Enlightened Engagement

Goal Seeking Organisms All living organisms are goal seeking. Most, including us humans, seek survival, reproduction, and quality of life as our goals. Humans are intellectually evolved enough to seek more than just the basic needs as goals. We seek more. We seek to know everything we can. We seek to understand the unknown. We seek to attain power and wealth way beyond our need for survival. We seek to question the unanswerable. We seek to find a deep understanding of all that is. We seek a lot of things. As we travel through our time on Earth we gain lots of knowledge, experience many experiences, and add value to the world in which we live. This is what I believe we are all destined for. Our god, our eternal consciousness, our I am, our Yahweh, or our karma wants us to aspire to add value to this world. This can be done in a myriad of ways. As a matter of fact we add value in as many different ways as there are humans on the Earth. Adding value to our ecosystem, religious communit...

Life is Hard There are myriad of things that can challenge you, obstruct your progress, or keep you from accomplishing your goals. That is because life is hard. No animal running through the forest, no insect flying through the sky, or any human would tell you that life was easy. We are constantly battling illness, running for our life, and are stressed as we face all the roadblocks life puts in our way. Even though this is true every human also has the capacity to make every dream come true. We are all built with the mechanisms that give us the ability to live long and prosper. Animals run as fast as they can to keep from being eaten and that is the least we can do. Well, since we are on the top of the food chain no other creature eats us so we can rest assured that won't happen. However, we are challenged with a plethora of other worries. Will we have enough money for our bills, will I ever get over that illness, or how do I make my friend understand their mistake. How do I ge...

Happiness is a Choice In our careers, and mine is education, you can choose a lot of different things in the way you approach your job. You can choose the career path you follow, you can choose the type of education you want, and you can choose the way you react to environmental circumstances. There are a myriad of other choices we have each day. One of those choices is how you react to the things that happen to you as you go through your daily routine. I became frustrated one morning because I was having problems with my computer and how it was navigating the program I installed. I didn't understand how it was working and it was not working the way that I thought it should. I became frustrated and got angry at it. It was not doing anything it wasn't supposed to be doing, however, it wasn't doing what I perceived it should be doing. I let the environment choose my happiness. You don't have to do that. A friend of mine was complaining about how he could not trust the...

Give Thanks Many of us say a prayer before our meal in thanks. Most of us give thanks at Thanksgiving. (Of course) All of us (I hope) are thankful to be alive. We give thanks for many different things and situations as they transpire in our sphere of reality. When someone is rescued from certain peril we breath a sigh of relief and give thanks. If your child gets an unexpected praise we give thanks. Life is full of opportunities to say, "Thank You," for all we have. One of the truths in life is that the more you give thanks the happier you are. How is this you might ask? The fact of the matter is that the more you give thanks for what you have the less you dwell on the things you lack. We (as humans and I am a human so I have the same condition as everyone else) tend to focus on what we don't have. I need a bigger house. I want a more loving relationship. I want to have 6 pack abs. I wish I was as spiritual as Jesus in my daily life. Humans often look at the lack in th...

You Can Choose Happiness Happiness is not just something that happens across your existence, although it can be. Happiness is not just something that is earned, although it can be. Happiness is not just something that is lucked upon, although it can be. Happiness is a choice. Consistent and profound happiness is a choice that we make in each and every decision that we make each day. You can love or not love your job. That is a choice. You can enjoy or not enjoy a specific food. That is a choice. You can laugh or not laugh at a joke. That is a choice. Pretty much everything we do, in reaction, to another event that passes across our existence can be reacted to with happiness. My friend and I are in an ever changing society of educational reforms, many of them we don't agree with, but none the less they are part of our world. We can choose to be happy amid the every changing world of a new paradigm or not. So my friend and I boost each other up on a daily basis extolling the virtu...

Change Your Routine . Got a bad habit? I do. I have many of them. At least what I consider bad. Maybe if you had the same habit I had you wouldn't consider it bad and that is fine. I am not here to cast a judgement on what you do or how you do it. I do things that are time wasters when I feel I should be using my time a little more effectively. We only get one today in this life so I like to use up my time to do things that help myself or the world. Not that I don't like to just sit around and relax and that is good but the habit I waste a considerable amount of time on is watching TV. If you spend 2 to 3 hours a day watching TV you may consider it too much. I do. You may not so maybe you don't want to change that habit. Maybe you want to quit smoking, change your attitude, or stop biting your nails. If you have a bad habit you want to change what you have to do is change your routine. When you engage in a habit you do certain things before you engage in it. You sit down...