Functional Solutions For Living

Greetings everyone! I’m still in sunny South Florida and loving it. It is amazing how relocating to a different climate for even a short period of time can have a dramatic effect on one’s health and moment to moment outlook.

Although I love the snow and have no problem with the cold at all, the dirty indoor air and lack of sunlight gets to me after a while. For better and for worse, I just have one of those sensitive systems.

At some point around January, it becomes somewhat of an effort to maintain my usual physical, mental and emotional equanimity. My immune system gets overburdened and my brain gets a little out of whack.

I can usually remedy that with copious amount of cardiovascular exercise, antioxidants and 5,000 IU’s of vitamin D/day starting in September and ending in May.

However, I much prefer to just eat as much raw, delicious, clean and nutrient rich superfoods as I can, swim a few times a week and take short barefoot runs or long walks on the beach with my lovely other. I’m a big fan of simplicity!

So many people up North get seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or the winter blues and become intolerant and intolerable!

I hate seeing people in that condition and I really hate seeing them go on meds when some vigorous exercise, fresh clean air in their homes and some vitamin D, starting around September and ending in May, would do the trick.

Moving on…

Today I’d like to talk a bit about understanding.

Most people think that we understand things with our minds…

If you really get down to it, you will see that we actually do not.

In reality, the mind is only capable of grasping objects (physical objects and thought objects), mental activity and concepts.

It is ephemeral and like everything in life, is in constant motion and incapable of holding onto any real understanding.

To seek Truth with the thinking, discriminating mind is a huge mistake.

In those moments when the mind thinks it has understood something, the ego does its little dance and wedges it way in. It says, “Ah, I get it. I understand!”

It likes that sense of power, accomplishment and safety it gets from figuring things out. Of course it wants to hold the winning hand, so it then freezes the insight du jour, adds it to the others and tries to make it the truth.

This can and does get us into trouble!

We are sick with our so-called knowledge, beliefs and opinions.

That is why in Zen it is said, “Do not search for the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.”

Note that it is NOT advised to abandon your opinions; that is going to the other extreme. We are merely being advised to stop CHERISHING them. There is nothing wrong with knowledge, beliefs and opinions. They come in handy.

I know what I know and like what I like, so when I am at the grocery store or shopping for a high ticket item, my preferences and (hopefully informed) opinions are useful for me to get in and get out.

I also know from many years of living and meditating, that my opinions, my beliefs, my thoughts aren’t real or true in any absolute or enduring sense. My brain uses them, based on my past experiences “good” and “bad”, to get me through life successfully. Maybe not with perfect skill, compassion or integrity but they get me by.

The ego is just the ego. It has a job to do. It thinks it is us and is always trying to please and protect us. If you have a mature, well developed ego, and the real-time awareness that it is merely a tool that must be picked up and put down like any other tool, this can be very useful.

Whenever any kind of real understanding occurs, at the ACTUAL moment of understanding, the ego is sound asleep. It is not occupying that space.

If we really get down to it, we can never really know anything with absolute certainty. We can just be certain to a greater or lesser degree. That is okay. In fact, there is much freedom in that!

Any TRUE knowledge of anything arises apart from the mind. It dwells in consciousness, in awareness. It resides in the heart.

This can be said of all forms of understanding, including the kind of understanding we might use to bake bread, learn a new language or for us heterosexual men, to figure out a seemingly impossible puzzle like the emotional weather patterns of the woman we love.

Just kidding ladies. We all know there is no hope for us men to ever figure that one out. But we thank you for your patience and the feminine wisdom that makes a space for us men to think we are clever. I learned a long time ago that women are smarter!

****** That last line, my friends, is a perfect example of a useful belief!!! ******

But I digress…

True awareness, true understanding authenticates itself. It is not achieved, nor can it be captured, frozen or experienced through words or thoughts.

We can tell another all about how being in love feels or how avocados taste but until you EXPERIENCE these things for yourself, you will never understand.

When Truth, Awareness, Consciousness, Understanding, Spirit or whatever term you choose to use arises, it just happens. Kind of like slipping on the ice and falling on your ass.

It has always been and always will be present. In fact it is what we really are.

Please don’t take my word for any of this, I’m just some guy who is pointing at something you already know and are by writing a blog.

But I urge you to really look, really inquire WITHOUT using your mind.

Go silently to your heart, awaken to the Truth and make it your life by sharing the gift of who you really are with the world.

Until next time…

Kind Regards,
Anthony