From the Foreword of WHAT IS REALLY GOOD?
Within the pages of this book is the secret to eliminating all stress and suffering in your life.
This book is not about me. It is about you.
"Know thyself" is the underlying point. Knowledge of self is very powerful. This book is meant to be an instruction manual on you. It will positively affect every aspect of your life if you are open to it.
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From Chapter 1 of WHAT IS REALLY GOOD?
How You See It
What is good? What is bad? Really. What is anything? What is isness? Let’s start with what makes something good and what makes it bad. First a quick story to illustrate the point of these questions.
A man who has been poor his whole life wins $10 million in the lottery. Is that good? He has to pay taxes of about $4.5 million on his win leaving him with about $5.5 mill. His friends and family hound him at all hours for money. His inexperience with managing a lot of cash and the thought of losing it all weighs on him heavily and he does not have peace of mind. He subscribes to the philosophy, “More money, more problems.” Within a year and a half, he is back to his original net worth of $0.00 and is living paycheck to paycheck again. He is, however, happier than he was with his bank account in 7 digits. Is that bad?
There is no right or wrong answer to the questions, ‘What is good?’ and ‘What is bad?’. It is all relative and subjective to one’s point of view. How can we answer a question with only a relative right or wrong answer absolutely? We take away the subjective label. The absolute inarguable answer is, ‘It is’ and maybe slightly more complete, “It is what it is.”
Since everything in life is open to interpretation in the sense that you can take a fact; you can take what is; and label it as a positive or negative depending on your point of view, we will take a better look at what a point of view really is and what creates our own personal perspective and the perspective of others.
"Whose world is this? The world is yours." Although these are lyrics from a Nas song, they are absolutely true. The world is only seen through your eyes and only experienced from your point of view. It is your own personal perspective that colors the way you see the world and dictates the way you feel about it. Absolutely no one else can change the way you feel; your perspective in general; but you.
It may seem as if the world dictates to you what you should be feeling by way of circumstances and situations, but this is an illusion. Founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET) Robert E. Johnson said, “Life is a grindstone. But whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you’re made of.” Jesse Jackson said, “You may not be responsible for getting knocked down, but you’re certainly responsible for getting back up.” "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." Famous preacher, Charles R. Swindoll said this. If you look at your own life, however, you will agree that it is true.
This can be illustrated by the way 2 people can go through the exact same situation and have extremely different experiences due to their interpretation of that situation. The following are just a few examples.
One night, 2 individual people go to a party. When asked about the party the next day, person A says, "I had a horrible time. I did not like the food, didn't like the music, didn't like the people, and the place was too small." Person B responding to the same question says, "It was awesome. I had the time of my life! When is the next one?" Both people were in the exact same place at the exact same time, but their experiences are of extreme opposites.
"One man's trash is another man's treasure." One's perspective is the key. There are those who don't mind being stuck in traffic because they have something with them that makes it easy to accept the situation (like good music, a meal, a conversation, or just a broad perspective in general) and there are those who can't stand it and are fuming at the thought of being stuck. There are those who hate to wake up in the morning and those who love it. Some people enjoy pain and others are terrified at the thought. The list goes on for as long as there are topics.
Whose world is this? The world is yours. No matter what you have been told, taught, or led to believe, the only absolute is your own experience and you are free to determine how you interpret that experience.
The way we see the world and even more importantly, the ability to perceive anything at all are two different things. Have you ever thought about that? There is something that we all have in common despite the fact that we may see things differently. I may like the adrenaline rush of sky diving and car racing while you may never consider doing these things because they seem too risky and dangerous, however, we both share the ability to perceive these activities. It is only after you are aware of what these activities are that you can render a judgment on how you feel about them. This ability to perceive the outside world and create how you feel about it, is awareness. We often look past our own sense of awareness; taking it for granted. Everyone is aware, but not everyone who is aware exercises their consciousness.
Consciousness
What is consciousness? The way in which I am using the word is in terms of you being aware that you are aware. In other words, if you can take notice of yourself taking notice of anything, you are conscious. Consciousness is the space where the being aware and taking notice of sense stimulation and thought occurs. Our very essence is this space; this observer; this consciousness; where awareness and alertness take place. This conscious space is and always will be there. It is unchanging, a constant throughout our lives. From birth until death, and even before birth and after death, this constant never changing essence is our true identity.
Of course you will have noticed countless changes in yourself throughout your life. These changes did not occur in the essence of who you are, but rather in your mind as a result of gaining knowledge and experience (whether it has been labeled good or bad by your mind). You will have changed physically of course, but this does not change your core essence either. It only changes your mind's idea of who you are.
Now a lot of people may say, “Hold on a minute there. My mind changed, and I didn’t? I am my mind! How is that possible?” You can be told that you are not your mind, but it’s better for you to see for yourself. Count from 1 to 10 in your mind right now. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Now if your mind was counting, who was listening? The observer; consciousness was listening. Your consciousness is listening right now.
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