One way to live - everyday life revolves around one's life's work, whatever that is. (I suppose that's true of everyone, whether they live consciously or not). Knowing that - do we make a conscious effort to build something, to make some contribution to humanity-at-large? Is there some advantage to be gained by trying to create some opus? For whom?
I invite all to consider and share thoughts on the notion; I'll work on describing my own.
Life: what is it, and what do I want it to be?
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I didn't like my previous comment. I thought of a better one. I suppose it depends whether your "work" is selfless or selfish. If it is selfless, it will last. However, it depends upon what you call "work" and how you define a "life".
The last three years of Jesus's life is known to us, the first 30 are not. Who praises Jesus for his woodworking skills or his craftsmanship? He's known for his wisdom, selfless acts, miracles and his death and suffering on the cross, not for being a carpenter which he was for most of his life. The last three years of his life, he was a fully realized human being. What of Jesus, the carpenter? History is silent on that account.
JB, I often think of Jesus the child, Jesus the teenager, and Jesus the young man. Yes, those are bascially unknown to us, but without them, no Jesus the Master.
Something my teacher often points out is that meditation is best when done for NO purpose, the only purpose is to enjoy the sit. Off the cushion, when in working, playing etc. you do what needs to be done, and I think you can choose to do something "great" or things "small," but you have no control over them. Mother Teresa said, we can do no great things... we can only do small things with great love. The control of ultimate results never lies with us, hence the need for detachment in everyday life just as in cushion time.
But why not shoot for the stars... Just don't cling to a need to reach them... you might, you might not... but you won't if you don't try.
climb the ladder and fix the problems.
the ladder is many layered, there are no steps, just will, 'just' 'will' as one, I mean.
That is not easy, but yields satisfaction, Jesus' words are all that matter about Jesus.
The same will be true about the final Messiah/Moshiach.
We have to stop being the center of all things, and go outside to the periphery, and not in tin cans.
Though that is one way to do it, but not all ways.
How great that is/would be, pales in comparison to another, for that way, in tin cans, is the lowest and most self-centered.
That which is the least self-centered, that which is the most 'outside', that is the way, and the light, and the salvation.
Just some thoughts generated by this post, very good work you do.
Julie,
Good post, and such very good comments. I'll be interested to see if you have more to say on this.
John,
I don't think that selfish/selfless is a good definition... Hitler? It's a nice idea, but history doesn't prove it out, in many ways.
I do, though, appreciate your second paragraph. Jesus couldn't have gotten to the last three years without everything in the first thirty. Likewise, nobody could have gotten to today without the lessons of the days previous. Good to remember sometimes.
Jon, oops, you said that too. Erm, well, I agree... good point!
Lots of good practical advice, I agree with much of it. Not sure about the control of ultimateresults; many days I suspect it very much lies with us, but it's also something the conscious mind immediately fouls up... and most people aren't too good at distinguishing that inner voice, or the Holy Spirit, or whatever anybody calls it these days.
I do know with certainty that I am a great designer in the making, all that's between here and there is a whole lotta practice. It's easier to work at the small picture; it seems that the larger one unfolds, but every small effort is integral to it.
Jim; I'll assume you refer to the small self, ego, what-have-you, rather than the more "realized" self (I'm at a loss for words as to the distinction today).
I'm lost on tin cans.
Jesus' words outside the context of Paul's voluminous follow-up are... well, if they'd just get people to pay attention to that we'd all be a lot better off.
Night sky; I have these little bursts of thoughtfulness from time to time... we'll see what comes out! Ask a question, if you like...
"I know with certainty that I am a great designer in the making"
Wonderful!
I didn't reply in more detail to this post because I can see so many sides of it at once. But I did think a lot about your questions. Thanks.
Let's see, Hitler as selfless? The SS swore an oath to him, not the German state. He controlled aspects of German culture such as art, science and architecture which were outgrowths of his ideas and ego. Any one who didn't meet his ideal of a person or opposed him politically was either killed or sent to a concentration camp, or worse. Genetics and hematology were co-opted for the purposes of defining who was Jewish and who was Aryan even though there was no scientific basis for such at the time. DNA hadn't been discovered yet. The Nazis drowned many thousands of Berliners when they flooded the sewers of Berlin to prevent the Russians from using the sewers in the battle for Berlin. The people had sought shelter in them from the Allied bombs and fighting, but that was of no concern. Hitler felt that Germany had failed him and that the German people deserved their own destruction in the end. Rather than face up to the fact that he failed them, he committed suicide. Other than the autobahn and the VW bug (the latter was Porsche's creation), what has lasted of the Third Reich?
The Roman emperors have a better track record of surviving and longer lasting public works than Hitler. The Catholic Church does as well. Between Jesus, St.
Paul and Roman roads, Christianity flourished because it espoused oneness and compassion for one's fellow man (the Golden Rule) and sexual equality among other things. Those were revolutionary and selfless ideas at the time.
I brought up Hitler because he was not selfless, and because the effects of his actions had a great effect upon history. Really drove US economy for a time, for example...
If you can call the effects of fighting a madman and his goons "good". Our country was virtually untouched from the wars that ravaged Europe and Asia. It took Japan and Europe 20 years to rebuild themselves from the devastation. Meanwhile, the US and USSR were locked in a Cold War that wasted trillions of dollars building conventional and nuclear weapons, enough of the latter to destroy both economies forever and then some. The cheap AK-47s in Africa and Iraq are a legacy of WW II and the Cold War. The Vietnam War was also a legacy of WW II, as well as being a geopolitical misunderstanding by the US.
One could say that the people who have benefited the most from World War II are the arms dealers.
The Big 3 automakers are circling the drain, while Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrup, and the defense industry in general are booming. I never imagined that we'd go after terrorists with smart bombs, UAVs and most of the Army. I thought after 9/11 it'd be the CIA and Special Forces fighting a shadowy, unconventional war against unconventional enemies. Silly me. What madness!
John, your comments appear to be based on wanting to argue with mine, but at the same time you seem to be responding to arguments that I have not made and will not make. I'm not sure what sort of conversation you're attempting to have.
You brought up Hitler as a selfish aspect of one's "work" and the good he did for the US economy. We were lucky due to geography, nothing more. Perhaps he was an extreme symptom of mankind's collective madness. While his life and his work will be quickly erased, his legacy appears to live on in the short term. He altered the geopolitical landscape, though in ways he nor anyone else anticipated. But this too, will pass. Given time, all traces of Hitler will be gone.
I was just lamenting the waste and madness of his legacy to the world, and all the paradoxes. The AK-47 was designed to save Russians from German soldiers, but it's destroying Africa bit by bit. Not what it's designer intended at all.
Contrast Hitler's life with that of Jesus or Buddha. They will affect more lives in the long run due to their selflessness and teaching of compassion, assuming people actually take their teachings to heart.
I was wrong. Rod Serling wrote a brilliant teleplay stating that as long as people hate one another, Hitler lives on.
John, I never claimed Hitler did any good for the US economy. Or bad. You're arguing with a statement I never made.
I used "great" in its original sense; as in "relatively large in size or number or extent" or "of major significance or importance"... not the colloquial "good". Frankly it's a surprise that anybody would've interpreted it another way.
And I do believe that Hitler's effect on the world is lasting in a great many ways... but that's a comment to be written later.
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