Be The Light
By Denise Arnault
I believe that most people are good.
More than that, I believe that all people are born good. Sadly, some are led astray, but most remain good to a greater or lesser extent.
In this world there are forces that push for the greater good, and those that oppose it; good vs evil, light vs dark, happiness vs sadness, etc. The Yin/Yang goes on and on.
No one is totally good all the time, or even totally bad all the time. Even the Dalai Lama, a person trained from birth to be good and a leader for good, admits to sometimes being petty and snapping at people. We all have our weak moments, faults, and mistakes, but it is what we do about those and how we behave most of the time which counts. At my funeral, I want people to say that I was mostly happy and nice to people. Then my life will have meant something.
I want to be a beacon of Light to help others to have better and happier lives. In this article, I will set out my thoughts on how this might be accomplished, and I will ask each reader to try occasionally to let their Light shine as well. I do not plan to devote my entire life to being an example to others, nor do I expect others to do so either. Most of the time, we all want to just have fun and be happy. The more each of us Shine, though, the better we all will be.
To be sure, I am no saint. I have made my share of mistakes; some small and some bigger than yours. I am not suggesting that anyone live a fervent, religious life or forsake ‘normal’ society. What I am suggesting is that we each take the opportunity when it is presented to us to make a little difference when we can to make the world a better place for someone else or for all of us. I have decided to write this to try to make a difference, because I think that I can put into words what others feel. I hope that I can say something here that will make someone stop and think about how they live their lives and maybe decide to Shine their Light a little bit more. If this article reaches many people and changes how each of them acts towards others in even a little way, my Light will have made a difference! An ocean is just a whole lot of raindrops, each not much by itself.
If you get tired of reading this for whatever reason, I ask you to please skip to the end of the article and examine the questions there before you stop reading completely.
Being the Light is Easy
Being the Light, letting your Light Shine for others to see, is easy. The more you do it, the more it happens out of habit.
It can begin with a smile. Just be in a good mood and smile when you see someone else. They will usually smile back. Poof! Light Shine. Happiness activated. World is now a better place!
You might see someone with the hood of their car up in a parking lot when you come out of the store. If you are like me, you have one of those battery booster packs in the trunk because it has happened to you. Just ask as you go by, “Hey, everything all right?” It will only take a minute to give a jump to their battery if that is the problem. If that is not the problem, then hey, you tried. You might save the person hours of waiting for help, or money to pay for it, and it costs you only a few minutes of your time.
Your Light Shines when you spread joy and happiness.
Your Light Shines when you do NOT spread negative or angry words.
Take the easy way and let your Light Shine!
We Do Not All Have to Shine Our Light
Not everyone desires to spend their time and energy Shining their Light to help others, and that is OK. Some people just do not have the resources left at the end of the day. Some people just have too much on their plate. Some people just want to take care of their own and not worry about the vast world around them. That is all OK.
All I ask of these people is that they at least do not spend their time acting against the greater good of others. Do not work to help the Darkness overtake the Light. Basically, if you cannot be good then at least please do not be bad.
Thinking negative thoughts, or saying negative things about others, may make them feel bad for a while, but it will not directly harm them. It will harm you, however. Negative energy builds within you and can cause you harm in this life or the next. Not everyone believes in a life beyond the one we experience here on Earth, but if you do, stop and think about it sometimes.
Here is a quote from the Buddha:
All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
Your thoughts and actions do matter. I hope that everyone will consider their words and deeds, and try to be better. Let your scale balance to the good, happy side.
Walk the Walk
I want to challenge each of you who are reading this to walk the walk, if you are going to talk the talk. What I mean by this is that I have known people who will say that they believe a thing, but then later act as if they do not. A classic example is someone who piously goes to church every Sunday, but the other days of the week they behave as if they do not believe what their religion tells them.
All major religions feel the same way about most things. It is really a shame that people end up killing each other in the name of their religion. I think this happens because they have been misinformed on what their religion expects of them. I will discuss this topic further later under the heading of ‘Think for Yourself’, but here I just want to emphasize that, if you are going to say that you believe something, then you owe it to yourself to act like it.
Not everyone believes in religious teachings, but some do. It is not necessary to adhere to a religion to try to be a good person. I will share a couple of quotes from two different religions here as food for thought.
A relevant quote from the Bible, Matthew 7:12:
In everything, therefore, treat people in the same way you want them to treat you. This is sometimes written as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
A quote from the Dalai Lama, which is hanging on my wall, is about Religious Diversity. He says:
All religions share a common root, which is limitless compassion. They emphasize human improvement, love, respect for others, and compassion for the suffering of others. In so far as love is essential in every religion, we could say that love is a universal religion. But the various techniques and methods for developing love differ widely between the traditions. I don’t think there could ever be just one single philosophy or one single religion, since there are so many different types of people, with a range of tendencies and inclinations. It is quite fitting that there are differences between religions, and the fact that there are so many different descriptions of the religious path shows how rich religion is.
I would like for everyone to treat others with the same kindness as they treat their pets. That may seem like a strange goal, and I am not going to spend a few paragraphs explaining it, but take a moment to think about how people that you know that have pets treat them, and how they treat other people. Very few people are mean to their pets.
Think for Yourself
We live in a very polarized world. Everything has become very black and white to many people. I think that the actual world is mostly shades of gray. If you find yourself saying negative things about other people, just stop every once in a while, and ask yourself why you believe the things that you are saying. I know that it is not easy to admit, even to yourself, that maybe you might we wrong about what you have been saying. I am not saying that you are wrong. There are bad people in the world and it is hard not to say something negative about them. I am saying that you MAY be repeating what other people have been telling you without first deciding for yourself that it is correct.
There are people in the world that will tell you what to think or how to feel. Some are good and some are not. Some people like the power derived from being a Leader. Some are trying to influence you to join them in feeling a certain way about something. I am. Let us all be the Light! Some Leaders may have a darker agenda.
What everyone must do if they are to live their life to the fullest is to think for themselves. By all means, listen to the opinions and advice of others, but stop and think about how this information connects to other things that you have learned or believe.
We all have a set of Core Values that we have constructed within ourselves as we grow up. Most of us share most of the same Core Values because most of us are good. Core Values help us keep to a path that we want to be on. When you are listening to someone, ask yourself if what they are saying agrees with your Core Values, or it is trying to change your Core Values.
Have you ever thought about why people join cults? Does it make sense to you that hundreds of people drank poison on purpose in Jonestown in 1978 to commit suicide? How do so many people get to the point where this made sense to them? It was because they were slowly manipulated into changing how they perceived the world around them.
As I write this, in 2024, there is a large movement in the world that is using misinformation to attract good people to not so good causes. By starting with small increments of opinions that are not wrong in themselves, and probably sound very reasonable, this movement adds little by little to the overall message until it ends up luring people into acting completely the opposite of their own Core Values. Step back every once in a while, and ask yourself if what you are saying or thinking about what you have heard agrees with your Core Values.
You may not agree with me, but I believe that there have been many great thinkers and speakers in the past. Some were Christian and some were from other religions. Being a proponent of another religion from mine or yours does not automatically make their message wrong. For instance, I am not Buddhist, but I think that the Buddha said many good things. My favorite quote from the Buddha is:
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Yes, that means that you should not take everything that I say as perfect truth and follow my guidance blindly. You should listen to what I say, think about it and see if it agrees with what you already think, decide if it is true or not, and only then agree or disagree. Do not agree because I said it. Similarly, do not agree or disagree about what ANYONE says without thinking it over first. As they say, don’t drink the Kool-Aid in Jonestown.
What I am asking you to do is to follow the same method with everything you hear. I’m not saying that you are wrong or right about what you think. You may be either. All I want is for you to consider if what you think has been changed by others to be not what you really believe.
There are some who would spread misinformation and even lies to further their way of thinking. Does what you are hearing agree with what you believe? Can you find evidence from another source without the same agenda that substantiates what you are hearing? For example, foreign news outlets are a good way to fact check what American news outlet put out. They do not have the same agenda, being from another country.
Do not just repeat what you hear without first thinking about it and consciously deciding that it sounds true.
Even then, is it worth spreading negative information? What do you gain from that? What is to be gained from negative information? Does it lessen the standing of the person/group that it refers to? Is it not better to point out the positive things that your own person/group has accomplished?
If you catch someone that you normally trust to give good information telling what you believe to be a lie, ask yourself, “Why would they lie about that? What else might they have lied about regarding a similar topic? Do they seem to lie a lot more now than they used to?”
Trust is built by gradually agreeing with small things and then adding in larger and larger things until you decide that you no longer must question what is being said by someone. But then, maybe you should, at least occasionally ask questions.
Here are some common Red Flags that you are being manipulated:
• Someone tells you that it is Us against Them
• Strong Emotions: is this making you happier or madder
• You discover that you are being told lies about unimportant things.
• Are you being told this will help you/others or is this harming you/others
Do not be a lemming! Question what you are being told and consciously decide what you believe.
Final Questions
THIS IS IT! This is the end of the article!!
If you got here, you either read the entire article or skipped to the end. Either way, I want you to answer the following questions in your mind. There is no right or wrong result. There will be no judgement or final score. These questions are just to make you stop and think.
1 – At your funeral, will more people say that you were happy and nice to people, or will more people say that you were frequently angry and controlling?
2 – Do the people that you listen to spend more time telling you what they did right or what someone else did wrong?
3 – Do the people that you listen to spend a lot of time telling you that one or more groups of people who are not like us are bad?
4 – Do the people that you listen to tell you things that make you happy or make you upset?
This is not a test. You do not have to write your answers down, or even share them with anyone else. Just try to think for a moment before answering so you do not give an automatic what-you-think-it-should-be response. Try to answer what you feel really describes you. If you want, you can try asking a spouse or a friend what they think without giving away that you were reading this article. Something like, “Hey, I noticed that someone gave me a funny look the other day when I said something. Do you think that I (and rephrase the question here)?” Once again, it does not have to be a contest and you do not have to agree with them, but sometimes it is interesting to see how others perceive you.
My hope is that more people will chose to Be the Light more often.
