The Meaning of Life with Dr. Bob

You know the saying, “I wish I had a dollar for every . . . .” I lost count early in my full time life coaching career (clergy) of the number of times people came to me and told me of their childhood in church. How they were scared to death over what was described to them as Hell. How if they did not conform to the teachings of that particular religion, that’s where they would spend eternity. I just got a Facebook the other day about how a woman’s child was fussing in worship service. A man sitting nearby took the child from the woman and began spanking him. Wow!

More text after this video pane.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hmbswWz1uY

Yet, some religious organizations are complaining about the increased secularization of society. That means that people are turning away from the religious organizations and trying to run their own lives. I say hurray! I say this, hurray, from one who spent his entire adult life, from age 18 until retirement at 61, being responsible to see that folks knew and followed what my religious organization taught. I still remember the day when a woman come to me after a worship service of that organization and said, “You got to tell me what to do. I’ve always relied on the church to do that.” I told her I would not do that. But I could help her find her own way. She was visibly upset with my reply. Shortly, she left the particular religious organization I served.

My point is this: it is time for all humans to begin to make up their own minds. I know that some do not want to do that. Many, maybe even a majority, still want someone else to tell them what to do. I believe people need to decide for themselves.

If people do this, some will say, there will be religious anarchy. There is now. Some will say that people won’t behave if there are no threats of hell. (Threats of hell were deliberately used over the centuries to have people be kept in line.) We have got to come into a new age where people decide for themselves to behave, whatever that means, because it is the best for them to do for themselves. I behave well because that will get me the best for myself.

When you have found happiness within by being in contact with the Supreme Consciousness of the Universe, which is the meaning of life, you will, naturally, want to fulfill that happiness in the world. Find you bliss within and beam that bliss into the world. What do you think would happen if everyone started trying to do this? I think that peace would break out on the earth. I think that sanity would break out on the earth. I think that conservation of all species on this planet would break out. I think that we would have a far, far better chance of surviving the next 100 years as the species we name human.

So, I say, hurray! For the great secularization of society. Let people choose for themselves as they are taught the consequences of their own actions. Let us drift away from religions that tell us we have to do it this way or go to hell. Nonsense. Let us drift toward ideas that teach us we are responsible for our own actions and their consequences. But this is not new with me. Such has been taught and demonstrated for thousands of years.

And I invite you to know a lot more about being responsible for yourself. Sign up for Free Instant Access to some of my Force-Source-Resources. Pick out the one that says Two Life Phrases for Self Development – “I Am My True Self” and “I Am Conscious” or any or all of the other freebies. Remember, one bit of information can give you a lifetime of actualization.  Just click here and you’ll be on your way. I believe these resources will change your life.

The meaning of life, to be happy, means I need to be conscious of this next step I am taking.

Here is the video of this blog. If you prefer just text, please see the ideas just below the video pane. I start over with the text for convenience sake.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rbVhyf20uM

The meaning of life, to be happy, means I need to be conscious of this next step I am taking. One of the most difficult mental and spiritual activities I undertake is living in this moment. I know from years of study and more years of experience that this is the only moment I have. My entire life’s journey is contained in the step I take in this, the here and now. Every choice I made, every decision I accepted, culminates in this instant.

So I need to be taking as correct a step as I can. The only way to do that is to be conscious of what I am doing, saying, thinking in this moment. In the process that we call living, each activity I have done in the past leads to this moment. Every possible step I can take in the next moment is a collaboration of all that has occurred in my life from the past. But, neither the past nor the future exist for me in this moment, in this step.

It does not mean I am cut off from the flow of time. It means I have another example of the non-existence of time. For I am free to choose, in this moment, what I will do, given what I have done. Confusing? You bet.

Let’s try this: The past is gone as we measure time. The future has not yet come, as we measure time. What’s left? Of course, this moment. Only. So, everything I am or hope to be is contained here and now, only. Mentally you can see this as someone taking a strip of paper and cutting out a central section of it and discarding the two ends. What is left is now.

Therefore, you are unencumbered by the past, just as the piece of the strip of paper that represents the past is discarded. Similarly, you are unencumbered by the future; that piece of paper is gone as well. So, you make of what is left, this moment, just what you will. You can make it happy. You can make it meaningful. As long as you are conscious of what you are doing. You become conscious of what you are doing instantly by placing your attention on this moment only.

Yes, this is a tough concept to get your mind around. Yet it is so simple. Live in this moment. It is the only moment you have. Make it meaningful. Make it happy. Because you are unencumbered by past or future, you are totally free to make it whatever you want it to be. No matter what is happening in your world, you make this next step your entire life. For it is. And that is one of the insights into the meaning of life, to be happy.

And I invite you to know a lot more about you and your happiness. Sign up for Free Instant Access to some of my Force-Source-Resources. Pick out the one that says Two Life Phrases for Self Development – “I Am My True Self” and “I Am Conscious” or any or all of the other freebies. Remember, one bit of information can give you a lifetime of actualization. Just click here and you’ll be on your way. These resources will change your life.

I have two grand daughters. Coming from two different gene pools, one is a little shorter than average, the other is some taller than the average.

If you prefer to use text only, please see the continuation of  this beginning just after the video pane.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4yxKERvMv8

I have two grand daughters. Coming from two different gene pools, one is a little shorter than average, the other is some taller than the average. Because they now live in the same household, this disparity is a source of friction between them. The short one complains that she is too short. The taller one complains that she is too tall. The tall one lords it over the short one claiming, in essence, that tall is better than short. They are both teens to make it worse. It’s complicated.

We adults know that height, by itself, means nothing. There are advantages to being short or average. There are advantages to being tall. Tallness sometimes commands respect, as it did in the case of George Washington. But the average person can find much more easily clothes that fit. Why? Of course, most people are average – that’s why it’s called average.

But my point is deeper. We humans tend to measure everything from ourselves to our vehicles to our pets. Measurement is convenient as it helps us buy clothes that fit, tires that are proper for our vehicle and collars that aren’t too loose or too tight for our dogs. In terms of meaning and worth, measurement is useless. It is an illusion. If you take you height, for example, as an example of your worth, you are deceiving yourself. If you attach value to the measurement of anything, just for the sake of size or lack thereof, you are betraying yourself.

Indeed, measurement can be a dangerous illusion. A very big snake, for example, though it looks dangerous, may not be so at all to you, a human being. You may be just too big for it to swallow, so it avoids you. You need not fear. Yet a six inch snake with bright colors may be so cute you are tempted to pick it up. However, it may be so venomous as to fell a full grown elephant with a single bite. One might be afraid of the large snake that poses no danger, but avoid it because of its size. One might not be afraid of a brightly colored, tiny snake. However, if you reach for it, you might be dead within an hour.

It is our minds that attach value to anything that is measured. It is our minds that make measurement helpful or harmful, nothing more. If we consider being 6′ 6″ tall as a detriment, then it is for us. If we consider 5′ 6″ tall to be a detriment, it is.

This has to do with happiness because we are once again demonstrating that it is our minds that make the measure of a man, not the measurement itself. Size is an illusion. A pound of lead is not worth as much as an ounce of gold. But who gives it that worth? The person who observes the two different substances gives the worth. Yet a pound of cheese is worth more than that gold to a starving man who has the only choice of keeping the gold or staying alive by eating the cheese.

This power of illusion that the human mind possesses has far deeper ramifications. For now, let us confine ourselves to the meaning of life and being happy. You are not inferior if you are short; you are not superior if you are tall; you are not average if you are average height. What makes you anything is how you feel about anything. Those feelings come from the your core of being. Attached yourself to the Divine Consciousness through meditation-like exercises. There you will discover that your worth is in the fact that you are part of the Universal Consciousness. When you know this, measurement of anything does not matter to your worth. Your worth is attached permanently and unshakeably to the Universal Consciousness. Size is an illusion.

What counts for your happiness and the meaning of your life is your knowledge of your linkage to the Divine Consciousness. Start today to understand that measurement of any kind is irrelevant to your happiness, and therefore, to the meaning of your life.

Use measurement for the convenience it gives. But do not use that illusion as a “measure” of your worth. Instead, find the meaning of your life, to be happy, in your connection to the Divine Consciousness.

And I invite you to know a lot more about you and your happiness. Sign up for Free Instant Access to some of my Force-Source-Resources. Pick out the one that says Two Life Phrases for Self Development – “I Am My True Self” and “I Am Conscious” or any or all of the other freebies. Remember, one bit of information can give you a lifetime of actualization. Just click here and you’ll be on your way. I believe these resources will change your life.