CONTENTS
Is it true?
Defining terms
Once a warrior was born...
Am I enough already?
Am I that which covers me or am I me?
The essence is
It's removing, not improving
A conversation
Resources
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This one realization can change the context of one's life dramatically. One will no longer come from the viewpoint of "I am flawed and need to get better." That viewpoing is a killer, toxic viewpoint.
The BuddhaKahuna
If one sees the true purpose of life, then our sole criterion for life would be "did I achieve that purpose?" I know, contrary to what others think they know, that I, just by being a human, am adequately equipped to achieve that. All I need do is remove all that which is in the way. [The purpose of life: happiness.]
The BuddhaKahuna
You are fully capable of creating a happy life:
After our simple basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are met: "Right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness."
The Dalai Lama in The Art Of Happiness.
Reread the above one. It is a core truth and you must "get" it.
"You and I possess within ourselves, at every moment, under all circumstances, the power to transform the quality of our lives."
Werner Erhard
IS IT TRUE?
"I am whole and complete."
This is a concept of relativity, as everything is determined relative to something.
But, I ask, for you to determine: Is it true?
Well, let's inquire into that.
DEFINING TERMS
Scan these definitions and perhaps come back to them as we discuss them. (Source: Webster's New World College Dictionary)
Whole: In sound health; not broken, damaged, nor defective, etc.; intact; containing all the elements or parts; entire; complete; a thing complete in itself, or a complete organization of integrated parts; a unity, entirety, or system.
Complete: Lacking no component part; finished; thorough; perfected.
Perfect: Complete in all respects; without defect or omission; sound; in condition of complete excellence.
Enough: As much or as many as necessary [to achieve the purpose]; sufficient; to the required degree. Derived from "nek": to attain, achieve.
Standard: Something established for use as a rule or basis of comparison in measuring or judging capacity [to achieve the purpose], quantity, content, extent, value, quality, etc.; the basis for the measure of value; a level of excellence, attainment, etc. regarded as a measure of adequacy [to achieve a purpose]. Derivation from "a standing place".
ONCE A WARRIOR WAS BORN AND...
A warrior is born with two legs and two arms and a body and a mind.
As he grows up and is ready to go to battle, he finds that he has added equipment that enables him to go into battle effectively. That equipment is his training. And then he adds tools, such as weapons. He determines a battle plan, using his original equipment (his brain) plus knowledge acquired.
He goes into battle and either is the victor or the vanquished.
The question is: Was he already born whole and complete? Or was he whole and complete after his training or was it his already existing wholeness and completeness that allowed him to be able to utilize the training? Is he the training or is he the one who is trained?
AM I ENOUGH ALREADY?
When we ask this question, we must further ask "relative to what?"
The answer is "relative to having sufficient ability to achieve the purpose, to attain happiness in life".
The answer is not something at the ridiculous level, like those that follow.
"Relative to being able to fly and kill dragons."
Why would we want to do that?
The answer is "so we can be happy".
Well, if I can be happy without slaying dragons, why on earth would I set a criteria of slaying dragons and being able to fly as something I would measure myself, or "enough", by? Would that be stupid or would that be stupid? (Duh!)
The same goes for setting a standard of being as good as or better than others. Why would you do that, after looking at all the benefits and then asking why one wants the benefits of being "better than"? The answer: "in order to be happy."
Now, would that be stupid or would that be stupid?
In fact, the answer to why you want anything is so that you will be happy. But the problem, as pointed out in the Happiness section, we want things that when we get them they really don't make us happy - we waste enormous amounts of time that we could have used directly to make us happy! Anyway, back to the point, the only point is that we need only achieve happiness, not anything else (see the reason why we Suffer).
After all, the only purpose of life is happiness.
AM I THAT WHICH COVERS ME OR AM I ME?
This question may sound pretty stupid, but, is it really?
Supposedly a true story: A monk noticing a crack in the dark brown clay exterior of a large statue of Buddha sought to repair it. As he started, he noticed something shiny underneath it, so he chiseled down to it, only to find that it was gold. In fact the entire statue was solid gold.
It turned out that many years ago, anticipating attack and not wanting to enrich the attackers, monks covered the gold buddha in a clay-dirt so that the attackers would think it to be of little value.
The metaphorical question here is: Is the buddha the clay-dirt that enclosed it or the gold buddha underneath? This is also a relatively stupid, obvious question.
But most people do not know the answer relative to themselves. (Who I Am)
THE ESSENCE IS...
We started as the most incredible machine in the universe, with an incredibly compact body relative to its incredible number of systems and abilities plus the most powerful, largest-memory computer in the universe. Then we used it to acquire information and assimilate that information. In its best efforts, it acquired some erroneous information (clay-mud). That erroneous information included misinterpretations around avoiding fear and gaining survival, so it was of good purpose, just not workable and well-thought-out.
It turned out that there was a difference between these incredible creatures (human beings) in some abilities and in information sources, so some were only capable of doing the best job in the universe compared to everything else in the universe but not of doing better than some other of their fellow humans.
Somehow, we lost sight of our purpose and our capability relative to that purpose and we used erroneous information and conclusions to establish a standard that we had to be as good as the best or something close to that.
Plus we made up that we needed to be approved of and supported by others to achieve a good life. But the latter was nonsense, as our only purpose was to achieve a good life - which we were perfectly capable of doing already. If this were true, we would be perfectly capable of doing "enough " (achieving a good life), right?
The question, then, is "are we capable of creating our own happiness?"
The answer is that we have the intelligence and the basic capability to figure out what is needed and to do it. In other words, we are whole and complete as far as what is needed in basic equipment and we only need add some training and do some thinking and doing.
However, the reason we don't do this is that we are covered with clay-mud - erroneous beliefs of limitation and fear. When those are removed, there is nothing but a golden human being, of pure gold relative to anything else in the world, of the finest metal in the universe.
We are,indeed, whole and complete, not needing to be better.
However, we do need to get out of the mud, to clean away the mud, to correct the erroneous beliefs, if we are to fully achieve our purpose.
How do we know we can do it?
Because other human beings have done it.
We need only find the path they took in removing whatever mud they had upon them.
And then take that path.
IT'S ABOUT REMOVING, NOT IMPROVING
It is not about "improving" ourselves, for we are already capable enough of acquiring what is necessary to achieve the purpose of life, to fight the sweet "battle" of a happy life-warrior. We need only get rid of the barriers and limitations that get in the way of this whole and complete being manifesting his/her full power. Ironically, we are so capable that we actually have excess power above that needed to achieve our purpose, to create happiness.
A CONVERSATION
"I am enough. I am whole and complete. I am capable of achieving the purpose of my life. I can create a truly happy life. I need only remove the barriers. I am capable of choosing to do so and effectively expressing My True Self. I am truly blessed. I am a pure gold human being, ever growing in wisdom and love! Life is good - and I create it to be so!"
RESOURCES
I like Landmark Education's version and conversation around this, though the others in the life trainings also all address this well. You might wish to look under the Introduction to The Landmark Forum video section, click on "see it in action" and watch the video vignette on the lower right: "The context inside of which you are doing what you're doing - and leaving it unexamined" Changing the context to work much better for you. "The context is what is decisive."
