The Meaning of Life with Dr. Bob

In the garden of Gethsemane, there is a poignant scene in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is given to agonize over what may be coming next in his life.

He is given to say, “Thy will be done.”

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People have taken that saying to mean that God is going give you what life you are going to live. In other words, you are fated to be and do as some outside force wishes. You have little or no say in what your life will be.

Your happiness is determined by an outside force, so many people believe.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is true that a natural disaster such as a tornado may indeed affect your life. That is an outside force over which you have no control.

However, if you had built or made ready a storm shelter with provisions for a disaster such as food and water, you might have shaped your own outcome. So you have some say-so in the matter.

The point of this article is that you do have a part to play in determining your own meaning and happiness. It is not simply handed to you on a silver platter or imposed upon you as fate.

You are not destined to have this degree of happiness or that degree of meaning. These are not thrust upon you in certain amounts by an outside source, namely God.

You choose how much meaning and happiness you shall have.

How? By the connection you cultivate and maintain between yourself and The All There Is (Tathis).

(Tathis is a word I coined to subtract as much baggage as possible from the term “God.” It is a combination of the first letter of The, the first letter of All, the first two letters of There, and the entire word Is. It is pronounced with a long “a” [as in plate] and the  word “this.”)

You build such a linkage through the use of meditation or prayer. It is a discovery of the totally unconditional acceptance that Tathis extends to you.

Please notice I stated, “extends to you.” Tathis does not give something to you in the conventional sense of the word “give.” You already have everything because you are a division of Tathis. So, Tathis need not give you anything you already possess.

Tathis extends to you unconditional acceptance in that relationship you establish with Tathis. In other words, that acceptance is already there but now it feels like it  is flowing toward you.

You have opened yourself to that confirmation. That confirmation was always moving toward you, you just didn’t realize it.

You always have the choice to turn and move yourself toward a rendezvous with Tathis. “God” does not impose anything on you. You are free.

In this freedom is your great choice. But it is in that choice that you begin to make your own life your own life.

Sounds redundant and ridiculous, doesn’t it? Because Tathis does not impose anything on you, you make your life what it is. By your choices and your intentions you attract to yourself all that you will find in life.

Yes, there will still be those incidents where something will be forced upon you from the outside. Still, you have the rock-solid opportunity to make a choice about how you will react to any happening in your life.

Beyond these forced events, however, you attract to your life that which you are. When you find your meaning and happiness, you will be attracting positive people and happenings to your life.

Why? Because you will be in that mode. What mode is that? The style of fashioning your own tomorrows. Forging what the next minute of your life will be all about. You have the choice, always, of having your life be full of meaning and happiness, or full of sorrow and despair because you believe you are fated in a certain way.

Do not ever let anyone try to convince you that your life is simply planned for you – that you are fated to have or have not … anything.

The choice is always yours. So, it is not “thy will be done,” in the conventional sense. It is done as you will it to be, when you will it to be.

Get to it.

This has been Dr. Bob 4 U, and I invite you to change your life for the better by claiming your Free Instant Access to a Force-Source-Resource including a monthly newsletter titled The Force-Source-Resource Newsletter. Just Click Here. Remember, one bit of information can give you a lifetime of satisfaction.

My Vlog: http://themeaningoflifewithdrbob.com/drbobslifephrases

One Person Can Change The World

Your choice making ability is inviolate. You can make a choice about how you feel about anything or anyone. No one can take that choice making ability away from you. As long as you are self-aware, you make choices.

So, you can choose to be happy.

One of the distinguishing marks of a human being, you, is the ability to make choices. We, humans, are the choice makers.

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Yes, it does appear that other animals, like household dogs and cats, do make choices. They can choose, it seems, to eat or not eat. They can choose, it seems, to do their business in inappropriate places within the house.

It even seems to some domestic cat owners that when their cat is angry with them, they choose to demonstrate that anger by defecating on good, clean carpet.

Most everything else, however, in a dog’s or cat’s life seems to be made of responses to stimuli. A dog barks, for example, when someone knocks at the door. Hard to break a dog of that primal instinctual behavior.

A household cat might well bump heads with you if it wants your attention or affection. Some cats bump heads, some don’t. What makes the difference? I don’t know, but I believe some are acting out a response pattern.

The cat bumped a head one day, got some affection in return and now has a learned response. Some would say a conditioned response.

But human beings, while having some instincts, can choose to go beyond those ancient patterns. You can choose. You have choice. Always.

How can I say always? Because you always have the choice as to how you will feel about someone or something.

Truly you don’t always get to choose between two or more options. Sometimes there is no choice but to take what is presented to you. That is a fact.

But you always have the option to decide how you are going to respond emotionally and or spiritually to what is presented to you.

To be sure, some events in life are horrific and disastrous. Your immediately response, of course, will be horror-filled and fear-inducing. These are natural responses. I would be afraid for you if you did react negatively at first in such circumstances.

As the shock wears off, however, you can choose to react within yourself as you see fit. I know you want to say to me that is it easy for me to say this whilst I sit at keyboard and type out these words. Nothing dreadful is happening to me.

You are correct. But I have been where others have been – faced with situations and people which are frightening, to say the least.

I know you change your mind. I know you can choose to respond as you wish to respond. You can turn a negative into a positive.

This is not to be Pollyannaish. I know real tragedies happen to real people. Perhaps they have even happened to you.

The point is that I have seen in my own life and in the lives of countless others, how they have turned their thinking around and sought the good and affirmative from the most devastating events and people.

You continuously and always have the possibility of choosing your way of thinking and therefore of mentally and spiritually responding to events in your life.

What do you choose? Now that you know you have the choice, what choice will you make?

I encourage you to constantly choose the positive. When you continually choose happiness, you will, of course, be the better for it.

How can you choose happiness in the middle of tragedy or loss? You make the choice. You seek and keep your connection with The All There Is. In that connection you see that you are accepted still, just as you are.

In that acceptance you find true, deep, everlasting happiness. So, no matter what is happening in your outer world, you can be happy. No, you don’t have to be jumping for joy in the midst of loss or catastrophe.

But you can have that inner peace that passes understanding which comes from happiness. Choose right now and constantly to be happy.

This has been Dr. Bob 4 U, and I invite you to change your life for the better by claiming your Free Instant Access to a Force-Source-Resource including a monthly newsletter titled The Force-Source-Resource Newsletter. Just Click Here. Remember, one bit of information can give you a lifetime of satisfaction.

My Vlog: http://themeaningoflifewithdrbob.com/drbobslifephrases

One Person Can Change The World

Marge came through the doorway of my office with her arms wrapped tightly around her as if she was clinging to someone.

She sat in the visitor’s chair never releasing her grip on herself. She seemed uptight, I thought, as though she can’t let go of something or someone. I didn’t realize how close I had guessed at the truth.

“How can I help, Marge?” I asked.

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She said, “I am just not happy. I can’t get past something to find happiness. I’ve tried meditation as you have instructed. I have given it patience and regularity. I seemed to be no farther ahead than when I first began. My mind is still muddled when I try to meditate. I am looking for answers.”

Well, that was a bit of baggage, wasn’t it?

She still never let go of her grasp of herself.

“Marge, did you realize that you are gripping yourself tightly with your arms?” I asked.

“What? Oh, I know. I don’t know why I do that.”

I took an arrogant guess by saying, “I think I know what you are doing. There is someone or something you can’t let go of. That clinging is keeping you from finding happiness.”

“I … I don’t know …,” Marge stammered.

I asked directly, “What are you holding on to?”

Marge looked at me with what might appear to be hate. She held that glare several seconds. Finally, her face began to soften by degrees. Obviously there was a real battle going on inside her.

“I can’t forgive my mother for dying. She was just sixty-five. In her last years she seemed not to care about herself anymore and ate and drank to what I believe was an early grave. She was never happy in all my memories of her.”

“You haven’t let her go, have you, Marge?”

She snapped that look of what might be hate at me again. Once again her face softened only by degrees. Her arms loosened from around her just a little for the time first since she hove into sight.

“She was such a comfort. But I can’t find any more comfort from her now that she is passed.”

“You can’t cling to a ghost, Marge. Give her up,” I said.

We sat in silence for a minute or so. During that time, as if in a slow motion movie, Marge released her grip upon herself. Her hands drifted as autumn leafs falling from trees, it seemed, into her lap. Peace came to reside in her face.

I broke the silence by saying, “Now follow the techniques you have been taught to discover happiness for yourself. I think you will have a better time of it now.”

She rose to depart and shook my hand and gave me a smile that expressed her gratitude, though she was obvious moved to speechlessness.

Here is a short course in finding and maintaining happiness. Develop a life of meditation or prayer. I believe there is only one way to contact the Source of All There Is and that is through a meditative connection with the Source.

Then maintain that linkage through regular use of the meditative arts. Notice, please, I used the plural, “arts.” There are many ways to meditate so find one that fits you best. You may even want to experiment to find one that is best for you.

In that connection with the Source, you will find that you are totally and unconditionally accepted. There is your happiness. For there is nothing greater or finer than being completely and fundamentally accepted.

When you have found that happiness that passes understanding, you will have found the meaning of your life, I believe. Your meaning is to be happy.

That happiness, then, is played out in experience in the world. Your life-purpose is to experience. You experience by being in relationship to all you encounter – be that person, animal or thing.

Marge had learned all these techniques and ideas through her time in the community I lead. She was just so tied up in mental ropes because she could not release her mother.

When you cling too tightly to anything or anyone, you will not be as happy as you will without those attachments. Detach yourself. That is, do not cling so tightly that you stifle any other relationship – like with the Source of All There Is.

Start today to detach yourself from your “clinging” and develop a solid and permanent relationship with the Source of All That Is through the meditative arts.

This has been Dr. Bob 4 U, and I invite you to change your life for the better by claiming your Free Instant Access to a Force-Source-Resource including a monthly newsletter titled The Force-Source-Resource Newsletter. Just Click Here. Remember, one bit of information can give you a lifetime of satisfaction.

My Vlog: http://themeaningoflifewithdrbob.com/drbobslifephrases

One Person Can Change The World