How To Be Free and Live Peacefully and Powerfully

We have a biological imperative to be safe, whole and injury-free.

All stimuli is evaluated through the filter of past experience against this imperative.

We have a similar mental imperative.

Our biological imperative is known as the Survival Instinct, the mental equivalent is our Identity.

Any change, or disruption, in our sense of who we are – our multi-layered and -faceted Identity – is seen as a threat and outgrowth of our Fear of (physical) Death.

To the extent that we accept the fact that we will die and that it could happen at any time, we can be free and live peaceful and powerful lives. (By seeing each moment as precious and rare and thus making the most of the time we have and being truly present to the miracle of each moment.)

To the extent that we deeply, truly know that we are not who/what we think we are, we can be free and live peaceful and powerful lives. (By realizing that, deep down, at our core, we are perfect spiritual beings – we need only improve our behavior to bring ourselves back to our true nature.)

To the extent that we resist the eventuality of death or over-identify with our Identity, we will live small lives constrained by fears, rules, judgments and limits.

Similar Posts

  • Don’t Know Your Purpose (no biggie)

    Everyone (in self-help and related fields), it seems, talks about “loving-what-you-do.” And how they have the formula/process/program/book to help you do it. It’s bad advice and a disservice to promise such. Putting aside my theory about how purpose is not outside us and nothing we need discover or create (it’s within and covered by by “crap”)…

  • Kant Had it Backwards

    “‎The ‘I think’ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‘I breathe’ which actually does accompany them.” – William James I have long thought that Kant had it wrong when he said “I think, therefore I am.” Sometime not long after my Intro to Philosophy course at Hobart College…

  • How To Live, Really Live

    People die of fright and live of confidence. – Henry David Thoreau Fright, dread, (dis)stress, angst, anxiety . . . fear is caustic, it’s poisonous, it’s not good for your soul. Confidence, hope, joy, determination, self-assurance, faith . . . love is life-giving, it’s what feeds your soul. What matters here is focus. What you…

  • The Certainty of Nothing

    “What I’ve experienced is that I can’t know the future. I can’t know if anything that I do will change what happens tomorrow. I can’t know with certainty, but what I do know is if I do nothing, nothing will change.” – James Orbinski This is true, rather bleak and incredibly inspiring. I know what…

  • Find Your Peace

    Each one has to find his peace from within. And for peace to be real it must be unaffected by outside circumstances. – Mahatma Gandhi This reminds me of something I heard in the past: real peace-of-mind is being unaffected by both the bad and good opinion of others. So, cultivate and nurture a peace that…