03-05-2013, 02:04 AM
AT Transformation poem?
What is fame? It is a magician’s trick, a particularly cunning fantasy that more often than not binds the famous person into a deeper level of ignorance. Fame means that some people think someone is more important or better than everyone else. How deeply we long to be viewed as important! Is this not a hungering for love? And how vitally important each of us is! But not for the reasons we typically assume.
Such a cheater fame is. We are famous, we think, because of something; because we make touchdowns, or sing well, or star in the movies. We are not famous in the eyes of the world because of our intrinsic inner worth, but because we do something well as compared with everyone else. When we no longer do that thing well, our fame vanishes like the mirage it is, leaving us with the memory of glory but nothing else. Enter here the various addictions of the world to dull the senses and help us to forget our lost moment in the Sun. Some despair of ever becoming famous and move straight into destructive habits. Or their desire to be unique and their desire to be recognized may cause them to attempt to be famous in the field of addictions.
The entire underlying belief system that cultures the desire to be unique, special, recognized or famous is twisted, not genuine. Many of us deeply crave to prove that we are the center of the Universe, that we are loved. But unfortunately, the proof that this is so can never come from the outside. Those who praise you today may well damn you tomorrow; if your happiness or sense of self worth is based on others’ opinions of you, your happiness will never last long. Nor will it ever be truly satisfying.
Every one of us already possesses the most miraculous attribute that can even be conceived -- everyone is a piece of the Infinite Source. There can be no greater claim to fame than this; no action in the world can be more laudable than this; no word or thought can be more significant or meaningful than this one fact. Since built into every one of us is the greatest of all possible Realities, how can anything external matter much? Human fame comes and goes with the seasons. It is never universal. No one is ever adored by all. Caesar was despised by many.
Lincoln did not win even half of his countrymen’s votes in his first presidential election; he was so intensely disliked by many that his election catalyzed the most destructive war in the history of this continent. Napoleon and Hitler, on the other hand, were adored by a majority of their people.
Human fame, based on the principles of separation and specialty, is a part of the human dream that is particularly vicious. If I am better than you, you are less than I. And therefore is my Universe diminished? The truth is that all are equally unique, equally special; all deserve the greatest praise and appreciation from all. The secret here is to learn to appreciate all others. Then you are honoring the part of them that is Ideal, the part of them that is identical to the best part of you.
Don’t let the surface appearance deceive you: the senses are the prime agents of the dream, they are deeply committed to its continuing indefinitely. Since they are acting in consonance with their nature, they cannot be blamed for this. The senses are devised to detect variation, contrast, difference; it is not surprising some colors, shapes, words and sounds seem more pleasing and beautiful than others. But this is not Reality.
What is fame? It is a magician’s trick, a particularly cunning fantasy that more often than not binds the famous person into a deeper level of ignorance. Fame means that some people think someone is more important or better than everyone else. How deeply we long to be viewed as important! Is this not a hungering for love? And how vitally important each of us is! But not for the reasons we typically assume.
Such a cheater fame is. We are famous, we think, because of something; because we make touchdowns, or sing well, or star in the movies. We are not famous in the eyes of the world because of our intrinsic inner worth, but because we do something well as compared with everyone else. When we no longer do that thing well, our fame vanishes like the mirage it is, leaving us with the memory of glory but nothing else. Enter here the various addictions of the world to dull the senses and help us to forget our lost moment in the Sun. Some despair of ever becoming famous and move straight into destructive habits. Or their desire to be unique and their desire to be recognized may cause them to attempt to be famous in the field of addictions.
The entire underlying belief system that cultures the desire to be unique, special, recognized or famous is twisted, not genuine. Many of us deeply crave to prove that we are the center of the Universe, that we are loved. But unfortunately, the proof that this is so can never come from the outside. Those who praise you today may well damn you tomorrow; if your happiness or sense of self worth is based on others’ opinions of you, your happiness will never last long. Nor will it ever be truly satisfying.
Every one of us already possesses the most miraculous attribute that can even be conceived -- everyone is a piece of the Infinite Source. There can be no greater claim to fame than this; no action in the world can be more laudable than this; no word or thought can be more significant or meaningful than this one fact. Since built into every one of us is the greatest of all possible Realities, how can anything external matter much? Human fame comes and goes with the seasons. It is never universal. No one is ever adored by all. Caesar was despised by many.
Lincoln did not win even half of his countrymen’s votes in his first presidential election; he was so intensely disliked by many that his election catalyzed the most destructive war in the history of this continent. Napoleon and Hitler, on the other hand, were adored by a majority of their people.
Human fame, based on the principles of separation and specialty, is a part of the human dream that is particularly vicious. If I am better than you, you are less than I. And therefore is my Universe diminished? The truth is that all are equally unique, equally special; all deserve the greatest praise and appreciation from all. The secret here is to learn to appreciate all others. Then you are honoring the part of them that is Ideal, the part of them that is identical to the best part of you.
Don’t let the surface appearance deceive you: the senses are the prime agents of the dream, they are deeply committed to its continuing indefinitely. Since they are acting in consonance with their nature, they cannot be blamed for this. The senses are devised to detect variation, contrast, difference; it is not surprising some colors, shapes, words and sounds seem more pleasing and beautiful than others. But this is not Reality.
