Comments on: Mining Your Mindset http://www.markjryan.com/blog/2010/02/mining-your-mindset/ Personal and spiritual development for proactive people. Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:40:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mark J Ryan http://www.markjryan.com/blog/2010/02/mining-your-mindset/comment-page-1/#comment-284 Mark J Ryan Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:12:56 +0000 http://www.markjryan.com/blog/?p=178#comment-284 Thanks so much for your comment, Ron. It matches up completely with my experience and adds to my thinking. It reminds me also of what Kathy sent me this morning, a quote from Roger Ebert's profile on Esquire magazine available on the link below. Here's the quote: <i>I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.</i> http://www.esquire.com/features/roger-ebert-0310 Thanks so much for your comment, Ron. It matches up completely with my experience and adds to my thinking. It reminds me also of what Kathy sent me this morning, a quote from Roger Ebert’s profile on Esquire magazine available on the link below. Here’s the quote:

I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

http://www.esquire.com/features/roger-ebert-0310

]]> By: RevRonRants http://www.markjryan.com/blog/2010/02/mining-your-mindset/comment-page-1/#comment-283 RevRonRants Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:38:10 +0000 http://www.markjryan.com/blog/?p=178#comment-283 Some years ago, I served as assistant to the minister at a Unity Church. One Father's Day, she asked me to deliver the lesson (sermon, for the more traditionally indoctrinated). My lesson centered upon the notion that parenthood represents our closest experience of the mind of the Divine. In that instant when we first truly realize what it is to be a mother or father, our highest calling is to provide for that child all that we wished for ourselves, and more. Even if it only lasts a moment, that is the time when we set aside our other goals and aspire only to ensure a perfect life for our progeny. In those moments, we are offered the opportunity to recognize that joy is the only true wealth, and that the other trappings that we so often describe - and hunger for - are mere distractions. Unfortunately, we too often forget that blinding instant of insight, returning all too quickly to our pursuit of distractions. In the guided meditation accompanying the lesson, I challenged the congregation to see themselves once again (or for the first time) holding that wondrous new life, and remembering their hunger to foster only joy in its every moment. To touch that place within that knows what is truly important in life. To touch the face of God. Of course, in mere hours, I reverted back to the distractions, and relegated that Ah-Ha moment to its place on the shelf of my memories. Thankfully, it still falls off that shelf and smacks me in the head once in awhile. Hopefully, more often with each passing day. Some years ago, I served as assistant to the minister at a Unity Church. One Father’s Day, she asked me to deliver the lesson (sermon, for the more traditionally indoctrinated). My lesson centered upon the notion that parenthood represents our closest experience of the mind of the Divine. In that instant when we first truly realize what it is to be a mother or father, our highest calling is to provide for that child all that we wished for ourselves, and more. Even if it only lasts a moment, that is the time when we set aside our other goals and aspire only to ensure a perfect life for our progeny.

In those moments, we are offered the opportunity to recognize that joy is the only true wealth, and that the other trappings that we so often describe – and hunger for – are mere distractions. Unfortunately, we too often forget that blinding instant of insight, returning all too quickly to our pursuit of distractions.

In the guided meditation accompanying the lesson, I challenged the congregation to see themselves once again (or for the first time) holding that wondrous new life, and remembering their hunger to foster only joy in its every moment. To touch that place within that knows what is truly important in life. To touch the face of God.

Of course, in mere hours, I reverted back to the distractions, and relegated that Ah-Ha moment to its place on the shelf of my memories. Thankfully, it still falls off that shelf and smacks me in the head once in awhile. Hopefully, more often with each passing day.

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