Treadmill Existentialist is a journey into the mind of Roderick, who believes his life is perfect. He has a great job, a beautiful fiancé, and a gym membership. What more could a man want?
© 2010 DailyGrounding.com
Monday, May 20, 2013
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Who is Powerful Enough to Make War With the Beast?
These words are paraphrased from a biblical passage in the book of Revelations. While it has a number of different meanings and interpretations, the one that is most germane to my purpose is mental. The Beast is the hideous monster that lies in our minds. It’s the petty, scared and insecure being that exists in every person on earth. It has no boundaries, no limitations with respect of culture, language, status or geography. Who is powerful enough to fight him?
Simply we all have enough power if only we could summons the internal fortitude to resist falling prey to the illusions. The first and most important step in this effort is self-discovery. It’s a duality. On the one hand you must know that you are weak and you are susceptible to the power of the beast. On the other hand this weakness must be transmuted into the energy of power to know that we all posses the strength to conquer the beast.
I posted a great YouTube from Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple computer. He speaks on the trials and tribulations that went on in his life and how he overcame them. It’s very inspiring. Listen particularly to the part about connecting the dots of the future. Without taking his thunder, give a listen and enjoy, knowing the answer to the question, who is powerful enough to make war with the beast? Whoever is willing.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Partitions in the Mind
What really holds us back? It should be a concern for anyone who wants spiritual progress. To get better, to evolve or for someone who has goals they would like to reach. This is fundamental purpose of Grounding oneself, which is to say, it’s a means to an end. Remember we aren't talking about a force of will, but a simple process. The way you can tell the difference is if you’re getting too stressed out about achieving your goals then your are on the wrong track and your probably forcing the issue......mentally. The stress you feel is a result of time compression, meaning you simply want it now, right now. That kind of desire for an immediate result can only stress you out.
The reason why I use the word partitions, is our mind has partitions similar to a room in a house, there are walls, open areas etc. These partitions manifest themselves ultimately in our behavior. There are some things we will do and some things we will not do based on our beliefs. These beliefs are created by a variety sources, some of the most powerful ones included religious, cultural and outright fear.
Remember we’re talking about mental partitions, which is to say they are ethereal and can be manipulated, changed or out right removed. Getting back to the original question of, what really holds us back, the simple answer is these partitions in our mind. There is no need analyze them, worry about them, try to identify them, the most important thing is that you see how they affect you. We use words like procrastination and excuses to give better definition to the partitions.
The irony of the situation is they are only as powerful as you allow them to be! Their power depends on you and only you giving them energy. What happens to a beliefs (partitions) if you no longer believe in them, they die. There is nothing that can sustain them if you remove your energy from them.
I’m going to show you some magic that you can create for yourself. Let’s pick an example of an awkward situation for most of us like going up to a stranger you want to meet and introduce yourself. Think about that for a moment. Watch the flood of excuses that enter your mind. What can stop you? There are no walls, you can talk and guess what? You will not be struck down by lightening. So what if you stumble or get embarrassed, you will learn a valuable lesson that the walls or partitions in your mind are like smoke. You want to walk through walls? Challenge your mental barriers and walk through them as if they are made of smoke.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Can You See What You Create?
Make no mistake about it, you are a creator of your circumstances. Can you really believe that? Really believe it to the bone, as sure as you know the sun will rise in the east in the morning, how strong is your faith? Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew chapter 17 verse 20, “…verily I say unto you, if ye have the faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
Do you have doubt? I can help. Have you ever said to yourself after an experience….that was strange, what a coincidence, what are the chances of that happening, that was a million to one chance, oh that was just lucky. I’m sorry to inform you that you are practicing self-sabotage.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Faith of Expectations
If you have a conscious or unconscious affect on what you observe, part of the meditative process has to include a significant level to attention to the moment. Part of that attentive process is to check the level of expectation you have. Sometimes it seems like it's an effort to complete the most basic of tasks, sometimes it just seem like everything is a fight. Well it's probably true for the series of events that you are paying attention to, however there are also good things that happen and some things do come easy. Why does it seem that all of the bad stuff seems to happen all the time? Well, because that's where your attention exists. Do you get up in the morning thankful you can see the sun and clouds, get up and walk to the kitchen, happy to have food and water? The answer for most of us is no.
Are you a perpetual life discounter? The good things are supposed to happen and the bad things are a constant source of angst. Everything good is discounted and everything bad only happens because you are the universal target of abuse.
In reading a book entitled Good to Great it talked about the Stockdale Paradox. Admiral Jim Stockdale was the highest-ranking military officer ever captured during the Vietnam War. Tortured repeatedly and held in a Vietnamese prisoner camp for 8 years, he gave us a lesson on how to deal with adversity. When asked who didn't make it in the prison camp, he immediately said “that’s easy it was the optimists, they didn't make it,” which sounds ironic. He stated they were the ones that said “we will get out by Easter.” Easter came and went, they continued to say, “we will be out by Christmas.”....Christmas came and went. Eventually they died of a broken heart.
Mr. Stockdale explained two factors helped him eventually survive long enough to be rescued and eventually become a best selling author and lecturer. The first, brutal honesty for his state of affairs in present time and the second, an unwavering faith that he would some how prevail in the end.
This two-edged sword of philosophy seems to be a contradiction. However what I believe Mr. Stockdale is trying to convey is that the source of your power isn’t in creating false positive concepts, i.e. optimism. But, to dig deeper into your soul and realize that you will be successful and have the faith that you will create a way. We all can pull various meanings from Mr. Stockdale’s experience, but it all comes down to how we react to what we consider to be the positive and negative things that happen in our life. How are we going to deal with them? Drop your Grounding Cord, get rooted, be honest about your situation and them move forward and draw strength from your ability to look at a situation directly and know that you will find a way around, under, above or through to the other side.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
What You See Is What You Change
Let's continue on the subject of meditation, why is it important to be in the present moment? You always hear about the importance of being in the present moment, but why? To explain, I’m going to use an obscure concept in the field of physics, something called Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. You can google this to get more information but I’m going to give a brief explanation. Physicists were unable to describe what they were understanding on a subatomic level when they attempted to measure an atom’s momentum and position. This was very unusual because at the macro level this is such a basic measurement. A scientist can easily look at a car and with instruments determine it's speed, momentum and position, not so at the subatomic level.
What we are taught is the traditional approach to science is there exists a scientific neutral observer and a subject being observed. However Heisenberg turned that concept on its ear and realized the concept of neutrality is an illusion. Meaning there’s no such thing as an independent observer. The mere act of measurement effects what is being measured, which is profound!
What does all of this mean? Mediating and being in the present moment allows you to be conscious of what’s going on in your mind and stop yourself from being on auto-pilot or just accepting things without question because of your personal biasses. The actual act of observation has an effect on what you are observing. This is mind boggling.
If you have prejudices or cynical what you see will absolutely be tainted which changes what you’re trying to comprehend. If you have a negative attitude toward something you’re actually effecting it and the outcome of what you’re observing. Seems like things are always going wrong...the act of meditation in the moment will reveal your ultimate outcome and the reason for it. By being in the present moment you will be acutely aware of how you’re feeling and the projection of your thoughts will be revealed and ultimately affect your outcome.
The act of observation carries the seed of the outcome. Look at the yin and yang symbol on this blog page. The seed of one reality is held within the other.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Meditation
One of the most over used and misunderstood words in the metaphysical language is meditation. It conjures up visions of monks in a monastery chanting with candles and incense burning, it’s quite a calming image. Many people feel as though there has to be a certain level of spirituality that must be achieved in order to partake in such an ancient and powerful practice. This is simply not the case.
You don’t need to be taught by a guru and study for years and years in order to be able to take advantage of such as wonderful tool as meditation. While it’s true there are many styles and methods of meditation, fundamentally meditation is awareness. Are you in the moment, are you conscious or aware of what you are doing at a very granular level? All this must be done without attachment.
Why is being in the present moment so important? Because it’s allows you to “see.” It’s the seeing that unlock the chains that bind us, being in the present moment we see ourselves even if just a tiny bit and it’s the seeing that releases us and transends out understanding.
This type of mediation does require a great deal of energy and of course it can’t be performed all day, but that is what learning really is, the peeling back the layers of the onion.
Meditation is simply being in the moment and seeing the unveiling of the self.
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