BE THE BEST: DO IT EASY, DO IT NOW

Copyright * LXXXIII by Uriah J. Fields
All rights reserved. No part of this book maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the writtem permission of the publisher.
Published by American Mutuality Foundation
Lo Angeles, California

BE THE BEST: DO IT EASY, DO IT NOW
ISBN: 0-938844-10-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 83-71413

Manufactured in the United States of America

This book
is dedicated to us -
all the people on earth
who, by being the best,
can make our planet
a here-and now
 paradise.

                                                        Author's Note
     Now is the only eternity there is, and if paradise is to be enjoyed and celebrated, it has to be now. Paradise is being the best in the momentary now and it has no authentic existence apart from people. When people are being their best, they are in paradise.
      For much too long we have been entrapped by our own doings and misdoings, deprived of glory and honor and relegated to a mediocre existence. But just as individuality embodies uniqueness, ordinariness contains sublimity. Perhaps we were always the best but didn't know it. Now is the time for us to recognize who we are. "Be the Best" then is not so much a creation as  it is a discovery.

                                                        CONTENTS
Acknowledgment  / 9
Foreword  / 11

                                                    BOOK ONE
                                               BEING THE BEST
          Introduction  / 15
                                                 Part One: Being and Nothingness  / 19
  I. This is It  / 21
 II. All is Vanity  / 24
iii. So What?  /  27
                                                 Part Two: Embrace Insecurity and Win  /  31
IV. There's No Security  / 33
 V. Quality Living with Less and with Insecurity  /  37
                                                Part Three: Lovers as Friends  /  41
  VI. How Lovers Can Become Friends  / 43
 VII. Man-Woman Relations Today  /  47
                                                Part Four: Good and Something More  / 51
VIII. Serendipity  /  53
  IX. Growing Up after You're Grown  /  56
  X. Making the Best of It  /  59
                                                Part Five: Toward a Psychology 
                                                of Completion  / 63
 XI. TheTyranny of Beliefs  /  65
XII. Self-Supreme  /  68
XIII. Serving  / 71
                                                Part Six: Give All to Love  / 75
XIV. Love is the Greatest  / 77

                                                          BOOK TWO
                                       THE POWER OF POSITIVE IDEAS
    Introduction /  87
                                                Part One: Positive Ideas and You  /  91
    You Can Be a Positve Person  / 93
    Consciousness Focusing  /  96
    On Becoming a Positive Person  /  98
    Be Positive Now / 100
                                               Part Two: Positive Ideas for all Occasions / 101
    Love, Friendship and Sex  / 103
    Society and the Individual  /  121
    Self-Esteem  / 135
    Now is All / 165
    Freedom and Peace  / 179
    Values and Spirituality / 199
    Enjoyment and Celebration / 219
    Songs in the Key of Full Life  /  229
Appendix  /  241
    I'm Free to  Be in an Unfree World  / 243
References  / 247
Index / 249
Information About the American Mutuality Foundation  / 255

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
__________________________________________________________________

    This book is the result of a decade of thought and writing. Book One began as a poem entitled "This is It" published in the "Full Life Magazine," Vol. IX. No. 2, February 1982. It was later expanded and given as a series of lectures to the People United Freedom Forum (1982) and to the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance 1983), Los Angeles, California.
     Book Two, which focuses on positve being, has had a curious development. The prose first appeared in a booklet entitled "Happiness Through Consciousness (1982) and the poems first appeared in the "Full Life Magazine" as "mind power ideas" over a period of seven years. Most of them were subsequently published in the book, "The Magic Power of Positive Ideas" (1980).
   Grateful acknowledgment is made to:
   Reverend John F. Cameron, Reverend Leon King, Jesse B. Kemp, Sr., Charles W. Whittley, Rice Walker, Warren W. Holder, Alton Larry and Earl Spearman, staff members of the American Christian Freedom Society for support as fellow organizational workers which provided me with economic resources and time so vital to producing this book.
   The American Mutuality Foundation and especially the Mutuality Center for Creative Living for a laboratrory to develop and test many of the important concepts presented in this book. Facilitators at the Center James E. Williams, John Jett, Amini Nyerere, PaulTerry, Louis Menold, Rammmar Sri, Eugene Purnell, Dr. Sidney B. Whitaker conducted psychic, metaphysical, poetic, holistic health and spiritual workshops which provided me with valuable insights into human growth through applied mutuality. 
     Fred Weaver III, M.D., psychiatrist and Marcus McBroom, Ph.D., psychologist, colleagues and facilitators of Creative Self-discovery and Mutuality seminars for their experimental creative process work which this book is largely based on. 
   Emmy Hammond for a decade of reading and criticism of my writings. She has offered many helpful suggestions. It was she who challenged me to expand the poem "This is It" into it present form.
       Malathi Sandhu for her convincing arguments which helped me decide to write this book. Her tough tenacious criticism of my ideas and her professionalism as a university instructor are reflected on evey page. Her contributions to this book extended far beyond those one would expect of a colleague, an intellectual companion, a friend, lover and most significant other. Special thanks are also extended to her for writing the "Foreword."

FOREWORD
_______________________________________________________________
by Malathi Sandhu, Ph.D.

    Life in the adult years can be for some a journey of awakening to new possibilities of experiencing and knowing. It can finally be a time for setting aside childhood assumptions that don't work because they neither provide satisfaction nor meaning. The struggle to achieve a goodness of fit between self, others, and the seemingly unpredictable and obviously unequal circumstances of life is for many frustrating, painful, and bewildering. The person in this predicament questions the need for pain, and struggle and often starts to doubt the self - things must be so hard, so "wrong" because he or she is somehow inadequate, incapable, not special enough. An awakening occurs when the adult finally realizes that his or her life is not working for him because he has held inaccurate assumptions about himself and the meaning of his lfie. This awakening can occur even when most of a person's physical, emotional, social and intellectual needs are met - there may still be dissatisfaction and lack of meaning. The "sleeping" adult is now ready to discover his deeply spiritual nature.
     This book addresses the adult who is coming awake and readying himself for living with a renewed sense of joy and adventure. The ideas in this book are both a challenge and an invitation.
     Book One represents the challenge to face one's reality with no illusions, life with all its unpredictability, unfariness, and inequity, can still be joyful. There is a recognition that attachment to people, objects, and beliefs as a way of ensuring personal safety and security is to become trapped and stuck, grasping and holding on rather than being free to experience the new, the everchanging, the unknown. The author affirms the importance of relationships and the deep fulfillment they proffer. The need to love is man's greatest need and is at the same time its own reward. It is exciting to realize that one need only be open in order to discover the unexpected good in many experiences - serendipity. These and other discoveries are the foundation for being the best and bringing deep satisfaction into one's life.
     Book Two is an invitation to celebrate and affirm the self. It comprises a collection of poems and songs that emphasize man's relation to others and himself. Ideas that are positive, and briefly but cogently expressed, capture the essence of how to attain and what it means to experience love, freedom, peace, spirituality, and a full life. 
    With the author, I enjoin you to celebrate and feast upon this offering.

                                                                    BOOK ONE
                                                       BEING THE BEST

INTRODUCTION                                                                            
______________________________________________________________________

      Some twenty-five years ago while attending seminary I became incessantly interested in philosophy, especially  in ontology, that branch of metaphysics devoted to the investigation of being. My fascination with being across the years led me to read Martin Heidegger's "Being and Time," Jean-Paul Sartre's  "Being and Nothingess," Abraham  H. Maslow's "Toward a Psychology of Being" and Carl R. Rogers'  "A Way of Being." During the last decade I  have been equally as intrigued with "non-being" or "nothingness."
      While there seems to be only a dearth of information on nothingness, the Bible interestingly enough, in its opening verse, underscores the primacy of nothingness. It reads, "In the beginning God. From that statement it is evident that "Before the beginning" God came out of nothingness and being was born. This is not to say that God is being, certainly not only being. God is nothingness as well. He said of Himself, "I am that I am." And, the Psalmist said "He is All and in All." This world suggests that God is All and more than that He is a part of, if not all, but more likely only a part of nothingness which antedates Him and out of which he emerged. That which emanates "out of" can never be all of that from which it came out of. Therefore, God cannot be all of nothingness but whatever else He is, He is nothingness. Where God lacks substance and form there is nothingness.
     No attempt is being made here to give a theological dissertation on God but rather to offer a philosophical paradigm which permits a person to take a glimpse into ALL that is and provides a rationale which makes it possible for one to be accepting of TOTALITY - the sun total of being and nothingness. Happiness results from a consciousness of being and nothingness.
     Part One, a trilogy, focusing on three principles, namely, "This is It," "All is Vanity," and "So What" confronts man with Karma, the incontrovertibleness of destiny and brings him face-to-face with his utter helplessness, not that it matters, and the inconsequentialness of his existence. "This" - the immediate, today, and present experience - is IT, the total and ultimate point of existence. "All" - that is and is not - is vanity, unimportant and is not to be taken seriously but simply as a cosmic joke. "So what" is the acknowledgment of, and the ultimate response to being and nothingness which declares it really doesn't matfer. It just is.
     Part Two acknowledges that insecurity is reality and reveals how the "security myth" accounts for mass human destructiveness and unhappiness. Happiness is accepting insecurity. It appears that this awareness prompted Kirllow in Dostoyevsky's "The Possesed" to say, "Man is unhappy because he dosen't know he is happy."
     Since there is no security accepting the illusion of security takes people out of reality. But a failure to accept reality, has afflicting consequences. In order to win in the game of life a person has to embrace insecurity which is the nature of existence. The more a person harmonizes with insecurity the more he is able to be in the flow and utilize energy generally expended in the pursuit of security, in creative living. Quality living, translated to mean freedom and health, demands acceptance of insecurity as the way it is rather than the way it should  be.
     In Part Three the focus is on relationships man-woman relationships in general and the ralationships of lovers in particular. Here, effective communication is highlighted and lovers are shown how they can become friends. It seems that man-woman relationships largely determine the function and health of any society.
     Part Four accentuates good and best, good that comes without expectation or effort and good that results from planning and commitment. Beyond good there is best which is pictured as being within the reach of every human being and the challenge is made to each individual to "make the best of it," with the knowledge that he can do it easy and now.
     Part Five posits a "weltanschauung," a psychology of completion and shows that man in moving toward this world view is effecting a transformation of himself and creating the ultimate community. This is now possible  because man is actively  involved in his own self-creation. 
     In the final portion of Book One love is presented as the greatest power in the universe and only satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
     The title of this book more than suggests that a person can " be the best" with ease and in the momentary now.  Being the best is within the reach of everyone, especially the person who will not merely read this book but exeprience what he reads. The latter can be accomplished by making applicaiton of the principles presented and practicing or engaging the therories in actual experimental operations, or, in a word, livingness.

                                                    Part One
                          Being in Nothingness

I
______________________________________
THIS IS IT
                                       What are you looking for?
                                       Where are your going?
                                       Why are you dreaming?
                                       This is it.
                                       There is nothing to create,
                                           nothing to discover
                                           and nowhere to go.
                                      There is nothing new under the sun.
                                      This is it.
                                      This is all there is
                                          and all there ever will be.
                                      This is the eternal now. 
                                      Both remembrance of the past
                                          and hope for the future are illusions,
                                          non-reality and psychic entrapment
                                      This is it.

       While strolling in an elite neighborhood I saw two signs displayed on the lawns of two next door neighbors. The sign on the Christian's lawn read "I found it" and the sign on the Jew's lawn read, "I never lost it." While attempting to fathom the meanings these signs had for their presenters it occurred to me that an appropriate replacement sign would read, "I am it."
      I recall that when I first  began reading Sheldon B. Kopp's book, "If You Meet the Buddha on the Road Kill Him," I launched into it with a compulsion wanting to find out "Who is the Buddha?" It was not long before I discovered that "I am the Buddha." This discovery brought back to my mind a statement one of my seminary professors made about "original sin" and the "Fall of Adam." He said, "Every man is his own Adam." And he could have added, "Every man is his own Christ."
      Buddha is it, Adam is it, Christ is it, and I am it. It is all. It is the I am. "This is it. Translate "This is it" and it spells experience. Experience is it. Outside of experience nothing exists. Outside of your experience nothing exists for you, not even what you acknowledge in you.
       Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do wtih what is and what happens to you. Experience can be divided into three zones of awareness.        
      (1) Awareness of the outside world. This is sensory contact with objects in the present. It is what I actually see, hear, smell, taste or touch. Right now I see the moon, I hear the airplane noise and I taste the sweet fruity taste of the grapes in my mouth.
     (2) Awareness of the inside world. This is actual sensory contact with inner events in the present: what I now feel from inside my body -  muscular tensions, itches, discomfort, joy, well-being, etc. Right now I feel a tightness in my hand and the skin on my forehead itches.
      These first two kinds of awareness encompasss all that I can know about the present reality I am experiencing. This is the unalterable fact of my experience in the moment which neither I nor anyone else can negate. The third kind of zone of awareness is different, namely, my awareness of images of things and happenings that do not exist in present reality. 
   (3) Awareness of the fantasy world. This is mental activity which does not involve present awareness of ongoing experience. It includes imaging, thinking, gussing, explaining, remembering, anticipating the future, etc. Right now I am wondering how long it will take me to finish writing this discourse. I have a picture in my mind of what it will look like when it is finished, and wonder how the readers will respond to it. All this is my fantasy, unreality.
      Yet, experience is never without some reality, even if it is hidden reality. No event is entirely separate unto itself, but is rather connected with both visible and invisible facets of reality. Experience is always in the present even when it consists of memories from the past and imagination about the future. Both remembering and imaging exist in the conscious now.
     Experiencxe is it and it is now. This is it and this is all there is. It is either absolute or relative or both absolute and relative. This may be illustrated by the experience of two boys with bees. One boy got honey and the other boy got stung. One boy came away from the beehive calling the bees "honey bees" and the other boy came away from the beehive calling the bees "stinging bees."
     The supreme lesson to be learned from this philosophical model is be aware that this is it and then enjoy life to its fulllest today because it is the only day you'll ever have. It matters not what you do in particular as long as you have your own life and live this day as if it is the only day you''ll ever have.
    Finally, whatever you have to say, say it now; whatever you have to do, do it now; whatever you have to share, share it now, and express it with love - full presence. This is the eternal now, unque, unprecedented, and never to be repeated livingness. This is it. 

II
__________________________________________

ALL IS VANITY

     Wiseman Solomon said, "...all is vanity." (Ecclesiastes (12:8). Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress, "Vanity Fair," depicts the world as a scene of vanity and folly, and a novel by W. M. Thackeray satirizes the weakness and follies of human nature. They all confront man with the greatest truth ever proclaimed. But man has been slow to acknowledge it and determined to not accept it.
       When one thinks of vanity, that which is characerized by frivolity and is "to no purpose," such words as trivial, useless, unreal, worthless, empty, ostentatious, futile and abortive come to mind. "Funk and Wagnalls New College Standard Dictionary" defines vanity as "The quality or state of being vain or empty, or destitute of reality."
     The Psalmist exclaims, "When I consider the heavens,...the moon and the stars... . What is man, that thou art mindful of him." (Psallm 8:3-4). Theologians have given this statement a reverse interpertation which extolls man's greatness. but the Psalmist appears to be saying that man is something less than the heavens, moon and stars. Perhaps a truer statement, howevder, would be they are all the same stuff, same essence, cosmic mess. All is vanity.
     The French hilosopher, Rene Descartes formulated a classic phrase: "cogito, ergo sum" "I think, herefore I am." He assumed that by thinkinhg he could establish his being. The statement has two drawbacks, (1) thinking is an illusion, a fantasy and unraeal , and (2) it emphasizes being without recognizing nothingness. Life which is indestructible consists of  both being and nothingness.

Also visit Menu and click on "New Songs" to learn about my two songbooks.                                                                         

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