The Wise Owl Who Said, "Who?"

       My deep slumber was broken this morning by a voice outside of my window.  It was a familiar voice; one that I have heard a few times before in my life, but the words that she said this time were very different.  She didn't perch in a far off tree exclaiming, "Hoo!".  She stood directly outside of my bedroom window to ask, "Who...who...WHO-WHO?!"  Angry at the intrusion, I held the pillow over my face to drown out her questions, but as the morning went on I knew that I would not forget her query.  Who?  Truly who am I?  Who are you?  What makes us who we are?  I am my fathers daughter, my sisters sister, my husbands wife, my sons mother.  I work at this place and I have these friends.  I shop at that place and eat this food.  But WHO AM I?  Under the physicality of my clothes and my hair style and the side of town that I live on, who am I?  If I'm looking past the existential and the physical, am I the sum of my thoughts?  We are always trying to express our thoughts through words and other means of communication, but maybe that's not who I truly am.  I find that I'm constantly trying to shape my thoughts because I am human and my thoughts are not always true.  Thoughts arise through human nature and emotional responses, but they aren't always real.  There must be something deeper, something at the core, that makes us who we are.  Maybe there is no one particular thing that makes us people.  I believe that a combination of things can form us into the people that we are, but only the "at the core" me can shape myself into something more, something better.  Perhaps you would call that my spiritual self, my higher mind.  The part of me that sees a fellow human struggling and bleeds a little on the inside for their pain.  The part of me that goes beyond empathy and reaches out a hand to help them.  The part of me that speaks kind words and smiles at a homeless person who smells of week-old garbage, because I know that they have feelings too.  The part of me that recognizes the soul in the people that I see rather than the human face that is before me.  Yes, we are multi-dimensional, complex, intricate, a system of thoughts, feelings, past experiences, and knowledge.  But there is a higher self, the real me, my soul consciousness that inspires and guides me with intuition and inspiration. My GOD VOICE, if you will.  It is always connected to me, but I do not always communicate with it.  We must learn to listen to ourselves, but it is imperative that we learn to discern between the fear-based ego voice and the aware higher self voice.  Only then can I become more than human, more than kind, more than wise.  I can take faith and be strong in who I am, because I know that I can be more than Jain.
What does your owl say?

The Intolerance Of A Nation

       All too often I've sat and felt the weight of the world on my shoulders and wondered why there is so much pain.  I have come to the conclusion that it is all because of hate and intolerance and fear.  Why do we hate?  Why do we judge?  Because we are afraid.  We refuse to accept that other people of the world are different than we are because we don't understand them.  We push away people of a different sexual orientation because it's unknown to us.  We think that everyone with a different religion or belief than our own is wrong because we are afraid for our own souls.  In a nation where equality and freedom are supposed to be household staples I find that preachers teach against homosexuality and varying spirituality.  The Catholic believe one story while the Mormon believes another.  The Buddhist trusts in one way of life while the Orthodox practices another.  "Our way is the ONLY right way to eternal life!" they yell at each other, while deep down that belief is only breeding hate and fear.  Why do we need to do this?  I choose to simply accept that every person has their own diverse and individual belief system.  Each person has their own God.  Every single person on earth believes in a God that makes them feel safe and loved and we should not take that away from anyone or tell them that they're wrong.  I would consider myself a Christian because I love the way that Jesus taught.  But Jesus taught the opposite of what a lot of pastors teach.  If you read the Bible carefully enough you will see where Jesus taught differently than even the other apostles and church leaders taught.  But that is MY bible, and if someone else has their own then that's great too!  Come close and I'll tell you a secret...did you know that the traditional tale of Buddha says that he was born in the wilderness while his mother was traveling?  The Queen Maya was visited by four angels in her sleep that told her that she would bear a son who would become the "Enlightened One".  Sound familiar?  Don't be mad!  My point is that the world is so much bigger than we think it is.  There are thoughts that one of the wise men who visited baby Jesus was a Buddhist, or at least a "distinguished foreigner from the East".  There are so many beautiful and peaceful spiritual practices that do no harm: Hinduism, Taosim, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, etc. but we can only see as far as our own noses.  But we do that because we are afraid!  We are afraid that we will lose our own place in heaven, our own morality, and our own faith if we don't impose our faith on others while those others are sitting there thinking the same thing about us and our religion.  WE ARE ALL THE SAME.  We are all human, we all believe in something, and we will all someday turn to dust.
What's your belief?