Silver – Obey Common Sense
No one is born with common sense or common knowledge about life. We acquire it through experience as we age. We learn proper behavior through parents and societal expectations that enable us to live and prosper in the world.
These are important for parents to teach their children through all the stages of toddler to adulthood, otherwise, society becomes disruptive and chaotic, as we see in the world and social media today.
One of the first lessons I was taught in life was dual in nature –trust no one and obey common sense.
One day, around the age of five, my mother finished cooking on an electric stove and pulled the pot aside. My father walked into the kitchen and noticed my awareness of the red and still very hot burner.
He said, “Touch it.” At that point, I was deeply torn. I was old enough to know that touching the burner would hurt, but my love and desire to obey my father was overwhelming.
To me, he represented my Heavenly Father and I looked at the stove and then at my father, deeply conflicted that he would instruct me to do this.
Again, he said, “Touch it.” I obeyed and burned the tip of my finger. He chuckled and said, “Why did you do that? You knew it was hot.”
A sense of cruel betrayal struck me inside and the first realization in life that my father might instruct me foolishly, and my level of trust lessened.
I wouldn’t have taught a lesson this way, but if I did, it wouldn’t have ended with a chuckle and “Why did you do it?” There would have been a continuation and discussion of why obeying common sense was crucial over obeying anyone, even those we trust.
He could have said, “Using common sense is listening to the most rational side within you. Trusting your sense of self-preservation was wiser than obeying me.”
Due to age, it wouldn’t be possible for me to come to this conclusion on my own and this level of guidance was missing. My lesson instead became, “Trust him at your own peril, for the odds are good he will be foolish again.”
When children are young, we want to teach them the perils of sticking their fingers in an electric outlet or touching a hot stove.
The more we teach in our instruction, instead of just “Don’t do it!” and “Because I said so!” the more common sense we instill. This leaves a more lasting impression in their minds even if they can’t understand all that we’ve said.
Trying to reason with a two-year-old won’t work, but if the child is old enough to ask why, even though they may not ask, we can instill more common sense with a deeper explanation.
Girls are different than boys as they rely more on emotion than reason. The love and trust for my father was stronger than the reality of the hot burner and a boy may not have responded like I did.
This is where sadhana parts ways between male and female. It’s difficult to voice this truth at a time of the liberalist movement and women activists screaming for equality. As a woman, no one is more understanding of the suffering of being blocked from opportunities.
There are no laws that discriminate between males and females. I can own property, vote, and have all the benefits in society that a man does. So where is this rage coming from and what are the feminists really screaming about?
Discrimination doesn’t lie in the law and more laws won’t fix the social climate. It’s through individual circumstances that a woman is treated with less respect than her male counterpart.
There were many times, I approached male supervisors, usually letting them know of issues I was having with the equipment at my job. I could predict how they would respond to me by their general level of respect for women, and some had higher opinions than others.
This unconscious behavior was easily shown through their attitude. I would approach in a calm, cool, and collected manner and get less respect than the fellow who runs to the “office,” screaming like a child.
Is it fair? Of course not, but more laws won’t fix the real underlying issue, which is unconscious in nature. A few hundred years ago, a woman received a lot worse treatment.
Does that mean I should just be satisfied with the current status quo? No, but it won’t happen with more laws or screaming and demanding it from someone who’s not aware of it. It also increased my own understanding as my awareness awakened and allowed me to take it less personally.
Women are internally stronger this way than males in their ability to deal with circumstances that are unfavorable. It’s evident in their patience and nurturing capacity and also in their natural ability to be more tolerant.
Women can make the most strides in society by using this capacity of understanding to work on becoming more aware, calm, and rational. That’s hard to do when the emotions get in the way.
Instead, the feminist movement is causing untold damage through social media and society by not using their rational faculties and relying solely on emotion. Everyone who doesn’t respond to them with approval is racist, bigoted, or whatever else they can think of.
It’s very destructive for any group to behave this way and accomplishes nothing in society but divisiveness, chaos, and breakdown. It beats the males down and they lose their confidence in asserting their individuality as males. The two were meant to coexist without one “lording” over the other.
Try and tell a feminist that, and I’m attacked and labeled everything I’m not and then some. Who wants to be called racist? It would make anyone feel bad to be publicly accused of such a label and debating them is like trying to reason with a screaming two-year-old.
Wisdom asserts itself, so why put my “feminine” self through the unnecessary angst of attempting to instill a rational perspective in someone who doesn’t want to be rational?
Everyone is on a multi-spectrum regarding common sense, and males make decisions based on their wisdom through their thinking processes, and not through their level of emotion. This is not to say that men are never irrational or there wouldn’t be so many foolish decisions or crimes of passion in the world.
There are differences between males and females within the soul. We are not our bodies, and one is not better than the other in the Lord’s eyes. Both are created equal, and each has its strengths and weaknesses.
The differences are what spiritually attracts one to the other and God’s purpose in creating male and female. It wasn’t meant for just swapping body fluids privately and then mistreating one another, publicly or privately.
The one who screams the loudest appears the strongest in the world, but pitifully weak in God’s eyes and that goes for male or female. I cannot over-emphasize the word “pitifully” enough though I wouldn’t assert it in front of an angry mob, which is largely what social media consists of these days.
Wisdom lies in using the common sense we were taught as children. A book was published in the eighties called, “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.” Yet, social media is rife with behaviors that make kindergarten look like college-level.
We learn that picking up after ourselves is thoughtful and considerate. We learn that angry outbursts have negative consequences (or we should have). At the very least, we learn that “honey” works better than “vinegar” in our interactions with others.
Even the smaller things we learn can become bigger issues as an adults if we don’t follow common sense. If we don’t brush or take care of our teeth daily, then we end up with cavities. Even a few years of not paying attention can cause gum disease and suffering later in life.
Like many children, I wasn’t raised with an emphasis on brushing my teeth. I soon figured it out on my own but neglected them for a few of my adult years.
I’d skip a day occasionally or not floss regularly. I still have my teeth and never acquired more than two cavities, but every day I battle with gum disease and the realization I may need dentures in another twenty years.
Another one that I never learned in my youth was wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle. It was never emphasized, and I never saw anyone wear one as a child.
This one I did learn as an adult, but there are many adults and children alike, who still don’t wear one, even though it makes more sense.
Learning common sense isn’t just for childhood for as we open our minds to new areas of interest, acquiring common knowledge becomes crucial.
We shouldn’t skydive if we haven’t had the proper training in procedures and how to do it safely. Neither should we navigate the sea if we lack instruction and are unaware of the dangers.
Expanding our awareness involves learning what makes sense and what doesn’t, and then applying what does in life.
This means listening to others with experience and applying the knowledge gained, and doesn’t that make the most sense? Yet, I still see pedestrians crossing the street without looking both ways.
Religion should be one of instruction on how to navigate through the sun and storms of life. It can make all the difference between happiness versus suffering, and joy versus despair.
This is where Christianity and I parted ways into adulthood. No one instructed me in anything more than Pollyanna principles that didn’t work as an adult. Praying about a difficult decision doesn’t work when we’re left with a cold world of choices.
Many believe that if an answer to prayer is silence, then it means no, wait, or do nothing. This is poor advice for a pressing issue.
In following the Silver Doctrine, I might pray for guidance if I was inclined to pray, but I wouldn’t expect an answer and do nothing in the meantime.
Prayer is like dialing a number on your phone and leaving a voicemail. No one has direct access to God, but the Incarnation. If everyone did, there wouldn’t be 45,000 different denominations of Christianity across the globe.
They all claim to hear God’s Voice, so if God is One, then why are there 45,000 different voices? Through reasoning, I can deduce that God doesn’t expect me to sift through all those denominations for the “needle in the haystack.”
Wisdom asserts that God is One and all these denominations point to the most obvious which is that no one is hearing the Voice of God; and through my own wisdom and understanding, I shouldn’t expect a response from God either.
Instead, I can rest assured that whichever decision I make, pre-approved with common sense and my own powers of perception, is holy and right.
It’s also true that common sense and science have increased over the last two thousand years and religion should be flexible and wise enough to move forward with the times.
Christianity should be alive and searching for new meaningful ways of interpreting the stories in the Bible that are vibrant and real instead of outdated analogies.
First, the teaching should always make sense and it’s obvious to me that the physical Resurrection of Jesus couldn’t have happened because the body decomposes too rapidly.
Common sense supports this so what are we to make of the Resurrection? Might it be pointing to rebirth?
Oh no! The Christians say for there are too many verses that speak of one life and then judgment. Well, Paul wasn’t Jesus, Paul’s words are not God’s, and science totally disproves the possibility.
Somehow, I find it difficult to picture Jesus reanimating a corpse three days later. If He did, He’d probably be stiff and have difficulty walking from the decomposition.
The vocal cords would have atrophied so he’d have to grunt everything He said with a shorter version and probably pointed to his hand and said, “Touch…it…Thomas.” How would He be able to explain Himself any clearer than that with rotting vocal cords?
Zombies and even an All-Wise and Powerful Zombie isn’t real and the more I think about this scenario, the more ridiculous it sounds, so let’s move on.
You also won’t find me encouraging you to ask Jesus into the heart. I probably asked a thousand times as a child, but once I grew up, I discovered there wasn’t enough room for both of us. As an adult, my own knowledge of metaphysics doesn’t support it so it can’t be true!
Science can easily disprove that God created the earth in seven days and using common sense, I can easily assert that Jonah probably wasn’t swallowed by a whale.
If he had been, the last thing on his mind would have been, “Okay God. I’m sorry for not obeying you and I promise to speak to the city of Ninevah.” No! Because no one reflects on issues like that when they’re being swallowed alive!
Even the idea that God would make a large being named Lucifer who defied God and ended up as the Great Powerful and Evil One for all humanity is superstitious. It worked though, didn’t it? People behave better than they would have otherwise.
Besides, would you create a being large enough that might turn evil and tempt the whole world for thousands of years? I certainly wouldn’t so why God?
He’s not some Cruel Dictator in the Sky ready to inflict eternal damnation on those who follow a different religion. In my own wisdom that doesn’t make sense, and I would certainly hope He’s at least a little bit Smarter, Loving, and Wiser than I am.
God is Rational and obeying common sense is obeying the Lord. If your religion isn’t teaching you to obey common sense, then your religion isn’t obeying the Lord either!
Superstitions are the fallacies in religion that keep a person from obeying common sense and are a big part of what kept me in the dark and suffering for so many years.
It’s much easier to follow common sense when we look at the long-term effect of taking or not taking a certain action in life and then respond with the highest wisdom available.
When I was younger, I would have been more serious about brushing my teeth, if I understood more about the long-term repercussions of not doing it.
Good habits always lead to happier living and obeying common sense protects us from suffering. There would be much less distress in the world if religion taught this most basic and fundamental premise in living.
All goodness in the world through habits, attitudes, and actions is holy to God, whether we’re sitting in a pew on Sunday morning or communing with nature on a Friday evening. They’re holy and godlike because this is what God would do if She were living in the world.
The Rational and Loving God wants and expects us to obey common sense so that we’re not tossed about in life, and able to stand, with wisdom, on our own two feet.
Are you ready to climb out of the box of superstition and empower yourself to be the kind of person God wants you to be?
You can find this power inside because God blessed each of us with a touch of the Divine and the ability to use our powers of perception to find fulfillment in life.
The Black Lady doctrines are revolutionary and forward-thinking principles that empower us to do and be our best in life! Let’s travel together and explore what the Lord meant when He said, “And you shall do more!”
