Demand Nothing of Others

There are two basic things I learned from my mother and father that have consistently guided me: 1) being kind and 2) using the good sense I was born with. 

When I left my family home to meet the world beyond, I made some unwise choices. But from where I am now, I see those choices were actually my soul’s curriculum. I couldn’t have missed them. They were the encounters I needed to learn through on the journey of my own development. Every choice was an opportunity to be led by fear — my own as well as the fear of others — or to be guided by truth. Nothing ever went so wrong that I couldn’t get myself back to using the good sense I was born with because my soul, just like yours, is wired to resonate with truth. It is always available. And ultimately I was to learn how to not go against myself, to not deny the truth. In the process, I never, ever let myself be unkind, even in the midst of injustice, abuse, and blatant lies — all tools of fear.

The good sense I was born with is the good sense you were born with as it is the nature of Life and who we are at the core of our being.

Now people can be deeply disappointing. It’s not easy to witness what we are willing to tell each other and demand from one another in the masquerade fear makes for itself. But how a human being sees the world only demonstrates their relationship to Life. That’s all. And Life will always teach everyone. So it is imperative to respect a person’s believed in reality — it’s what they came to learn through — while at the same time not need to defend yours. To walk this walk demands courage. But my experience is that the courage required always naturally rises in me in the moments I need it because it is part of the good sense I was born with.

Beliefs don’t have the same power as the principles of Life. Beliefs are ideas people make up. They aren’t the truth.

The principles of Life are true and what is true, is always true. It never changes. What is true now was true two thousand years ago, and will be true two thousand years from now. These are the things my parents taught me growing up. Not so much by what they said but how they lived. When you grow up in a place where the sky is so vast you are humbled by its presence, and the land is so silent that your soul hums with the sound of it, you grok who you truly are in relationship to All That Is. Whether or not you are prepared to live in alignment with this truth is the journey one takes to discover what it costs not to.

There is a magnificent restoration project happening now under the sky and on the land of this bountiful earth we call home. Human beings are being restored to our true nature whether we like it or not. And just like any restoration project, it’s messy in the beginning. Every choice that has ever been made individually or collectively has to be accounted for, learned through, and lifted into the light of truth to be known, re-known, and made new. Because what is not built on truth will not stand. Period.

So let all people learn. Earth is school for the human soul. See how you see the world and be willing to move what isn’t true from within yourself. Heal yourself and others will be healed by your presence.

Don’t put your faith in human beings. Put your faith in their humanity. If you don’t know the difference then learn to discern what is opinion and what is truth. 

Appreciate your own ignorance and be devoted to educating it in the highest ways possible. You don’t know what you don’t know. Be willing to learn.

Being kind never requires you go against yourself. Kindness emanates from the pure hearted expression of love. And love can never be unkind — to self or to others.

If you believe somebody has to do something in order for you to be in safety, well-being, and freedom then you have been misled by fear. You have yet to realize your true power. So there’s more work to do. But the work is only ever in your own consciousness! And Life is right here ready to help.

Be still and know. Get quiet and listen. And ask yourself this: What if there is nothing to fight?

Therefore the Master
fulfils her own obligations
and corrects her own mistakes.
She does what she needs to do
and demands nothing of others.

(Tao Te Ching, 79)