Socrates, Zen, Sufi, or Just Plain Ham . . .
Ham Radio Operators are members of a unique group. Whether they operate by Morse Code (no longer a requirement), phone, or digital, they share an almost mystical companionship, and it doesn’t matter if they live just around the corner or in Timbuktu, the relationships hold.
AW (my husband) was a Ham and for several years after his sudden death I received QSL cards from around the world as other Hams heard of his death and wanted to tell me they cared. Nice people.
It pleases me that one of my sons, WR, is also a Ham. It is a little known hobby, but before the Internet, when a large disaster occurred, it was the Hams who provided news and lifelines.
Usually they just gab back and forth, chinning away, but odd bits of stuff are often sent over the air waves. Today’s words come from, Mike of New Mexico. My son, K7EA shared them with me, and because I like them I pass them along to you.
RULES FOR BEING A HUMAN BEING
1. You will receive a body. You may or may not like that body, but it will be yours for the entire period of this time round.
2. You will learn lessons. You are automatically enrolled in a full-time school called Life, and have the opportunity to learn those daily lessons. You may like them or think them irrelevant and stupid It doesn’t matter, they’re yours.
3.There are no mistakes or accidents. Only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error and experience. The ‘failed’ experiments are as much a part of the process as the one that ‘work’.
4. A lesson is repeated over and over until it’s learned. It will be presented in many forms until you have learned it, and only when you have learned it, will the next lesson arrive.
5. Learning never ends. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons, and if you’re alive, there are still lessons you need to learn.
6. ‘There’ and ‘When’ are no better than ‘Here’ and ‘Now’. When your ‘there’ has become ‘here’, and your ‘when; is ‘now’, you will simply obtain another ‘there’ and ‘when’ which will, again look better than ‘here’ and ‘now’.
7. Other people in your life are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another unless it reflects something you either love or hate within yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need, however what you do with them is your choice, and no person or circumstance can change that.
9. All your answers lie right inside you. Yes, the solutions to all life, are inside you, and all you need do is look, listen and trust.
10. You will forget all this. No matter how often you read this, no matter how deeply you believe it, or how often you promise yourself to never forget even one part of it, within one minute, you will. Oh, yes, you will. But then you will remember again.
This page was signed Anonymous, but it has all the wisdom of Socrates, or some Zen or Sufi teacher. I love it all, but even if only one small part speaks to you, love that part. For actually, it’s wisdom of the ages, presented in words for our time. Hope The Teacher gives you an A in every one of the lessons. I still struggle.