Tag: honesty

In A Masqued Dream

 

“Real transformation requires real honesty. If you want to move forward — get real with yourself.”
― Bryant McGill

 

Final midnight’s call
and I reach up to tear
the mask from my face
revealing myself to all.
Yet underneath puzzled
I find another mask
I keep peeling away
layer after layer
as the crowd laughs
their masks firmly in place.
each layer still hiding
each face a shadow of the truth.
Where in this pile of facades
is my real face?
How far down does it go?
I reach what I know is the last mask
Now we’ll see what’s real
Behind it there is all and
there is naught.

 

Blessings, G

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AstarteAstarte / Astaroth by G A Rosenberg

 

Reading DestinyReading Destiny by G A Rosenberg

The Honest Heart

 

“Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, you raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others.”
— Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

 

Yet so often we keep our hearts hidden even from ourselves. How many of us are willing to open up that much? Basic honesty, living without lies seems the most difficult thing to handle. We lie for the stupidest reasons also. We don’t say what we feel, not out of fear of hurting someone but out of self-protection to avoid angering others or causing conflict. We end up all too easily becoming passive aggressive shells. What would be so bad about saying, “No I don’t want to do this?” or “This is not what works for me” or even “I disagree”
Honesty gives way to more honesty while lies cover up the essential self and are soul killing. The first part of letting the world tickle your heart and exposing that ‘raw and beautiful heart’ has to be a willingness to be slapped rather than tickled and let the truth of who you are shine through. We cannot call ourselves fearless if we fear to tell the truth.
Blessings, G

 

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Invitation OfferedInvitation Offered by G A Rosenberg

 

Night Flower2Night Flower 2 by G A Rosenberg

Breaking Rules

 

“You are remembered for the rules you break.”
–Douglas MacArthur

 

Often in order to live our lives in the way that is truest to our selves we have to break the rules. It may be by how and who we love, how we learn or sometimes just by the act of being in countries that would rather we didn’t. Oh there are more prosaic rule breaking that happens every day. If laws are passed telling us we can’t collect fresh rainwater or that we can’t grow certain kinds of food on our property, then chances are that if that is what we wish to do that is what we’ll do. There are so many laws and ordinances in the countries in which most of us live that it is nigh impossible to go a day without violating one rule or another. Thus is life in a world where “Everything not forbidden is compulsory and everything that is not compulsory is forbidden” seems to become closer with each passing month. Yet the most important rule to me is that of living according to one’s truest nature. As long as we do this than any other rule becomes secondary. As Bob Dylan said, “To live outside the law, you have to be honest.”
Blessings, G

 

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Somewhat Platonic Fractal CampfiresSomewhat Platonic Fractal Campfires by G A Rosenberg

 

Origami PlantOrigami Plant by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – January 21

“Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.”
― Spencer Johnson

 

Is it possible to be honest without integrity? I try to speak the truth as far as I know it to the best of my ability but am I willing to go further on my own journey? Can I look at my blind spots so that I can be more honest and have more to share?
Is it possible to have integrity without honesty? Ah, the recipe for a good villain, one who knows what he is and gleefully follows through. Yet at the same time, he or she misses the point that we are all interconnected and to do something to another is usually a way of trashing part of ourselves so their integrity only reaches so far and they stop themselves from fully integrating with others. Now I don’t consider myself a villain (not sure many outside of fiction do) yet there are times when people I meet are so mired in illusion that to be honest with them means to confront and either anger or sadden them. It seems easier to keep what I see to myself and be supportive rather than be honest and well, kick a person when they’re down. Even tho at times that may be the fastest way to help them to their feet. Occasionally they really do want to lie there and then I ask what would a friend do, a true friend? Ultimately I have realized that there while there is a clear answer, how honest I am depends on the situation. Am I hurting myself by this dishonesty, quite possibly? Am I hurting them? I am not sure.
Blessings, G

 

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Soft Journey

Soft Journey by G A Rosenberg

 

Shoots and Ladders

Shoots and Ladders by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – October 27 2012

“Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.”
― Neil Gaiman

 

For me by necessity the story comes out in small parts, chapters from the past and chapters from the future that haven’t been written yet. The present is always here and accepted gracefully. After all what else do you do with a present? This past while, I’ve been learning myself a bit more every day and as I learn myself and find my story I can share it like the tale of the bridge and the angel I found there… or the dream of my first crush,  and of pain… I may tell of days but difficult and joyous but slowly I find my voice.

Funny thing tho, the more I listen to my voice the more I can hear others and hear them as they are felt and said. Perhaps all its taken is greater self-honesty or like the expression that I’ve used for years, shovelling the shit out of the communication box. I’m not there yet, not totally. I need to write, I’ve been told as if I’m the only one who will read it. Yet for me at times, it is easier to be honest on some things with witnesses for telling myself some truths may be too painful. There lies my blind spots and those are the ones I must work at.
What stories will you share and how honestly and easily do you find they come?
Blessings, G

 

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Expressive Abstraction by G A Rosenberg

 

Winged Peach by G A Rosenberg

 

 

Quote of the Day – June 15 2012

“Would you rather live your life according to the approval of others or aligned with your truth and your dreams?”
― Robin S. Sharma

Absolute answers
require a sacrifice
I’d rather not make

 

Can you live just a piece of your truth?

 

Is it possible to live all of it all full time without compromise? I know that truth is addictive. It is a habit  I’ve been getting into.  Turning  my world on its ear or perhaps just setting it right..

 

Can I handle the 100% full-time unvarnished direct living of truth?
How can I not?

 

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Wishing by G A Rosenberg

Rings Around Rose by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 30 2012

“‘Q: What can each one of us do to help alleviate the suffering of the world?‘

‘That’s a good question. The first thing is that you be aware of it and recognize it unsentimentally… that you just be aware of what it’s really like. Then the next thing you do is that you don’t get bummed by it, because that makes you contribute to it.’

‘What you do is that you take care of the first thing at hand, which is right between your ears. Fix your head….’

‘Q: How do you fix your head?‘

‘You have to tell the truth all the time even in uncomfortable situations, even if there’s great social difficulty.’

‘What that does is that it keeps you from having [things] subconscious; and if you don’t have subconscious you should be smart enough to figure everything else out yourself. If you don’t have subconscious the clear light of God can shine through you. Your own subconscious is the filter that keeps that out.’
–Stephen Gaskin

I was thinking of only using one of the question answer pairs here but I have to admit I find the whole of it pretty awesome. He talks about compassion so off-hand. Recognize suffering and be aware of what it’s really like in an unsentimental fashion. That statement realizes that sentimentality can totally blindside empathy and stop it on its way to compassion if we let it. It seems so easy to put value judgements on what we perceive from others that rather than openly put ourselves in another’s shoes, we both romanticize and trivialize it. I know I have been guilty of this in the past and still catch myself doing it sometimes.
As a friend of mine would say “See how we are”
The total honesty all the time part is something that I wish I had the courage to try. I know that it is a necessity in order to have true lasting communication with others, still it is something I approach as a goal and have been working towards. Closer every day.
Blessings, G

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The Sky Was Filled With Wonder by G A Rosenberg

Flowering Cosmos by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day February 19 2012

” All people are born potentially telepathic—but that if we’re ever going to get any message-traffic capacity, we must first shovel the shit out of the Communications Room.”
— Spider Robinson

An interesting thread came up today in a couple of FB groups I was in. Something a friend had posted reminded me of a story by Spider Robinson that I read.

“I know, son, I know. The Second Commandment of Leary: ‘Thou shalt not alter thy brother’s consciousness without his consent.’ So how about retroactive consent?”

“Say again.”

“The aftereffects. I’ve administered the drug to blind volunteers. They knew only that they were sampling a new psychedelic of unknown effect. In each case I gave a preliminary ‘attitude survey’ questionnaire with a few buried questions. In fourteen cases I satisfied myself that the subject would probably not have taken the drug if he or she had known its effect. In about three-quarters of them I damn well knew it. The effects were the same for all but one. All fourteen of them experienced major life upheaval—usually irreversible and quite against their will—while under the effects of the drug. They all became violently angry at me after they came down. Then all fourteen stormed off to try and put their lives back together. Thirteen of them were back within a week, asking me to lay another hit on them.”

Zack’s eyes widened. “Addictive on a single hit. Jesus.”

“No, no!” George said exasperatedly. “It’s not the drug that’s addictive, dammit. It’s the truth that’s addictive. Every one of those people came back for, like, three-four hits, and then they stopped coming by. I checked up on the ones I was in a position to. They had just simply rearranged their lives on solid principles of truth and honesty and begun to live that way all the time. They didn’t need the drug anymore. Every damn one of them thanked me. One of them fucked me, sweetly and lovingly—at my age.”

– From “Satan’s Children” by Spider Robinson.

Something I heard a while back;

A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me the question “If you could have two wishes granted by an all-powerful, all good, all knowing genie, what would they be?”

I thought for a few seconds and then answered “I don’t need two wishes. I only need one.”

My friend argued with me briefly that, based on a complex logical analysis, I really did need two wishes, the first of which was to set up the conditions for the second one.

I repeated, “I don’t need two wishes. I only need one.”

He replied, “Okay, what is it?”

“I would wish for what is best.”

He continued to try to find reasons why his analysis was superior to mine. To each of these I replied “Would the results of your wish be better than the results of mine?”

“Yes. And here’s why…”

I patiently explained that the results of his wish could not possibly be better than mine, because I wished only for what was best. By definition, nothing could be better than what is best.

He countered that with “But what if what is best isn’t what is best for me?”

That was a little bit more difficult than the original question of what to wish for in the first place, but I shortly realized the answer wasn’t much more complicated: “Then you should change so that what is best is best for you.”

I believe this is within the reach of each of us, and if we accept the challenge, the world will be a different and better place.
–From Vajrah Krishna, Possibility Magazine:

The story and the quote have been circling around inside. I reread the story and it occurred to me that what the first person asked for was not HIS best but THE best, an objective utopia if you please.
When his friend asks what if the objective best is not his personal best, he is told to change to that objective standard.

When I realized that various debates started to take place in my head all about the sovereignty of the individual vs the collective will etc (all the usual suspects) when it occurred to me that that argument in this case is without substance. Oh it would be true, if it was one person or a group of being’s view of what was best or even if it was the genii’s idea of what was best but that is not what the wish was, it was what was Best. Objective.
Then I started wondering what that objective best would look like. What qualities would people have, what would the basis of the society be (more specifically than just those two words)

Then I remembered the story Satan’s Children by Spider Robinson and I thought he was onto something. At the very least THE best of all Possible worlds would be one where honesty reigned not only between people but self-honesty (total).
Could poverty or inequality happen in a world where honesty reigned? Not that I could see. With honesty comes justice.

With honesty also to my mind comes empathy. From my experience, empathy is a natural element of the human psyche and it takes a lot of self-talk and interference to turn it off. (school systems and commercial TV have worked years on it)
Along with empathy, let’s add other elements that seem to be repressed by most modern societies. Curiosity and Spirituality among them

What do you think?
Blessings, G

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Cosmic Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Eye of The Storm

A Few Odds and Ends That May Amuse

Lately the universe has been sending me messages about personal integrity. Now I usually think of myself as a fairly honest person. If anything, I will stay silent to either avoid conflict or avoid dishonesty. But still everywhere I turn, on line for sure but even in offline conversations, people on the sky train talking about honesty.
Another thing I’ve been hearing a lot. Each moment is a choice…If we want to have greater integrity, we need to keep consciously make that choice and be more conscious in our choice making. All I can say is I’m working on it.

It needs to come from the heart
we need to come from the heart

when you’re honest with your self then you learn to trust yourself
that seems so obvious

the more you (meaning me or anyone) lie to yourself and others, the more on some level you teach yourself that you aren’t trustworthy

when did hope become a bad thing?

Visionary toilets
a visionary’s bath

Wiccan Women (Part of a poem)

Wiccan women calling down the moon
seeking to travel
seeking to learn
Does it speak to the heart?
Does it speak to within
Does it speak to virtue
Does it speak to your sin
and what have you done
for what do you grieve?
You have lived, nothing more
no matter what they believe