The proper question

Who are you? How are you? Better yet... how is your mind? How is your spirit? How is the silence between this thought and that thought?

Do we really know how we function... and subsequently how we don't? We wake up, we "work", we clean, we talk, we walk from one room to the other, we drive here and we drive there... we get lost in the business of life, keeping up with the mundane through our limited perceptions, identifying our existence with short term goals and long term plans, "What are we doing this weekend? " "did you pay that bill?" " When will I have some down time?" we stroke our egos with our judgements of others, criticisms which say more about ourselves than they do about our object of scrutiny. " Ugh, people..." " oh my god, they are such a mess." "I like him, I don't mind her" perpetually clogged by all the noise, "when will that light turn green?" "how much more until we get out of here?" " Let me just get to the end of the week." How can we possibly know who we are, how we are and where we are, when we are constantly existing in a state of illusion and if we are not careful, delusion.

Again I ask, and this time correctly, How is your mind? how are your thoughts? Do you understand the power of your thoughts? how much you control? and if you don't... how much control you relinquish? how are your words? What do your words say about YOU? what do your thoughts say about YOU? what do the silence and the noise in your mind say? What do all these things that you think are seemingly unimportant sow and consequently reap?

The human condition while tragic, it is also very interesting. We make life, we take life, we build airplanes and can fit a computer in a cell phone... but we act as though we have no control of life. Our problems are someone else's lack there of. Our pain is someone else's cruelty. Our mental and emotional chaos is the result of someone else inflicting abuse. Our inability to find, to receive... is someone else's inability to give.

Let's face it, Human beings, as an organism are sick and we are only getting sicker. When it comes to building, to nourishment, to cleansing, detoxifying our bodies, it is ( for the most part ) universally understood that we need to break it and then rebuild. We need to detox our bodies. And if we really pursue health we need to not only detox our bodies we need to rewire our entire chemistry. If you want to build muscle, you need to actually destroy the muscle and then rebuild. Same goes for our mind, our way of thinking, our understanding of how to live, how to be happy, how to *be*.


" We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. "

What does that mean? Very simply this, we need to be aware and MASTER our understanding of our thinking, our minds, for it is our minds' working which dictates our lives, our identities, our sufferings and our joys. This is more than just thinking positive thoughts. No, like I said, we are talking about rewiring our mental and emotional processes. And there is something that we need to understand above all else, something I did not understand until very recently, whether you know it or not... that which you do not control, controls you. Regardless of any superficial grasp of personal control, our checkbooks, our homes, our relationships, it is our thoughts, our uncensored, unabashed, unfiltered thoughts and emotions which define us.

No more of the same... that's a good start. Wipe the slate clean. Remember the definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over again and expecting a different result. We are our thoughts. We are the thoughts behind our actions, our concept of the world, our perceptions, our ideas. When we define ourselves as, "I am a woman" " I am a parent" " I am a Teacher" We are simply listing titles of roles we play or responsibilities we fulfill. Who we are is much deeper and interesting than that :) Pay attention to it. Guard it. Free it. Nourish it. Master it.

It is not the economy's fault for our lack of wealth. It is not our abuser's responsibility to rid us of our pain. It is not our mothers' short comings that dictate our insecurities. It is not someone else's ignorance which defines how we choose to see and paint the world. It is not someone else's cruelty that determines whether or not I trust and love.

Who I AM is defined by my thoughts. By my will and by my discipline of both.