The best

Ja-no-well-fine.

I was chatting to Candice this weekend about how usually people tend to assume the worst about new people they meet. I know that first hand because of the reactions I get due to my accent here. Because I don't have a North American accent I feel that I am perceived to be less intelligent and less educated than certain folk. I won't name names but this past weekend it almost came to a head when a person, who judging on my accent and where I came from, allowed their arrogance to cloud the conversation to the point of suffocation. I feel the need to vent and be totally human and bitchy before I get to the point, so here goes.

Having been in Canada for 2 months now I am seeing that all people are intrinsically the same.

There are much the same problems here as there are in deepest-darkest africa. Wooooo!
Sure in SA we are troubled by crime and the like but we also struggle to make ends meet, we also tend our relationships and believe it or not we also live a modestly comfortable life as they do here. We also have Universities and education systems, which I have been told by one who attended both, rival those here. And yet with all these similarities I am still seen as the little backward third-worlder who knows nothing about modern civilisation.
I wish I could say worse but I am trying real hard not to be like that.

So here comes the point. They say that people form an opinion within the first 15 seconds of meeting someone and usually that opinion is a negative one which places the person below you in stature.
People are very accommodating beings. We pick up on others views and opinions of us and try our hardest to live up to those views. So the best way to uplift a person is just by holding a positive appreciation for that person which they will try to emulate. And if they don't it doesn't matter as you have lost nothing but offered everything.Now I ask is it so hard to form a positive opinion of a person and hope that they live up to it? If you expect the best from everyone you meet they will be aware of that and will often try their hardest to live up to that expectation. So the idea is to hold an elevated expectation of everyone you meet. If they happen to fall short of it the only person who is disappointed is you. But I feel that most of the time, by holding the utmost respect and admiration for a person, they will tend to show that which you expect in them.

3 folds.

I've been searching for as long as I can remember. Searching for a meaning and reason for the continuation of exhalation. I have yet to find it. I see the reason for enduring this life, the betterment of your soul in its quest to reach the highest state of perfection and in the end rejoin the Devine by giving up your personality, but I'm still struggling with the reason any of this happens in the first place. That's kinda why I'm writing this here. I figure that if I muse out loud, even if no one's watching or paying attention, I might be able to come to some sort of resolution for myself, or I could, more than likely, just argue myself into a corner and be forced to delete all this before anyone else discovers my lack of reasoning powers. lol :)

Anyway. Lets start with the basics. The three laws by which I personally think all should abide. Again please be aware that this is only my opinion and in no way am I saying or advising that anyone adopt them. So I suppose it would be better to call them the 3 suggestions.The 3 Laws/Suggestions :)1- Celebrate Life.
2- Live Honestly.
3- Love Openly.

1- Celebrate Life:
How to put this? Okay lets start simple. Do not take life.

From a small mosquito to a human being. From the ant crawling across your kitchen counter to the tree growing outside. All life is interconnected and interrelated. All is one. This is a simple suggestion but one, which everyone, including myself, has not, adhered to. I challenge anyone to find me one person who has not taken a life in one-way or another. Everyone has slapped the mosquito or squashed the ant. That is the nature of living. I suppose what I’m getting at here is the intention behind your action of taking a life. I feel that the intention dictates the validity of the action. For example although we should not take life we still are urged to Celebrate Life. This can only be done if you yourself are in celebration of your own life. So where the vegetarians would argue that by eating meat you are indirectly responsible for the taking of life I would hold that in sustaining yourself you are thereby celebrating your life and subsequently all life that exists in your universe. Hence your life and sustention of it must take priority. This is also the crux of self-defense and the right to assert yourself when others seek to harm you. It's kinda like Asimov's 3 rules of robotics where the preservation of self cannot take higher precedent over the law, which states not to harm a human or by inaction allow a human to come to harm. Except that in this case the role is reversed and encompasses all life. The law not to harm any living being or by inaction allow any living being to come to harm does not take precedent over the law of self-preservation. (if you're curious about the 3 laws of robotics go check out: Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics )
The other aspect of Celebrating Life is to enjoy the moment life has given you and to be fully aware in that moment and in celebration of it.

No matter what that moment is. If good, enjoy the good, revel in the pleasure that it brings you and in the happiness that it generates. If bad, give thanks for the lesson being taught and the experience offered. Revel in the emotion and experience that every moment brings. For example (this is kinda arb, I know but it serves to illustrate what I'm trying to learn too.) I stubbed my toe the other day. It was incredibly painful. But I completely went into myself and focused on the pain. I sat down and breathed and observed the pain and experienced it in its totality. It was wonderful. I'm not a masochist and really have a very low pain threshold but it was such a wonderful experience to be so totally involved in the moment.
The more you enjoy life, the more you will enjoy life.

2- Live Honestly:
Work, speak and act with honesty. Do not lie, cheat, steal, gossip or be duplicitous. Be open with everyone. You won’t always like everything and everyone that comes your way but you can still be open with them. I based this suggestion on the following precept.

Everything is made up of molecules. They in turn can be simplified to component atoms, which can then be quantified down further into electron, protons and neutrons. Been there, done that, got the working model. Now these can themselves be reduced further to Quarks and anti-Quarks. Which in turn are made up of vibrating strings of energy. (I’m simplifying ‘cos I’m not a quantum physicist, but the basic premise is the same. If you’re really interested on the physics go check out: String theory ) These strings have no solidity at all, they are just packets of energy and information vibrating at a certain frequency too fast for our senses to perceive individual perturbations and so we experience their blur as a solid tangible object. Hence we are all immersed and part of a vast vibrating energy soup.Now this is where I tie it back to the heading. People through attitude and intention give off vibrations. When a person walks into a room you are aware of his vibes. We use it all the time in colloquial speech. “He’s got a bad vibe.” , “She’s such a viby person.” , “I love going to that club, it always has a good vibe.” These vibes have a physical influence on the world around you not to mention the situation that you are creating. By holding a negative and questionable thought pattern you influence the world around you and attract instances of the same. It’s also works by what you focus on. By focusing your attention on an object or a situation you put out the indication that brings that object or situation to you. It’s where we get the phrase “what goes around, comes around.” It’s exactly that. Put out negativity and dishonesty but don’t be surprised when it comes back to you.
By living honestly you create a positive and clean vibe that affects you and your surrounding on a physical level because you create your own reality. So the idea is that you can bring positive and good instances and experiences into your life by this precept.

3- Love Openly:
The Devine permeates everything and is concentrated to the point of consciousness in sentient beings. So even if you don’t like a person because of their personality, you can still respect and love the Devine spark of that person.
Love yourself. We are each the centre of our own universe. Your universe is based on you and your perceptions of the events in your immediate sphere of reference. To love the universe and everything in it you have to love yourself. This entails respecting, defending, honouring and looking after yourself first. For if you are not fully cared for you cannot fully care for nor help others. Martyrdom and self-sacrifice are misguided concepts that discount the individual for the sake of the whole, while ignoring the fact that the whole is only comprised of individuals.
All actions can be differentiated down to love. Whether it is love for a poverty stricken family that causes a person to steal or miss-guided self love that causes dishonesty and criminality or the warped need for love and self gratification that would be the cause of rape and homicide. There are multitudes of miss-guided deeds that when dissected will always lead to the motivating factor of love, want of love or the perceived lack of love. But concurrently there are innumerable positive actions, which have their basis in love.

In fact all the three suggestions can be simplified to one:Love.If you love all you will not harm any. If you love all you will not deceive any. And if you love all you will act with compassion and understanding and hence will also attract love and compassion to you.

Simple né?