Your New Year

I have been wandering: How many people do really care about the meaning of starting a New Year? While no-one is here to tell you what you should or should not do, please be aware of the importance of making a decision that might affect your whole life. 
But... this is "your" life and you do what you want with it. 
Happy New Year!

Knock Knock! (Part 3)

Your life is not bad at all, thank goodness, but you still feel that you have not  given of yourself and obtained from others the best yet. You keep experiencing the nagging feeling that you can do much more, that your capabilities have not been unveiled and displayed yet, that your potential is still waiting its great opportunity to be shown to the world. You also believe that – so far - life has not given you all that you deserve.

But...here comes the good news! In a couple of days a New Year is starting and you still have time to finally put your intentions into practice and make them become reality. You have already made promises to yourself and you have not kept them (or, at least, not completely). Now you can make up for your previous lack of resolution. Here is a new opportunity available to you. Year 2014 is knocking and you are going to open your door. Let creativity, willpower, determination, commitment, dedication and trust accompany you in welcoming the New Year. Once again, (and again, and again…) it is up to you to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life.
(The End)

Knock Knock! (Part 2)

In the late nineties you were anxiously waiting for the new Millennium to start because you had made plans. There were things you wanted to carry out or change in your life, you had great expectations from yourself and from others. The year 2000 came and passed and you felt that most things were still the same, including yourself. Then you began waiting for year 2012. You had heard the story concerning the completion of the Mayan Calendar and the possible transformation that could take place on all levels of the human existence. The physical, psychological, emotional, and/or spiritual levels might have been radically altered by the astronomical position of the stars. Year 2012 came and passed and here you are, at the end of 2013. The cosmos is still the same and your life has not changed very much. You have not done most of what you were planning to do, while you may have done something that you had not planned on doing. Quite a few things seem not to have gone according to your forecast. It is interesting to notice how seldom things in life follow the guidelines that had been previously set out. Why does this happen? Are human beings careless, lazy, or incapable? Not at all. They are simply “human” and, according to their (your, mine, our) nature, they talk and dream more than they actually take action.
(to be concluded)

Knock Knock! (Part 1)

I recently happened to bump into an old TV series entitled "Space 1999". Due to the fact that I have always been a big "Star Trek" fan, I just had to watch a couple of episodes and, I must say, it resulted to be fairly good '60s science fiction. What fascinates me most in this kind of old shows is the fact that they used to consider the end of the second millennium and, consequently, the beginning of the years 2000s as a far away time, where the world would be totally different. OK, now we are well into the 2000s. So? How does our world look like? Mankind has certainly not conquered space in the sense of traveling to the stars, visiting other galaxies, colonizing alien planets. We are still here, very much bound to the Earth, in spite of the few space missions, space stations, astronauts' space walks. But... we have technology. We have so many devices that literally turned the world into the long-predicted global village. There are no more secrets, everything (good or bad) is out in the open, no one seems to be willing to have a "personal", private life any more. But, enough of this.
Now... allow me to make a few considerations while I am extending my best wish to you for a Happy New Year.

Relativity

We say that all is "relative", i.e. everything has a meaning only if we consider it in relation to something else. By itself, in fact, it does not mean anything. It is simply "is". This can also be referred to great concepts such as Fatherland and religion, for instance. Think about boundaries. They are just pieces of land that signify the division between countries exclusively according to a geographical map drawn by political/historical events. Take Christmas (or any celebration of any religion). It is highly meaningful in Western countries (generalizing) while in the East (still generalizing) it is just a working day like any other.

A sad consideration? It depends. This, too, is relative. It is sad if we think that such state of being divides people. Otherwise, it is just a situation to be accepted as it is, with no implications whatsoever.

You Can!

Who decides the kind of thoughts your mind is going to experience? Many people say: This is the way I am, I cannot change. This is how my mind thinks and there is nothing I can do. But you "are" neither your thoughts nor your feelings. Your own "self", namely your spirit, is something outside the material world, including both your physical and mental body. Unfortunately, sometimes your true "self" is dimmed, that is why your conditioning makes you unable to realize your strength, your capability to decide what you want to think, in what direction you wish to channel your energy: in a nutshell, the kind of life you want to live.

Impossible Answer?

A question that can be rather puzzling is the following: if we are all human beings having an experience here on Earth, how come that our experiences are so different - provided that the destination is the same?

Looking around, you keep seeing extremes: one life that is full of good feelings, people who encounter many opportunities to love and be loved (independently from the final outcome) while others never experience true love or they are only disappointed by the few times they believe they might have found it.

There are lives lived in torment or perennial discomfort versus those lived in relative serenity. Some lead a life strewn with toughness, abuse, intolerance, while others mainly meet calm and peace on their path.

Not all human beings endure such extremes, that is true. Actually, most individuals float through a sort of mediocre existence where nothing really "strong" ever happens. No deep feelings, no exceptional happenings, just a normal routine with the usual little joys and upsets, ups and down etc.

Can a satisfactory answer ever be found to the starting question? 
When they say that Life is a Mystery, they (whoever they are) are not joking!

Keep On Honking

A rather common experience: you are in your car, waiting for the traffic light to turn green. When it does, an instantaneous honking "choir" starts blaring out loud. It seems that some drivers just cannot stand waiting a couple more seconds. They need to cross the road now.

Some people move through life in the same way. They are impatient, they want everything "this very moment". They do not realize (or, rather, they prefer to ignore) that things need time to be carried out. They need a "suitable" time, according to their nature and situation.

The time you have to wait at the crossroad if you are standing behind one single car cannot be the same as if you stood behind ten cars, can it?

Yet, some (and maybe even you) every now and then seem not to perceive the difference. So they angrily keep on honking...

To Be or Not To Be?

I was asked by a student,"Why do I need to learn things that have no practical use?" Many young people ask the same question. Yes, why? If the modern world mainly revolves around money, profit, material achievements, why "waste" time and energy learning about literature, philosophy, geography, nature etc.?
A seed that remains "a seed" has the potential of becoming a tree. It can survive as a seed or it can be what it was created to be. Surviving and living: these are the two possible choices that human beings have to make throughout their lives.

To Be (what one can be) or Not To Be? (remaining in a latent state of possibility). Shakespeare was right. This is truly the question!

Naive Presumption

An adult student used to be absent a lot. When her professor asked why she was not attending classes regularly, she answered: "Because I am not really interested in learning. All I want is to obtain the diploma and get a job". (Believe it or not, this a true story!). When I heard it, I couldn't help thinking that such attitude is not so rare. Some believe that obtaining a diploma and getting a job is all they need. Who cares about the know-how? 
There are still - and there will always be - human beings who believe in "getting it" the easy way, with neither commitment nor effort. But... how proud can they be of themselves?
After all, how we feel about ourselves is what actually counts. Some individuals may believe that being "smart" is smart but, deep inside, their real self  knows the truth. Like the man who pretended to be asleep. He deceived others, but not himself.

Perfect Strangers

When I was in primary school, my best friend was a little girl named Simonetta. We were together every day, either in class or playing princesses at home. We thought we would be friends forever. Then life situations separated and kept us apart. After several years, I was walking downtown with a colleague, when she stopped to greet her room-mate. She exchanged a few words with the young woman without introducing us. Then we continued our walk. A short while later something my colleague said made me realize that her room-mate was Simonetta!

I was stunned and upset at the same time. How could it be that our strong friendship had been wiped out to the point that we didn't even recognize each other after just a dozen years? Nothing was left of our closeness, we had become perfect strangers. Such realization hurt and made me think about how fleeting everything on Earth is. Even something you are so sure will last forever might disappear and be lost, never to be recovered.

Wrong Assumption

I recently had to carry out a certain math calculation. It was not particularly difficult and I got the result in due time. But it did not sound right. I did sums, subtractions and divisions over and over and the result did not change. It was correct. Yet... it just could not be. Finally, I realized where the mistake was. I had started from a wrong assumption! As the starting point was wrong, all the subsequent operations, although they were carried out exactly, could not give the suitable result. 
Don't you also, every now and then, start a thought from the wrong premises? And when the starting thought, or belief, is incorrect, also the subsequent words and actions will not yield the results you expected. You judge a new acquaintance in a negative way? If you do not give yourself the time to check it out, you might miss the chance of making a good friend. Is being the winner in every discussion your top priority? Don't expect to be appreciated by all. Do you believe that your own interest and benefit come first? Don't expect that others will love you dearly. And so on and so forth.

The Power Is Yours

When you are convinced that you own the power to create your life, a miracle takes place. You decide in full awareness and freedom what you want to do with your body and with your mind. You finally understand that they are just means necessary to your spirit so that it can go through the experiences it needs for its progress and evolution. This is the goal of our life: to make us better and better through a never ending series of improving experiences which bring us closer to spiritual advancement. It is a progressive purification that, on our physical level, we must acquire by means of our worldly experiences. A life seen as a continuous search for the path leading to enlightenment cannot come to an end. It is an endless journey, that apparently started but that will never finish.

The Key to Happiness

Every now and then the old question "What is happiness?" pops up in my mind and I spend a brief moment considering it.

Some believe that happiness consists in having what one wants. Others may say that happiness consists in doing what one wants. Could it be that happiness is succeeding in just being what one wishes to be?

If owning a house or earning a handsome salary is your top priority, having such material goods should make you happy. On the other hand, you may put freedom to do what you want at the top of your list of priorities. You may desire to lead a certain kind of life, maybe travel the world etc. Nevertheless, even having or doing whatever you like most might not be enough and you might still experience a sense of lack that keeps you wanting more. Is it possible that by simply being able to express yourself in whatever way you find it more rewarding provides you with the key to happiness? Or, if not perfect happiness, maybe a sort of serenity that makes you feel contented and fulfilled, in peace with yourself and with the world? That should be enough.

An Impish Question

Would you rather know "the truth" and be unhappy, or remain ignorant and be tranquil? You feel perhaps that you should boldly answer, "I prefer to know". How brave of you! But... are you also ready to face the consequences - usually unpleasant - of your "knowingness"? Think now about going on ignoring what you have been unaware of till now. Do you really need to be enlightened on the subject? Mind you, in becoming "enlightened", your peace of mind will be probably destroyed.

In choosing the second possibility you are certainly not alone. Most human beings prefer the easy way of ignorance because it helps them avoid thinking, facing problems, acknowledging reality. Only a handful make the first choice because the price to pay is too high. And... after all, who really "needs" to know it all?

Loving Versus Liking

Someone asked me if it is possible to love someone and yet not like them. I believe it is. If a person very close to you (such as a parent, a child, a sibling, a best friend) constantly behaves in a way that you just cannot stand, it is only natural for you to be annoyed, to experience a feeling of resentment. After having been patient over and over, at a certain point you realize that you would rather stay away from such person than to be in their presence and spend time with them.You love them dearly, you wish them well, you honestly want to see them happy. Yet, when they are around, you prefer... to be in another room, don't you? Should you feel guilty about such feeling? I don't think so. Why? Because people deserve to bear the consequences of their behavior, no matter what the family or friendship ties are. They behave badly most of the time? It's OK for you not to like them. Nevertheless, you still love them.

Unknown Enemy

You have surely heard that high blood pressure is called "the silent killer" because it can cause fatal health problems without giving any previous warning. The same definition can be given of non-physical conditions which, nevertheless, are no less dangerous. I am referring to strong negative feelings such as hate, resentment, jealousy, blame etc. These feelings are powerful to the point of causing a physical unbalance in the human body. When you are under the effect of long-lasting resentment or hate, your inner systems get so distraught that the chemical equilibrium results altered. With time, if such situation  persists and becomes chronic, a serious disease might ensue with dramatic, often fatal consequences in your life.