Some people get life, and the ones that don't should read this book!

Life and everything in it; is so full of energy and it’s so profound and deep that it’s all so very simple to understand but impossible to explain with something like words.

Let’s face it some people get it, and some don’t. What exactly do they get? Life… The universe speaks to us every day, if of course, we listen. Events, conversations, people, and the most amazing book I have ever read "Zen Guitar" by Philip Toshio Sudo inspired me to write a blog on the right way to live life. In my opinion of course! ...but who am I? Over the years I have heard various people say things like "everything in life comes full circle", or "the key to life is balance". I have read things about Ying and yang and about Carl Jung’s theory on the collective unconscious Anima and Animus.

Each of these have one thing in common and that is that ultimately everything is one. People, animals, nature, and the elements, all come from the same energy. The book explains how life and everything in it, is "oneness". There’s a reference to coming out of our mother’s womb and how all of our senses are one. I let my boyfriend borrow the book, so I don’t have it here now to cite word for word, but it was something along the lines of… "we hear the light, and we taste the sounds of the doctor but as we begin to distinguish one sense from the other the further away, we become from complete oneness". This one way or another leads me to moral responsibility and choosing between doing the right or the wrong things. Not only for ourselves but for others, for animals, and for the planet because we do not only have a responsibility for ourselves, we are responsible in some way or another for the people around us and the things around us, as well as, to our communities. To feel or act as if we do not is morally wrong, careless, and selfish. This is the exact reason we sit back and contribute to killing the planet... because the major catastrophes that are eventually going to happen like massive flooding, natural disasters, droughts, and animals going extinct… may not happen in our lifetimes. This allows us to ignore warning signs and live with the attitude of “I don’t care”. What about your children or grandchildren or their children and grandchildren? Just because we may not live to face the consequences of our actions doesn’t mean that we don’t have a moral responsibility to take better care of the planet now. One day when the heat from the sun melts one too many glaciers and the sea levels rise too high, all it’s going to take is one storm to cause entire cities to be fully submerged under water and all the lost lives will be due to our lack of moral responsibility today.

It takes the individuals that “get it” the ones that care, and the ones that are living life as the best versions of themselves, for themselves, and for others to get what I’m trying my best to explain. The people that live a humble life with a healthy balance, good judgement, and confidence (not ego because egos will block you from reaching your full potential). The people that do what they want, when they want, and how they want but what they want to do are the right things. The people that love themselves and love others with healthy limits and conditions. The people that take care of themselves first so that they can continue to care for the people they love. The people that never consider themselves the best at anything because they know there is always room for growth and that we learn something new every single day, even from children. The masters! The ones that spread their knowledge because if you’re willing to teach there are always others willing to learn. Life truly is about balance because victory isn’t as sweet unless you’ve experienced defeat. Good people are harder to appreciate unless you’ve known a couple of bad ones. I went to an Elevation Worship concert and during the concert, there was a sermon; the Gentleman giving the sermon said, “If God met all of our expectations, he would never be able to exceed them”. We focus so much on what we don’t have that we forget about all the things we do have like OUR LIVES, our loved ones, our homes, job, food, health, 10 toes, and fingers. We are often our own worst enemies with our negative thoughts, we’re never satisfied, and we overindulge in hatred, jealousy, anger, and stress instead of just being grateful and living the way we were intended to live and that’s with love. Love for ourselves, for others, and for everything around us. My humanities teacher assigned the book Zen Guitar this semester and all his lessons are based around this book and music by artists like Jimi Hendrix, Santana, and Miles Davis, one video we watched was about Woodstock and different versions of the song Black Bird. Each of his lessons has had some deep profound lifelong lesson behind it. Valuable lessons about humility and about passion and focus and putting your soul into everything you do, and about how art and music if done right through sincerity and the soul can communicate messages of significance to an audience and the community. After each lesson, he always adds the same quote “As we discussed in class "Anything you set out to make - music, love, a bookshelf, a meal, [an assignment for Humanities class] - make as well as you can." -Professor Zittrain @ Chabot Community College! It all makes me feel like life is a lot more simple than we make it out to be…

1. Do your best because that’s all you can do. If you do your absolute best and it wasn’t enough that’s okay because you’ll know that you genuinely did all that you could and somehow, you’ll realize in the end, that it is good enough.

2. Do everything with LOVE and make decisions based on what’s best for YOU so that you are happy and healthy. You can’t take care of your children or parents or pets if you aren’t mentally, physically, or financially in a position to. There is a time and place to be selfish and to do what’s best for you so that you can be the best version of yourself and then if need be… selfless. (Healthy Balance)

3. Do the right things! Think of yourself, think of others. Think of the now and later. Think of the consequences (because everything we do in life has them -Dad, lol)

4. Be positive. Be Light. Be Love. Be Humble. Be Kind. Be Passionate. Be Good to people. Be Generous. Be compassionate. Be Forgiving. Be accepting. Be Honest. Be Respectful. BE YOU.

5. Never stop learning and never stop teaching

6. Don’t live in fear… of failure, of people, of the what ifs, of judgment because the things people say or think of us are none of our business. The most self-liberating thing you can ever do for yourself is to train your subconscious to STOP CARING ABOUT WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE THINKS OF YOU, what everyone else wants for you, and what everyone else says about you because it’s not their life. It’s yours. Live for YOU. They have their own lives to live but if they want to spend their life talking about you that’s not your problem, let them waste it the way they want. I bet decision-making will be a lot easier when you stop listening to what everyone else says you can or can’t do. Don’t let other people’s opinions stop you from pursuing something that you envision just because they can’t envision it for you. They’re not supposed to they’re supposed to envision their own dreams.

7. Make every single second count because once it’s gone you can never get it back

8. Finally, in the name of Philip Toshio Sudo find your purpose or find something or someone you’re willing to die for and then live for it 😊

(If you need some help being enlightened or a lesson on Zen, spirituality, or oneness I highly recommend checking out this book)

In a world where you can be anything. BE KIND <3