Sunday December 27th Dialogue Forum: Resolution
Sunday, December 27, 2020
By Garin Samuelsen.
Thank you for taking time to read. I learn so much from every dialogue and the different perspectives that are shared. These blogs are simply what I learned from them and some insights or thoughts I have around them. Please share your own thoughts at the end and continue the dialogue.
On New Years Day, many people decide to make New Year's Resolutions. Exercise, changing eating habits, work goals, and life goals push us in a want to do better, that maybe we can finally get to a place where one is living as one feels like one should. We see that we are stuck in the comforts of our programs, and see that they are impacting us. Maybe by having a New Year Resolution, I can change for the better. Yet, I wonder why is it that we are not living as we should, and will resolutions really help us be “better”?
Ever since we were young, we have been indoctrinated into this practice. Mythologically, it is pretty cool. It reminds us to let go and shed what is not working and in so doing create something brand new. It can be the shedding of the old into a new spring of life. Yet, is the focus here on just one self, or can we expand our resolutions outward to people and quite possibly all creatures?
This tradition of having new year resolutions most likely stated with the Babylonians 4000 years ago. In mid-March which was the beginning of their new year, they would have a huge 12 day celebration.
During this time, “They made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed…. A similar practice occurred in ancient Rome, after the reform-minded emperor Julius Caesar tinkered with the calendar and established January 1 as the beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C. Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, January had special significance for the Romans. Believing that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans offered sacrifices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year.” The History of New Year’s Resolutions, Sarah Pruitt. https://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions
For us now, what path does one take in regards to resolution? Goodness to others or for oneself? For the most part, contemporary resolutions are not for some Gods or God but rather for a futuristic self-improvement. And these resolutions prove to be difficult to maintain as only approximately 8% of people follow through with theirs as shown by recent research.
Our dialogue led us to pondering…..Can we self-improve? And does self improvement need time? Which leads to the question, who am I? Am I this body? Am I my background, my history and or name? Can, through new knowledge, or new skills can one become a better person? I am not sure if that is not an illusion.
I wonder if by simply being simpler, being healthy, limiting harm to others and other creatures, i allow my potential to flow outward without disturbance and here my essence rises forth. If I am not my impermanent ego, if I am not any sort of identification in truth, and the I is beyond limitation or form, time or measurement, division or fractures, then what is it that can be improved?
When I am not living in tune, but rather following culture’s dictates, then I wonder if this I am then becomes bottled up with programming. If I am not paying attention to what I put in my body, If I am not paying attention to taking time to move and exercise nor taking time to be in nature, then that will have consequences on my health. If I truly understand that I need to begin eating right and exercising then the problem resolves itself, not it time, but right now in actuality. Living in health and wholeness, then would the I am be able to live uncontaminated and free?
If we have a deep insight into oneself, is that when change happens? For example, if I notice that I am lazy and want to begin running in the future, will I actually make that change? However, what happens if I observe that I am feeling lazy and instead of escaping from that fact become aware without analyzing? What could I learn about oneself? In the process, I may decide to walk just to walk and begin to see what takes place. I am aware of how that is making me feel and how this impacting different parts of my day. In this awareness, would I be more apt to change?
“The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti ”
Does this change make me a better person? Or by having energy, by beginning to become more active, do I begin to feel more confident and able to express myself more easily and open myself up to more and more of my inner qualities? Do I have compassion for oneself in regards to seeing why one fell into the patterns that created unhealth? Can we see that life is a constant experiment - discovering ways in which to live that create health or unhealth personally, and sustainable health or destruction and violence outwardly?
What if my resolution was not just about New Year’s but an awareness each and every day? What if contained in this was also about connecting and helping others? What if it was about connecting with nature and other creatures. To truly begin to see them? What would happen to the sense of I am if we resolved to open ourselves up to these “perceived” others?
“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
- Albert Einstein”
It makes one think of the possibility of resolving our own and humanities issues when we can include all into our embrace. Here, in love, we reach out of our limitations and blossom into a beautiful reckoning - one that takes courage and one that brings us possibly into alignment of oneself and all of life.
