Daily Inspiration 5-30-17

"The ultimate authority 

must always rest 

with the individual's own reason 

and critical analysis."

-- Dalai Lama

[Classic post from 7-22-12]

There was a short discussion about religion and other topics and because I took a different point of view on something, I was asked by whose authority I know this. It was an interesting question. It was sort of fun to be put on the spot and even outnumbered. I smiled at the challenge. So, I said, "by my inner knowing." So, I was told that this is not an acceptable authority. "On the contrary," I said. "It is the best authority."

What I thought was interesting is how we look to someone else as an authority figure. It doesn't matter what it is. We claim that the doctor has the authority, the teacher, the therapist, the mother, the father, the church, the Bible, the guru, the Internet marketing genius, the person who has written the most books, the movie star, and the list goes on for days. And, in no case, is it ourselves. It is always someone outside of ourselves that is the real and viable authority.

I'm educated sufficiently. I am an avid reader and have read many hundreds of books, and I love learning and I like to follow learning from certain sources deeper than others. It isn't because I consider them an authority or the authority, but simply because of what and how they are saying a thing resonates within me, or my inner being, or inner knowing. It is as if I have only confirmed something that I already knew.

I like how Oscar Wilde said that "education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught." The teachers that I study seem to be teaching me what I already know, and that is how it resonates, along with the fact that it feels right, or more precise, it feels good.

There are many things I've tried to learn, even to the point of memorizing parts of it, and many times that learning never felt right. It didn't really matter the source or how high the authority was, it just didn't resonate truth to me. In fact, most of my life I had a lot of this from a wide variety of sources and I was instructed to trust the authority or respect the authority or believe it because of the authority, and all the while, it just didn't feel right. I couldn't discuss that with those people because to challenge it was to deny it and it offended them. So, many like myself, just clam up and go with the flow.

It's only in the last few years that I've trusted my inner self or inner knowing. Now I trust it more than anything. If it resonates and feels good, I go with it and if it doesn't resonate and feels bad, I let it go. I think that we give up our own authority all too easily when it is there to serve us if we but pay attention to it.

One last thing on this idea is that I have at the same time learned to allow all others to have and use the authority of their choice, to have and choose thoughts as they may and to have joy in that whatever is chosen by them is serving them as they would like. I do as I feel is best and allow and encourage everyone else to do the same.


We All Get To Choose Our Best Authority.

Spread Some Joy Today--Don't label anything today, except to allow yourself to feel good and find ways to feel a little better, and a little better and so on.