MentorWords

Most of us do not understand the history of our religions, the social contexts in which our religions were developed, and the ways in which all of the sacred texts have been manipulated by various kings, religious leaders, emperors, and tribal chieftans to support their personal political agendas. We understand the religious history that was taught to us by our parents, their parents, and their parents’ parents, and we accept this verbal history as the truth.

Some time in the 1970s pop culture began teaching us that we cannot love others until we love ourselves. One of the largest industries in the world – the self-help publishing and media industry – has been built almost entirely on this premise. The commandments of this movement are clear. Thou shalt learn to love the way you look. Thou shalt learn to love the way you act. Thou shalt learn to love the clothing you pick. Thou shalt learn to love your lovableness.

The condition of life is one of sometime discomfort, and that the thing we need to do is learn to experience the discomfort, instead of trying to mask it or reject it. If we just let ourselves feel the discomfort and accept it for what it is, we don’t feel compelled to layer on more failures by doing artificial things to mask the discomfort. That way, we learn what needs to be learned from the situation without making additional mistakes. That, by the way, is the original purpose of meditation. If we learn to simply empty our minds of all the “content,” we can learn to be present in the given moment.