4-28-16 Post: Jump out of the box and expand your idea of who you are.

Question/Comment: There seem to be a large number of people expressing prejudices about which human beings are superior to others. I think these are people who are unhappy with themselves and the lives they’re living but rather than take responsibility and make changes, they lash out and blame others for their misery.

Response: When we think of ourselves as separate individuals, when see others as separate from us, then it is easier to begin to make comparisons and judgements and place blame. No one wants to feel less than or at fault so we begin to find fault with others, blame them and sit in judgement of their perceived failures.

When we begin to relax our view of separateness and begin to see that we are all one human family, it becomes more natural to truly love and appreciates ourselves and extend that love and appreciation to others. 

There is less need to make anyone wrong and less need to feel defensive. With no need to compete for rightness and therefor superiority, it is easier to feel at peace with ourselves. When we do, then we find ourselves surrounded by peace and peaceful people.

We can take this thinking even further. We can realize that we are not our bodies. Every cell in the body changes over a seven year period so if we were our bodies we would be a brand new person every seven years. Really, since all the cells don’t suddenly change at once, we would be constantly in flux and never an identifiable individual.

So maybe we can consider that we are consciousness that attaches to a human body to have a human experience. When we take a further look at the human body, we see that we have the illusion that it is a single thing but it really is billions of cells that agree to band together to create a vehicle for us. 

If you can stop thinking of yourself as a solid, single package called a human being, it may change many things for you in life. Thinking of the human body as a cooperative grouping of cells is a very different perspective. (Please, see Bruce Lipton’s book The Biology of Belief 10th edition.) 

In this line of thought the body is no longer seen as one thing like a lump of stuff piled into a bag of skin. It is see as a vibrant, interacting group of intelligent, perceptive, choosing cells working together to form something together, a body. The cells cooperate and band together to form skin, organs, blood and so on which taken together forms the whole human body.

No one part can be missing without changing the whole. The behavior of every cell effects every other cell and the whole. Every part plays a vital role that every other part depends on and every part is influenced for benefit or harm by the behavior of every other cell. 

Just as every cell in the body has intelligence, perception, ability to react and a job to perform so does all of life. All life on our planet can perceive and react and has a role to play in the body and life of our planet. Animals, plants, rocks, humans, air, water, lava and so on all have a role to play. What one does causes ripples of effect in everything else. Together we are a collective that creates one being that we call Earth.

Do not cause harm to the cells of your body with things you eat, drink, think or do. By loving, cherishing and respecting the cells of your body, you honor their service, abilities, and grandure. What a miracle it is that cells choose to band together to form a body for you. Do no harm to others, human, animal, all others.

What happens to any one part influences every other part for good or for bad. Let’s adopt and expand Ann Marie Chiasson’s idea of sacred touch to include our words and thoughts as well as physical actions. Let’s use this intent in our treatment of our bodies and everything else on Earth including the planet. What a different world we would have; it would be a much improved world to inhabit.

Maybe humans could strive to adopt a life motto that reflects the Hindu concept of Ahimsa. “Do no harm.” Just imagine how much better off would we each be, how much better off we would be collectively and how much better off would Earth and all of her inhabitants be? 

Maybe we can let go of blame and judging and comparing and focus on changing our beliefs and behavior for the betterment of all.