Humor from the January 2009 issue of Reader’s Digest:

The new monk is assigned to copy the old texts by hand. Noticing that he’ll be copying from copies and not from the original manuscripts, he tells an elderly monk, “If there was an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all subsequent copies.”

The elderly monk agrees and goes to the cellar with a copy to check it against the original. Hours go by and nobody sees him.  Concerned, the new monk searches for him in the cellar. Hearing wailing, he finds the old monk leaning over one of the original books. Looking up, he sobs, “The word is celebrate.”

Perhaps a good New Years Resolution would be to check with source material to make sure we understand what we’re doing.  All problems are self-created as the old monk learned.  Somewhere, at sometime, we may have latched onto an idea, an interpretation, a belief which caused conflict within self.  That conflict is recognized by uncomfortable and unpleasant feelings and emotions. Yet, like the old monk, we persevered on the course of the idea/interpretation despite a growing intensity of discomfort.

January is a wonderful time for reflection, an opportunity to inventory our lives, and measure the level of good feelings.  In the arenas where we do not feel well (or have confused and mixed emotions) we can apply the new monk approach and check the original to make certain our thoughts and beliefs are genuine and not simply a rehash of an old error.  Where does one go to check the original? The only place possible - within.  

You already know how to do this.  Reflect on those moments when you “just knew” something to be true, or right. It wasn’t a matter of analyzing data or whatever, but a simple feeling awareness that felt right.  All right feeling is good.

It seems, then, that discomfort is a signal that we are thinking/doing something that is in error. Whatever thought or activity it is, it is not the original thought. Somehow we mis-translated it. Without the unpleasant feeling we wouldn’t know that.

That’s why we pay attention to “bad” feelings or “bad” conditions - we inherently know they are not normal; not right. The finesse is to align our most conscious self with a thought that evokes that feel right response.  Like the old monk, many of us go a good while before bumping into a young monk who insists we return to the source just to be sure we’re not copying old errors.

An irrational idea, passionately held, is still an irrational idea. Don’t have to carry any of this into 2009. Now, that’s good news!