Glory to God in the Highest! All Glory & Power is Thine, Oh Lord.
God is Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient. So you might just say… God is!
To simplify the above proclamations into practical terms for our daily lives:
God is present in everyone and everything, which means everything is Perfect just as it is. There is nothing wrong with anyone or anything, and there is nothing that needs to be changed or fixed. Everything is perfect as is. Which means, there is nothing to condemn or criticize. So we are free to let go of that incessant urge to judge and express our opinions about everything. As Dr. Hawkins says…opinions are worthless! What a waste of energy, right? We could be thinking about all of our opinions and judgments or we could just be basking in the Glory before us in the moment, or pondering the great spiritual teachings that serve to uplift humanity…but instead we think about how the person walking on the street is overweight??? What a waste, right? It is more fulfilling to bless everyone and everything than to label and judge them.
Sometimes we might find ourselves stuck in a bad conversation though, or in the presence of someone else who is expressing all kinds of judgments & opinions & yada-yada-yada — what do we do then?
Speaking from personal experience, because this just happened with me and created a bit of a blowup — it is not necessarily beneficial to reference spiritual teachings to the other person. Whatever level of consciousness they are operating is where they are, and that level likely isn’t ready to listen to the teachings of Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, etc. And, as Dr. Hawkins says, one way to maintain your own peace is to give up trying to change and control other people.
So then, if trying to change and control other people is a sure way for us to lose our peace, what is a better way to navigate the murky waters of a conversation turbulent with judgments and opinions? The sage Patanjali would say that for you to keep your own peace — disregard the wicked! So you completely ignore the negativity and then your attention will naturally shift somewhere else. Perhaps then the conversation would look like one person saying, “Look how unhealthy that person is,” and the response being, “I love these trees alongside the road.” No juice is given to the negative judgments & opinions.
The Socratic Method might also be an interesting approach to take, which is basically having a frame of curiosity and perhaps a way of coaching someone by asking questions. One would ask, “How do you define unhealthy? Why do you define it that way? What if someone said they disagree with your definition?” On and on…This approach would also keep you as innocent rather than also being one to have the opinions and judgments about what is wicked and worthy of disregarding, like Patanjali would suggest.
Dr. Hawkins mentions that the game people love to play is that of moral superiority. We all want to be right, right? To let go of being judge and jury is immensely valuable for our peace of mind though. And, in a way, it is okay to feel, “I am right and they are wrong,” but at the same time it is “We are both ignorant & therefore innoncent,” and “i know nothing but by the Grace of God.” So whatever it is, give the credit to God. Then whatever happens is God’s problem 😉
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Interpersonal relationships can be really challenging – in fact our relationships with ‘other’ people is probably the single greatest ’cause’ of all our pain & misery as well as our happiness & joy —- that is, as far as people would attribute it too (when in Reality, it is all God 🙂 ) So given that relationships are so complex and can get messy so quickly, especially with family, what are we to do?
Brief side note: the reason relationships with family can be so tough is because there is no guarantee that everyone in a family has similar values, goals, priorities, purpose in life, etc. Very likely, they will all actually be different. And then, among siblings, there can be the subtle competitive layer to everything too – each sibling secretly wanting to be better or at least morally superior to the others. So how can we effectively navigate the waters of family relations? Orienting oneself so that your life is constantly answering the question, “How can I serve?” is perhaps one of the simplest approaches. A service-oriented approach to life is golden in most if not all situations. Servant leadership!
For handling people in general, the sage Patanjali gives a complete set of teachings, oriented towards you keeping your peace as the foundation. So with your own peace as the #1 priority, you can apply these teachings when interacting with people and you will keep your peace.
As previously discussed: disregard the wicked. Don’t try to change and control, simply disregard.
What if the people are happy? Then you be friendly towards them. What if they are sad? Then you take on the attitude of compassion. And what if they are not obviously happy or sad, but are engaging in good works? Then you rejoice and delight in their virutous behavior! And, as mentioned, if they are engaged in bad works, you ignore it. Remember – this is for your own peace. we are not trying to save the world — but we are doing the all more realistic & important task of saving ourselves.
If you want peace in the world, you must first have it yourself. Peace begins at home. Peace is an immensely strong foundation, and it is perhaps the most enjoyable of all foundations as well. What beats a peaceful life?
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On a side note, just going to write this down since it was mentioned to me earlier today — a hilariously simple approach to being successful in life: Do what unsuccessful don’t do!
Anyway…not to get all back into judging and labeling right and wrong and such…just some food for thought.
Peace!
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Credit to Swami Satchidananda, Dr. David R. Hawkins, Jesus, Pantajali and all the great saints and sages for basically al the content of this article…and of course all glory be to God! Which means God also takes on the non-glory of it too…all a matter of perspective…
Gloria in Excelsis Deo!
God is. 