Your Amazing Worth

This is my twenty-fifth post in a series, where each Monday (if possible) I will post about a point of reflection or insight that I will use to reflect and meditate on during the week. In order to make it a bit more focused and interesting, I will attempt to do this with topics beginning with letters from A to Z. I have often found that having a specific topic to reflect and/or meditate on during the week really lends itself to interesting insights and growth, because you not only have several days to reflect and meditate on the topic, but you have several days to put any lessons and insights that you discover to work in your every day life. For those that follow me on Twitter (@JasonLivingNow) I will try to write updates as the weekly topics come up during meditations, moments of reflection, or just during everyday life. To view the current and previous entries in this series, please visit the: Reflections and Insights A Through Z section.

My son Jason loves a good fire!

Y= Your Amazing Worth: I’ve mentioned in several previous posts that most suffering is caused by ignorance and attachment. I also believe that suffering is caused when we don’t realize our own amazing worth. Now as a point of clarification, when I refer to “suffering”, I’m not necessarily only talking about mental anguish, I’m also referring to general unhappiness, the nagging feeling of being unsatisfied, or anything that gets in your way of being truly happy.

When we don’t realize our self-worth, we naturally search for happiness from external sources. Seeking happiness from external sources is guaranteed to constantly fail and lead to disappointment, because no one will ever be the perfect friend or the perfect partner, no job will always be perfect, possessions will eventually break or go out of style, etc. Therefore, when your happiness or feelings of well-being are tied to external sources you are setting yourself up for a vicious cycle of disappointment.

This is why the Buddha, in his Four Noble Truths, taught that suffering is caused by attachment (craving), and that in order to end suffering (dukkha), one must end attachments to material possessions and the external world in general. This is also why Jesus taught to reject materialism (Matthew 6:19), and that one cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), you must choose to love God (and your true-self), or money (materialism), you cannot do both.

Every human being is an amazing creature, our bodies are made up of stardust, and we are animated by the divine spark of life from the Creator. The divine spark of life is what unites us with the Creator, and the rest of creation. We are each more precious than any gem, precious metal, or possession in the world. When we realize this fact, the draw of materialism begins to fall away, and the stresses and bumps in the road of life don’t appear to be so drastic.

“Let the waters settle and you will see the moon and the stars mirrored in your own being.” – Rumi

In order to be truly happy, we must learn our true value, and live life to the fullest, live in the now, so that we can fully utilize all that is the mystery, the wonderful experience, of life.

Disregarding End of the World, and Conspiracy Theory Myths

Recently the world was abuzz because of a theory from Harold Camping, the millionaire owner of the Christian Family Radio Network, that the rapture of Christians would occur on May 21, 2011. Although Harold Camping made a similar prediction in 1994, which obviously was incorrect, thousands of people sold, or donated, everything they owned to spread this message, and wait for the end of the world to occur. Obviously the sunrise on May 22, 2011, was a devastating shock to many of those people who had so completely bought into Mr. Camping’s false message.

Beyond Mr. Camping’s debunked theories, there is a constantly changing array of doomsday scenarios, whether it be the past Y2K predictions, or the current Niburu, Planet X, Nemisis, and 2012 predictions. Also, there are a never ending string of conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati, Freemasons, Bilderburg group, Bohemian Grove, etc. and their supposed desire to control the world. When these doomsday scenarios fail to materialize, or the conspiracies are proven false, new dates are set, or entirely new theories are created to take the former theory’s place.

The real questions in all of this is why would someone buy so fully into these fringe predictions, which are solely supported by shaky math, questionable biblical and ancient document interpretations, supposed psychic messages, or even a total lack of evidence (after all if you can’t prove it doesn’t exist, then it must exist)?