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A lifestyle blog by Daiken Nelson on The Whole 9

Buddhist Priest, Yoga Practitioner & Instructor, Mystic, Photographer, Writer, Web & Graphic Designer, Traveler, Beekeeper, Honorary South Bronx Puerto Rican, Citizen of The World. And now Bloggeur.

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Bound

May 30, 2009
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I have been away for a while. Absolutely absorbed by the job for which I re-relocated to New York. Gone so long that my previous blog had fallen off the listing.

I am coming up for air.

The business where I am currently consulting is 20 miles from where I am living. So, each morning, my collegue and I drive for 25ish minutes. Some mornings we have the first meeting of the day. Other times, I read something aloud while Paco drives. Some mornings we have nothing on the radio. Being a Silence junkie, I prefer to experience the landscape roll by in quietude. Some mornings it is the local Jazz station from New Joisey. Other mornings, a CD: Latin Jazz or Krishna Das. 

Every once and a while, Paco will get a new CD of interviews from The Integral Institute, Ken Wilber’s entity out of Boulder  http://in.integralinstitute.org). Yesterday’s new one had a discussion talking about Pure Consciousness; Awareness without the filter of ego. One of the speakers talked about “Evolutionary Obligation” which we all have, whether we are aware of it or not.

Each one of us, through Being Alive & Being who we are, is “obligated” to advance the Evolution of the Species & Planet.

Obligation: something by which a person is bound or obliged to do certain things, and which arises out of a sense of duty or results from custom, law, etc. / a favor, service or benefit for which gratitude is due / a debt of gratitude. Origin: 1250–1300; ME obligacioun < OF obligation < L obligātiōn- (s. ofobligātiō) a binding, equiv. to obligāt(us) bound

For most, obligation has a negative connotation. I was obligated to do X because of this and that. The words family obligation are used, often with an unpleasant or negative connotation; something which I must do, which I would rather not, but what can I do, right?

In Buddhism, there are guiding principles called Paramitas, which literally mean “that which has gone to the other shore”. They are traits or actions which take a person from one state of being to another, like a raft moving from island to island.

The first of these Paramitas, which is the foundation of all the others, is Dana or Generosity. If one acts in a generous manner, towards others as well as oneself, if there is no separation experienced between oneself and others, if nothing is held back in terms of kindness, this leads one to a state of being pure.

So, yes we have an obligation to do everything within our power–everything we do–to advance the Evolution of Humankind and all Beings and The Earth. Out of Gratitude for being Alive. Out of Generosity of Spirit. Pure Awareness.

So, Sisters & Brothers, do something today to advance Evolution, OK?

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  1. agodoy

    I like this. And I’m on it. Dukkha is the deal, but it doesn’t have to suck so bad.

  2. miltt

    Although my sense of obligation to the world came from a different source than yours, it was instilled in me early on that I had to have a purpose if I wanted to call myself alive and that purpose had to be congruent with the betterment of the world. I did not have to choose a purpose that was global. I could pick a small target but it had to be relevant and it had to give to rather than take from the substance of the whole.

    Of couse, as a youngster, I had to ask the selfish question, “What about me and my needs?” The answer I got was so simple that it made it easy to focus my life: “What do you need that won’t be provided if you follow the path I outlined?”

    Over many decades that proved true and the only time I suffered cognitive dissonance was when I went off the path and put my selfish desires ahead of my purpose.

    If I poke fun at others who seem caught up in the pursuit of things and their purpose appears to be subservient to their own quest for some kind of accounting that makes acquisition the goal it is perhaps because I know where their pursuit will lead. When you lose the gifts of youth and prowess, you damn well better be able to have vision to substitute for sight and the ability to fly when you can no longer walk. I’d rather chide them now than tell them “I told you so,” when it is too late for them to alter their path.

    Hey, New York isn’t too bad if you don’t have to see it, smell it, touch it, taste it or be carried along with those whose God can be counted on little pieces of green paper or put in safety deposit boxes. Me? I don’t have to own the Venus DeMilo to understand that she was a stone fox when she was sculpted and 2000 years later still is an object of supreme poise, beauty and dignity.

    Lollipops and unicorns

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