2021 Wishes

2020 is probably the year whose end everybody wished to see -more than any other one. It has been a though time but, unfortunately, up to now no-one can forecast when the "situation" will be really over. People drag along, one day after another and, in a strange and mysterious way, it seems that unusual routines have been established, and accepted. Most things don't work as they did "before" it all started. Relationships are forcefully maintained on differently basis. The cities look different with their empty streets and closed stores. A semblance of normality is still the illusion nursed by some, while others give in to depression and loneliness. The very spirit of each human being has been affected because, as never before, most feel that Life itself is "different". Therefore, what can the wishes for 2021 be? You wish... he/she wishes... I wish... they wish... Let us fill in the blanks and...let us hope for the best. There is nothing else we can do! P.S. It seems that irises are symbols of hope. Here are Van Gogh's.   "Happy New Year"!!!                                                                             

Interesting Puzzle

When you experience a certain feeling, you tend to believe that such feeling identifies with "you" because it involves your whole being. But the instant you start to elaborate such thought, you realize that there is a 'quid' outside the feeling that is doing the thinking. Therefore, if you are wondering, and realize that the mind is a simple tool for thoughts to manifest, where do thoughts come from? Certainly not from your body and most probably not from your mind either. So? Here your capacity for reasoning suddenly comes to a halt, because you cannot grasp a reality that seems to be beyond "your own" reality - or at least the reality you can understand with the means available to you.

 

A Mysterious 'Engine'

You have heard the words “You are not your body, you are not not your  thoughts, you are not your feelings.” These may seem rather strange affirmations. They can make sense, in a way, but they are hard to really understand and accept. They make sense because, if you ask yourself about your usual identification with your body, you can clearly see that there is “someone” or “something” asking the question, i.e. a reality outside the body. The same happens if you wonder about the question itself. Questions take place in your mind, they are thoughts. And if you ask where these thoughts are coming from, it’s clear that they cannot come from the mind itself.  An eye cannot see itself because the motor of  the ‘seeing’ is the brain (not the eye itself). What is the ‘motor’ of your thoughts? 

Detachment Is a Must

Although it seems that your advice to others often yields results, it is always “their choice” to accept it that makes things happen in a certain way. Money, health, friends are all important assets and your life is happier and more fulfilling if you can have and enjoy them, but none of them can provide you with total fulfillment - because they are “external”. What is outside can only provide a temporary feeling of satisfaction, never a permanent one. Because nothing is really perfect, you always nurse a subtle dissatisfaction even in the most seemingly fantastic achievements. Your loved ones never totally behave the way you expect or would like, money fluctuates, you are never sure that you will forever have enough, good health is great but … Try to be aware of the fact that you are the only person who can create your thoughts, moods and, consequently, experiences. Detachment is a must, if you want to avoid too much disappointment and frustration in your life.

Doing Without

There are people, things, feelings and situations that most human beings believe they cannot do without. If this is your ‘creed’, too, it is not easy for you to be happy. The fact is that you are who you are, independently from anything outside yourself. If you think of all the stuff that fills your life, you may realize that you can detach yourself from most of it, that you don’t really have the 'need' of it. Other people, family members included, are here to fulfill their own lives. Such lives are independent from yours, even though sometimes it might seem otherwise. Husband and wife, parents and children, partners, best friends… the tie between them is evidently very strong but the knot is never too tight that it cannot be undone. You love them, you care for them, you wish them well, but they are "their own persons" and nothing you do will really have a determining impact on how their lives will eventually unfold. 

Don't Waste Your Time

You often spend precious moments that will never come back just thinking of stuff that has already happened and done with. You are not aware of the uselessness of doing so. You don’t realize that continuing to bring old good times back to mind has the only result of making you feel deprived and dissatisfied. You keep making comparisons between what you had and what you have and, of course, it seems that the past was always better than the present. In other cases, remembering events long gone makes you feel guilty for errors you committed and so you experience sorrow and grief over a "broken dish" that cannot be mended. As to the future, provided you know where we want to go, and provided you have a general plan for what you want to achieve, forget about what might happen tomorrow. You cannot "know" until tomorrow becomes today!

Conscious Gazing

Like everybody else you, too, enjoy dreaming, getting away from reality, losing yourself in an imaginary world where you are happy and fulfilled. This happens because you are unaware of your capability of creating your heaven here and now. It might not be an exotic far away place, but even here, where you are in this very moment, you can appreciate beautiful sights and sounds. Look out of your window and notice what you see. Really focus on that tree whose leaves are trembling in the breeze. Look up and observe the clouds dancing in the sky. Listen to the voice of a bird, of a child, pay attention even to the noise of a passing-by car. Aren’t these things worth seeing and listening to? Yes, they are….the same as tropical palm-trees, oceanic waves and unknown birds. You know why? Because it is all "Life". And if you overlook what is at your disposal, here and now, you are not living fully!

Dream Island

Sometimes your mind wonders from thought to thought without concentrating on any; ideas come and go, spin like a merry-go-round, often leaving you confused and dissatisfied. When it happens, it’s because you are not “aware”. You are not aware of the many gifts you have been given, you take everything for granted and don’t give it the importance it deserves. When it happens, you are missing the many opportunities to live a “full” life, enjoying every single moment, here, in the place where you find yourself, and not on your dream island in the Southern Seas!! The ironical thing is that people who actually live on that heavenly island are probably dreaming of being  in a place similar to the one “you” presently are.

A Basic Duty

Do you ever reflect upon how controlled, conditioned people are by their past: ideas, experiences, parents, teachers, friends, concepts? All that has happened, all they have been told, all that has been seen and heard leave a mark on their minds and spirits. There is the possibility that you, too, keep on living - thinking to be 'original', while you may be living as a remote controlled individual who only believes to be free. It is therefore important to raise questions, to check how open you are towards doubting your convictions, towards releasing some cliches that had been imposed on you by past experiences. Not all your beliefs are wrong, of course, but there might be some that you still accept out of habit or carelessness, possibly because they are convictions well established in your family, in your community or in your country. Be the "supreme judge" of what you make your own! It is your duty toward yourself.

No True Perception

You are not "here" when you do something while thinking of something else. Is it possible? Yes, it is. It’s what you do most of the time. It’s a kind of mental “multitasking” that allows you to drink coffee while watching the news. In so doing you don’t really taste the coffee, as we don’t hear the music if you study or work with our headphones on. Therefore, you necessarily miss out on one of them. Not being here means not perceiving your whole "beingness". This happens when your hand does not feel what it is touching, when your eyes glide over whatever is in front of them, without real perception. Your senses should help you to be more in contact with yourself and with the external world, but it seems that you  (as most of us) don’t know how to use them properly.