and in turn the world of people upon planet Earth.

 

Taking the afternoon sun

Rolling into town

Pilgrim Banquet

Peace, Love, Harmony.

P.W.