Quantum Ghost

Today is an ephemeral ghost . . .

A strange amazing day that comes only once every four years. For the rest of the time it does not “exist.”

In mundane terms, it marks a “leap” in time, when the calendar is adjusted to make up for extra seconds accumulated over the preceding three years due to the rotation of the earth. A day of temporal tune up!

But this day holds another secret—it contains one of those truly rare moments of delightful transience and light uncertainty that only exist on the razor edge of things, along a buzzing plane of quantum probability . . .

A day of unlocked potential.

Will you or won’t you? Should you or shouldn’t you?

Use this day to do something daring, extraordinary and unlike yourself. Take a chance and shape a different pattern in your personal cloud of probability!

Magical

Incidentally, the world is magical.

Magic is simply what’s off our human scale . . . at the moment.

Secret Ignorance

It’s a fact—everyone is ignorant in some way or another.

Ignorance is our deepest secret.

And it is one of the scariest things out there, because those of us who are most ignorant are also the ones who often don’t know it or don’t want to admit it.

Here is a quick test:

If you have never changed your mind about some fundamental tenet of your belief, if you have never questioned the basics, and if you have no wish to do so, then you are likely ignorant.

Before it is too late, go out there and find someone who, in your opinion, believes, assumes, or considers certain things very strongly and very differently from you, and just have a basic honest conversation.

It will do both of you good.

Wisdom and Beauty

Why is wisdom so fair? Why is beauty so wise?

Because all else is temporary, while beauty and wisdom are the only real and constant aspects of truth that can be perceived by human means.

And I don’t mean the kind of surface beauty that fades with age, or the sort of shallow wisdom that gets lost in platitudes.

True beauty grips your gut and squeezes your lungs, and makes you see with utmost clarity exactly what is before you.

True wisdom then steps in, to interpret, illuminate, and form a life-altering insight.

Love

Love—not dim and blind but so far-seeing that it can glimpse around corners, around bends and twists and illusion; instead of overlooking faults love sees through them to the secret inside.

— from “The Story of Love” by Vera Nazarian

Personal Justice

You cannot be fair to others without first being fair to yourself.

Know that a well-honed sense of justice is a measure of personal experience, and all experience is a measure of self.

Know that the highest expression of justice is mercy.

Thus, as the supreme judge in your own court, you must have compassion for yourself.

Otherwise, cede your gavel.

Use Your Relief

Relief is a great feeling.

It’s the emotional and physical reward we receive from our bodies upon alleviation of pain, pressure and struggle. A time to bask in the lack of the negative.

And yet, think about it—relief is really the status quo, a negation of the suffering, a nothing in itself. It is the way things were before the pressure and struggle began.

So, is it a step back? A regression?

Or is it an opportunity to regroup, start over, and move in a different direction?

Use your moment of relief well.

Karma Smackdown

Karma has been a pop culture term for ages. But really, what the heck is it?

Karma is not an inviolate engine of cosmic punishment. Rather, it is a neutral sequence of acts, results, and consequences.

Receiving misfortune does not necessarily indicate that one has committed evil. But it is a sufficient indicator of something else.

And that something else can be anything, as long as it is a logical consequence of what has come before.

Consider: if you fall into a well, you are not a bad person who deserves to suffer—you are merely someone who took a wrong step. Or someone who had one drink too many. Or got a head rush due to poor circulation. Or forgot to wear your glasses. Or—

The reasons are plentiful, and all plausible. But the chain of cause and effect goes way, way back into the deepest hoariest recesses of your personal past.

So never rule out retribution. But never expect it.

Destiny and Free Will

Believe it or not, the notions of free will and destiny are not mutually exclusive.

Predestination is the universal framework of limits (based on natural physical laws) placed upon us.

Free will is our infinite ability to make choices within that framework.

Because the universal scale is so great—and most of it constitutes an undiscovered frontier—our choices are only limited by our knowledge, our abilities, and out imagination.

To put it simply, the world is such a huge playground sandbox that we will never run out of sand or reach the faraway safety fence of destiny.

So go out there and play!

A Metaphor

On this material plane, each living being is like a street lantern lamp with a dirty lampshade.

The inside flame burns evenly and is of the same quality as all the rest—hence all of us are equal in the absolute sense, the essence, in the quality of our energy.

However, some of the lamps are “turned down” and having less light in them, burn fainter, (the beings have a less defined individuality, are less in tune with the universal All which is the same as the Will)—hence all of us are unequal in a relative sense, some of us being more aware (human beings), and others being less aware (animal beings), with small wills and small flames.

The lampshades of all are stained with the clutter of the material reality or the physical world.

As a result, it is difficult for the light of each lamp to shine through to the outside and it is also difficult to see what is on the other side of the lampshade that represents the external world (a great thick muddy ocean of fog), and hence to “feel” a connection with the other lantern lamps (other beings).

The lampshade is the physical body immersed in the ocean of the material world, and the limiting host of senses that it comes with.

The dirt of the lampshade results from the cluttering bulk of life experience accumulated without a specific goal or purpose.

The dirtier the lampshade, the less connection each soul has to the rest of the universe—and this includes its sense of connection to other beings, its sense of dual presence in the material world and the metaphysical world, and the thin connection line to the wick of fuel or the flow of electricity that resides beyond the material plane and is the universal energy.

To remain “lit” each lantern lamp must tap into the universal Source of energy.

If the link is weak, depression and-or illness sets in.

If the link is strong, life persists.

This metaphor to me best illustrates the universe.