Taking the Woo-Woo Out of It.

 As a physicist, and therefore as a man who spent his whole life in the service of the most down-to-earth science, namely the exploration of matter, no one is going to take me for a starr -eyed dreamer. After all my exploration of the atom, then, let me tell you this: there is no matter as such. All matter arises and exists only by virtue of a force that sets the atomic particles oscillating, and holds them together in that tiniest of solar systems, the atom...we must suppose, behind this force, a conscious, intelligent spirit. The spirit is the ultimate orgin of matter. 

Max Planck, 1944

I know I talk about things here that many would deem as woo-woo and me crazy, blasphemous, or silly for speaking about such things. I consider myself to have a scientific mind...I like to reason, and come up with rational answers for why things are occuring. Yet, here I am pulled by some invisible force to explore and understand this "conscious, intelligent spirit" from which all matter originates.

Yeah, I have some deep seated conditioning in me as well...I still question if it is all pretty woo-woo too.  My ego tells me that I am absolutely crazy for doing this.  Yet, I am compelled to write and explore these ideas I share here. Why?

 Sometimes, I think I come here with the somewhat reluctant and involuntary  mission of taking the woo-woo out of a truth we are failing to see. 

Let's look at the history of the "woo-woo". ( Will focus on European and North American "Woo-woo") 

At one point of human existence the connection to that which could not be seen was natural and expected.  It was the most important element in life for our ancestors. Spirituality directed people to act and live a certain way.  It was "normal".  There was nothing "woo-woo" about it.  

Churches came in to control that blind faith, creating blind obedience, not to that direct connection we once had but to the system directing that faith. 

Though there were people experimenting  from the beginning, exploring the natural world with scientific thought...science  was considered "woo-woo" and even worthy of being put to death for, up until a few centuries ago. Then as time evolved, scientific thought continued to evolve and it began to pull people from that "blind" belief...and got them to question and to focus more  on the materiality of existence than the etheral. Societies were slowly but surely being  pulled from their remaining direct connections with the spiritual, and the blind adherence to their religions...just a bit. One without the other, however, was considered "woo-woo".  

Emotionality and art...contemplation of the personal mind became a thing. We see amazing artists, poets, and philosophers emerging with these wonderful representations of the individual  human experience, arising from the divine with their art and ideas. These leaders worked with both faith and science. ( Look at Michelangelo and da Vinci...both were amazing artists and amazing scientists). Blind faith was then considered woo-woo...science by itself was considered  woo-woo; art by itself was  considered woo-woo...but if it all worked together (under the direction of the church)  than it wasn't.

Then came this greater pull of science (after Newton, than Darwin) into a deeper state of materialism pulling the collective thought away ( to some degree) from what was taught by religious organizations. Darwinian thought was at first considered very, very "woo-woo" when it first developed but slowly but surely it was accepted by the scientific community and then by society at large ( to some degree...never completed accepted by certain religions). The church, religion, and spirituality lost its grip, to some extent, on society.  

Industry was developed.  The industrial age pulled people into this blind need for productivity above the old devotion to forces that could not be seen. Religion was still there, controlling state and human minds to some degree, but the "spirituality" seemed to be stripped from it. There was also little room for emotionality, artistic expression and creativity (which are facets of spiritual connection) because they  got in the way of what we could produce in terms of product and capitol. The physical body...needed to produce...became the be all and the end all. Meeting its needs, keeping it pleased and happy etc  was promoted as the thing to do and humans began to identify themselves with their bodies at the exclusion of emotion and spirit. Physicians became the mini-gods and artists, emotional beings, those who still saw or were connected to the spiritual were locked away. (Bedlam)

Even the mind and the emotional heart was excluded from the picture. It was "woo-woo" to be inspired by something deeper than the body, that collective need for productivity. Being pulled into your artistic inspirations, being expressive with your emotions especially your vulnerable ones that might get in the way of your productivity, and connecting to the invisible realm that once guided all humans so directly was  still "woo-woo"...was very, very woo-woo. Even psychology, up to a few years ago was a "woo-woo" science.  It  still is to some degree. People were, and still are,  ashamed of the need for emotional and mental support...for recognizing those dimensions of being within themselves. There was a "woo-woo" stigma attached to seeking help in these areas. It was perfectly okay to go to a doctor for the body but to go to a "shrink" for the mind or emotion..."woo-woo". Imagine, then. what it was/is like to seek help for the spirit.

Religion has lost so much of its control to science and industry over the years. People who are connected to their faiths now, who push aside the findings of science, or the need for productivity, who are said to be very religious or those that put their faith first are also considered "woo-woo". 

There were always people who remained directly connected, for one reason or another, to the spiritual realm as the societies of the world changed over time, even if they didn't practice a particularly acceptable religion.  These people were not only ridiculed for their connection to the  "woo-woo" but were punished over the centuries for that connection, even put to death. Yet, there were always spiritual people who seen beyond the cultural beliefs of their times...who were directly connected to something bigger that could not be seen by most. Yes...when they shared what they were understanding or even experiencing to be truth...they and what they shared were definitely slapped with big "woo-woo" labels.

Society was terrified of the unknown.

 In the late 1800's and 1920's we see a subtle shift away from condemning ...to a questioning and a wanting to believe. We have Vivekananda and then Yogananada teaching yoga in Europe and North America, Allan Kardec and then Edgar Cayce  researching and sharing the findings of their research. Something shifted, albeit not greatly, with the "spiritualism movement." 

Then in the 1970's we have a physician (a scientist and researcher)  Raymond Moodie with his findings on near death experiences blowing away main stream thought. We have an American Physicist by the name of David Bohm exploring consciousness. We have Edgar Mitchell coming back from a space expedition an awakened human and starting IONS- the Institue of Noetic Sciences. We have a psychiatrist, Brian Weis,  accidently uncovering the past lives of a client and a whole field of Past Life Regression therapy beginning.  

In the 1900's a field of science  emerged called Quantum Physics or Qauntumn Mechanics. We have so many "scientists" now exploring the invisible realms of existence, and some delving into consciousness and this spiritual connection. Most importantly we have science discovering that all matter emerges from the invisible...from wavelets of energy.  Hmm! 

Is this really woo-woo then?

Think about it!

All is well. 

Beyond Reaction

 So with everything; as soon as you are attached to anything in the universe, detaching it from the universe as a whole, from the Atman, there comes a reaction. With everything that we love outside the Self, grief and misery will be the result. If we enjoy everything in the Self, and as the Self, no  misery or reaction will come. This is perfect bliss! 

Vivekananda. 

Sanyojana; Knots; Fetters

 Your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

Khalil Gibran

In the below linked video Thich Nhat Hanh describes at least six of the Ten Fetters (flames that destroy). I had to look this up because I am only counting six.  This is what I discovered.

Fetters are knots...Sanyojana...that keep us bound and clinging to that which does not serve. We are not born with the fetters, but the underlying tendency towards them. The fetters bind us and push us to do things we do not want to say or do. For true spiritual liberation, we must untie them.

So, I took what Thich Nhat Hanh taught in his video and using another article on the subject tried to piece together the ten fetters.  The first of the initial six to be listed are from Thich Nhat Hanh, the others are from Dr. Ari Ubeysekara

1.  Craving (Hanh)/ Sensual Desire/Kama Raga (Ubeysekara)...We to need to practice concentration, looking deeply into seeing the danger of running after the object of our craving. Most of us are not feeling happy in the here and the now. If we look deeply, according to Hanh, we would see we have all the conditions to be happy in the here and the now but the flame of craving keeps us from doing that. He said it is like holding a burning torch against the wind- the hand will get burned. It is like a dog chasing a bone with no meat or marrow -the bone will not satisfy or nourish once it is caught and the energy expended chasing will not  be fed. It is like the fish chasing the bait on a hook. Once the fish catches its desire, it is trapped. We need to look deeply, beyond appearances,  into the true nature of the object of craving.
2. Violence/anger/Ill Will/ Patigha-Again we need to practice concentration-looking deeply into this fetter. This flame can not only harm others, it can destroy the holder. We need to practice in such a way that unties the knot of anger before it destroys.
3. Ignorance/Avijja- wrong views...Hanh tells us "we are confsed we do not know where to go or what to do...we do not know what is right or wrong."
4. Inferiority, superiority and equality complex/conceit/mana-We have a notion of self and we compare this notion of self with other selves. I think of  shamer and redeemer ego. 
5. Doubt/Skeptical doubt/ Vicikicca- Hanh tells us that suspicion can come from our ignorance or wrong view (don't have all the truth)
6. Wrong views/- 5 kinds of wrong view: Hanh tellls us that we believe that this body is self, (we won't exist without the body), we believe in opposites (dualistic thinking/dichotomy)-right other than left, birth other than death, inside-outside...sameness-otherness...self-other etc. Buddha taught the middle way is to walk between these opposites;  we have attachment to views and notions -knowledge as obstacle for knowledge(when we think we are right and we know all there is to know about something- this closes the mind and stunts the growth and learning)...We are encouraged to never consider everything the absolute truth...to keep mind open; Ta Kien- perverted views- Hanh relays an example of a perverted view as being our belief in randomization; this idea that there is no cause and effect.  It is like assuming that when we plant corn seeds they have the potential to grow into any random crop other than corn. Many of us  do not believe that suffering comes from a direct cause. And we have attachment to taboos and rituals.

I only counted six of these fetters from Thich Nhat Hanh's video but after reading another article or two I have come to see this as a possibility.

Maybe we can say :

6. Wrong views including Self identity view/sakkaya ditthi- wrong view of self as body, mind, seperate from others. Five aggregates/skandas of clinging to form, feeling/sensation, perception, mental formation, and consciousness.  

7. attachment to mere rites and rituals (silabbata parmasa)

8. desire to be born into a fine material world ( ruba raga)

9. desire to be born into a formless existsence ( aruba raga)

10. restlessness

Hmm! I do not understand them all but it makes sense that we untie the knots so we can be free of the way they are controlling us in a less than wholesome way.

All is well!

Thich Nhat Hanh (2023?) Liberating Our Minds: Untying Knots; The Ten Fetters. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEEMHG6Iwbo&t=86s

Dr. Ari Ubeysekara/Drarisworld (August 19, 2018) The Ten Fetters ( Dasa Samoyana) in Theravada Buddhism https://drarisworld.wordpress.com/2018/08/19/the-ten-fetters-dasa-samyojana-in-theravada-buddhism/

Stop Running with Vipassana and Samatha

 It is possible to live our daily life in such a way that every moment becomes a moment of healing.

Thich Nhat Hanh 

I have a desire to heal, and I have been looking deeply into my running tendencies lately. I am reminded of the practice of Vipassana and Samatha and of a poem I wrote years ago. (Not sure if my poetry takes away from the expression of these two beautiful concepts or adds to it???) Vipassana, as we discuseed in a previous entry, is the act of looking deeply into what is to gain insight. Samatha ( absent of an accent over the s) is a practice of calming the body and mind. 

 If you are deeply wounded, you want to heal. And healing is possible with the practice of stopping. If you don't know how to stop running the healing cannot take place. That is why the purpose of Samatha is to help you to heal. When you breathe in, you brethe in in such a way that makes the healing possible....Your in breath is an expression of arrival....And if your in breath is like that, it has the power of healing.

Anyway, feel a compulsion to share that poem as imperfect as it is: 

Wings

Oh beautiful bird with expanded wing,
carry me away,
to the kingdom my Self longs for,
a place where I can stay.
I put away my running shoes,
my need to hide, to  grasp, to seek  
and close my eyes and wait for you
 to clasp me in your  beak.
Lift me up with gentle ease,
 and save me from my fear.
Take me to that special place
 that exists nowhere but here.

 Place me on  the graceful wing
where time is hushed and stilled
 and where mind and body stop to breathe
as nature surely wills.
Upon your feathery pinion,
I will stretch out in passive form
giving up my struggles and my fight
to resist each passing storm.
I will surrender graciously,
as we glide through spacious sky,
and I will notice how blue it is
while the grey clouds pass us by.

I will have faith in you my friend
to shelter and protect,
as I let go  into the sureness of your strength,
my view you will correct.
As you hold me on your wing,
and we skillfully swoop and glide,
I will know that where you're taking me
is nowhere but inside.
And as I breathe in each precious breath,
I will observe  each internal knot release
from    the twisted  pain of wounded cells
to settle into peace.

Then when there is no longer in me
a place for fear and grief to hide,
I will crawl so gratefully over you
to the wing on the other side.
There, I will lie and look about;
the wonders of the world, I will see
and understand so perfectly
the way it was and the way it's meant to be.
And without a noise of flapping wing,
you will gently set me down
in the home of Self where I never left
and where I always can be found.

Dale-Lyn  May 2020

All is well!

Thich Nhat Hanh/ Plum Village App ( December, 2024) Stop Running. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qch5ISD9Bxo

Pre-Interpretation: A Moment of Pure Perception

 Pure perception means clarity. Perception laced with imagination means confusion.

Sadhguru

A moment of pure perception may arise when you walk into a new space. It is there before the thoughts emerge again. Sometimes we recognize that moment and most times we don't. 

Eckhart Tolle encourages us to notice when presence arises spontaneously.  There is something so pure and magical in those brief seconds before interpretation comes into play. Sometimes this happens when we meet someone for the first time. We might sense their beingness in that time before judgment and intrepretation arise.

Hmmm! Something to think about.

All is well.

Eckhart Tolee ( January 22, 2025) Awakening to a New Life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r6fnF3TjdE&t=648s

The One Self

 As the one fire entering into the world manifests itself in various waves, even so that one Self, the Self of all, manifests Itself in every form. 

The one sun is the cause of vision in every eye, yet it is not touched by the defects of any.

In this world where everything is evanescent, he who knows Him who never changes, 

in the world of insentience, he who knows the one sentient Being, 

in this world of many, he who knows this One and sees Him in his own soul, 

unto him belongs eternal bliss, to none else, to none else. 

There the sun shines not, nor the stars, nor the lightening flashes, what to speak of fire? 

He shining, everything shines; through His light everything becomes effulgent. 

When all the desires that trouble the heart cease, then the mortal becomes immortal, and here one attains Brahman. 

When all the crookedness of the heart disappears, when all its knots are cut asunder, then alone the mortal becomes immortal. 

This is the way. 

May this study bless us; may it maintain us; may it give us strength, may it become energy in us; may we not hate each other; peace unto all!!

From one of the Upanishads as quoted by Vivekananda in 2.6 Practical Vedanta, Complete Works

Aim Above the Humanness

Set the polestar of your life on liberation.

Michael A. Singer

Hmm! I, for some reason, felt compelled to do the morning meditation for manifesting from Wayne Dyer when I woke up today...to chant the "ahhh" sound while I thought of what it was I wanted to manifest.  Believe me, I have grown way past this need I had to manifest things in the material world. When I first began listening to this meditation decades ago, I used to attempt to manifest more money in my account, a resolution to my health issues, the healing of my loved ones...sigh! I don't do that anymore but as I was listening to this so called japa ( I am investigating its origins and I am not sure about it all) I was perplexed.  What is it that I want? I came up with this very short wish list: peace and healing. 

I want peace and healing. I don't need to manifest it with some made up chant but I can as Michael Singer suggests...set it as my polestar. If that is my polestar, I need to ask myself:  What does that look like? How would I measure its actualization in this life I call mine? 

Actualized Peace

Peace, I imagine, would be the sensation of being perfectly content with what was happening in me, to me, or around me. It would be a state of non-reactivity...of not being disturbed by the reality of this life while being completely in it, witnessing, participating, enjoying, and learning as I grow. It would be a feeling of being more than okay with it all.  When so called challenging things happen...peace, I imagine,  is being open to the full experience without judgment, attachment, or aversion: allowing the pain, sorrow, grief, anger, fear etc to be there...observing it, naming it, loving it, and watching as it passes through. When so called positive things happen, being open to the full experience without judgment, attachment, or aversion: allowing the happiness, the joy etc to be there...observing it, naming it, loving it, and watching as it passes through. 

Peace, I imagine, would be the polar opposite of what I am experiencing now...this suffering, this constant need to escape the "what isness" of Life; this constant low grade activation of the stress response in my body...this tension...this need to be ready to fight...or flight ...or freeze up with the next blow that my mind is telling me I must be prepared for because it will be coming.  It would be, instead, a relaxation of the body ...the kind one finds after a few minutes of savasana...a looseness, a softness, a letting go...It would be a relaxation of the mind...the ability to notice and watch the thoughts and feelings pass by like clouds over a blue sky...maintaining the Seat, attached to none of them, just recognizing them as "thinking, feeling, emoting" as they pass by. Peace would be this automatic willingness of the body and mind to accept what is ever around the corner, trusting in the innate ability to be able to handle it all. 

With peace, I imagine, I would cease to feel like an old beaten down and punch drunk fighter in the ring unsuccessfully battling against the greatest contender...Life....while the crowd boos me and throws things in at me.   I would feel, instead, supported, guided, protected, and loved...by Self...more than anyone else...not in a ring but in a beautiful field maybe surrounded by nature.

Yeah...I want peace.

Actualized Healing

I also want healing.  What does healing look like?  Healing looks like putting an end to the ghosts and monsters that have haunted me all my life...and from which I ran. My running from them was like running on a hamster wheel...no getting "to" and no real escape "from". ...just exhausting running. Sigh. 

Healing I know is a deep cleansing of my insides...a release of all samskaras that block the energy flow. Peace is a part of that flow already within this being.  I want peace but in order to have peace I must get all the clutter that was stored on top of it out of the way.  I need purification and cleansing.  

How does this purification and cleansing take place? How do we heal?

We need to stop stuffing more down on top of that which we are: pure awareness. I think I am getting pretty good at doing that.  I tend not to stuff a lot on top anymore. It also means allowing the stuff that was stored in there years ago...possibly life times ago...to come up, be seen, heard, validated, loved and then released. 

That is not as easy as it seems.  These are the monsters I have spent my life running from and stuffing down that I need to allow to crawl to the surface.  My mind tells me they will eat me alive but I must look beyond my mind to that which is higher...to that which I can only touch if these monsters are out of the way.

I must allow each to make its way into my consciousness clearing a path for them while I stay open...open in my pain, open in my fear, open in my suffering and my intention for freedom. Then I need to allow it, look deeply into how this monster was created, appreciate it, love it, and then set it free. I have to do that with each of the monsters down there if I want the channel clear for the peace to rise. Sigh.  

That is healing we all must do if we want peace and I am willing to begin! I set peace and healing, therefore liberation, as my polestar. What about you?

All is well.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True (January 27, 2025) From Attachment to Liberation: Redefining Life's Purpose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4oPMRUwnEE&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1

A Million Little Escapes/ A Million Little Bells

Catch every negative habit or tendency and see it as a bell of mindfulness...stop...pause...allow the feeling you are running from with breath and attentive mindfulness.

Br Phap Huu

I woke up thinking about the million little escapes we take part in everyday in our attempt to run from the present moment and what it offers. I was looking at my own day to day experiences and kind of tallying up my escape room antics. Serendipitously, I open up to this video from Plum Village as part of my morning listen. It is so funny how that works!

Anyway, this is how I escape: 

 I wake up in the morning and the thoughts will come in to my mind one by one...I tend to escape those...if they are not pleasant...through repression and suppression.  I quickly swat them away which equates to pushing down. 

Then, I sit up to meditate and all kinds of things will come up. Many mornings I will automatically shout back at those feelings, sensations, emotions, thoughts, or energies that slip into my conscious awareness, "Shhh! Quiet!!  Can't you see I am trying to meditate here? Really?  You'd think you'd be a little more respectful!" 

Then, I get up with the intention of escaping deeply into my morning tea and the sound of someone else putting wisdom thoughts into my ears. I try to shut down everything in my periphery as I make my way to the kettle and my computer. I do my best to ignore the things calling for my attention...the laundry in the washroom, the dishes in the sink and the dust balls I am pretty much tripping over. I am escaping the house's incessant cries for care by vaguely promising, "Later...I will take care of you later." Both the house and I know at this point that later doesn't always come. 

I cover my ears to the sound of someone else blaring the news over the TV that I really, really do not want to hear in the morning. It feels like fingernails down a chalkboard. I escape into a future thought that someday I will have mornings to myself...peaceful mornings where I can do my own thing uninterrupted by anyone.  I put on my headphones.

The pets whine to be fed: the birds outside my window are trying to get me to fill the feeder, and I notice the plants wilting a bit in a cry for water.  Sighing...I escape back into that future thought of a someday of uninterrupted mornings, as I take care of their needs. 

I plop down into my seat in front of my computer with my tea in my hand.  "Now", I tell myself. "I will finally have some peaceful escape from this crazy life." I look down to see the correspondence from the CRA on the table before me. I feel that knot in my belly again. I want to throw up.  I got audited the day before...unfairly so, it seems.  I have no idea what I "repeatedly failed to claim" that deserved such a hefty fine, and an arrears payment, on top of a balance owing.  I owe them 2500 dollars I do not have. You would think they would pick on someone with an income more than 30,000 a year for Goodness' sake. (D. owes them a lot more?) I feel the anger, the sense of injustice brewing, this fear. I don't like this feeling. I put my hands over my face and cringe. What do I do? I escape by turning the letters over and turn on my podcast or video with a quiet plea to the speaker to take me away. 

I settle into the sound of the quiet reassuring voice and the wisdom I so love. That is until I hear footsteps coming up the stairs.  Someone is coming to me with their problems.  That tightness emerges in my belly again.  I don't like it.  I escape the sense of grief and loss I feel for not getting my alone time with another thought.  "You are supposed to be a loving, caring yogi, parent, person.  Stop being so selfish!" I buckle down for the interaction and interruption that comes. 

They leave, either pleased with what I said or offered...or very unpleased with what I said or offered. Sigh! I go back to my practice.  The phone rings.  I look down to see it is another being needing something from me.  I shout out to the universe, "I just need a few minutes of escape here before I deal.  Can't you give me that?" The answer, of course, is no. I slip back and away again into the that future thought..."Someday my environment will be peaceful.  Someday I will be so peaceful it won't matter what is going on in my environment."  

I know my practice is for healing.  That my life even is for healing. It is all about the healing. I am committed to healing.  I sit where I am listening, learning, writing, and sharing...or attempting to.  Others make their way up the stairs, to the door, through the phone... needing me. Life calls me away again and again...I reluctantly go, and I also keep trying to slink back into my escape room again and again. Sigh!

I also escape into my writing.  I escape into my work.  I escape into my sweets.  I escape into Netflix binges at night. 

I have a lot of escape tendencies.  What about you?

Brother Phap Huu tells us that we are all culturally conditioned to run from the negative strong emotions we encounter in each moment. So, what I attempt to do every morning is not abnormal.  But is it healthy and wholesome?  

No. What we resist persists and if we really want to heal we need to recognize and then put aside our escape tendencies. We need to face that which we are running from. The only way through...is through! 

We need to be able to recognize and then pause to look deeply into each escape tendency as it occurs. He tells us we can transmute this negative energy, this tendency to escape, into a bell of mindfulness. The bell helps us to cultivate our ability to be still, pause and come back to the body.

Stop Running Away

Each time we see ourselves attempting to escape we can imagine a bell ringing.  We stop or pause, breathe, and ask, Why are you running away? Look deeply into the tendency and what is beneath it. What suffering are we running from? What sensations and emotions are we experiencing? We need to wrap the light of mindfulness around these things and we all, whether we know it or not, have the capacity to do that. 

Get to the roots of your habit energy.

Suffering, for many of us, becomes our identity. These habit tendencies of escapism become a part of our identity as well.  It is a cultural thing to run away from negative emotions but such behaviour does not take us to healing or freedom. When we spend all our time escaping the moment, we do not fully live in or experience the moment. We miss out on life.

To help us deal with suffering, there are five remembrances offered in Buddhism.  Considering that most of our suffering comes from our expectations that Life should be a certain way to suit us...there are five remembrances in Buddhism that help to dismantle those expectations and to remind us that we cannot escape what Life offers all of us. 

Five Remembrances

1. I am of the nature to grow old.  There is no way to escape growing old.

2. I am of the nature to have ill-health.  There is no way to escape having ill-health.

3. I am of the nature to die.  There is no way of escaping death.

4. All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.  

5. My karmic actions [thoughts, speech, action] are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.

He also offers 8 ways to deal with painful emotions that are leading to our desire to escape

1. When we notice that we are trying to escape, we must first recognize there is a painful feeling emerging beneath every escape attempt. "There is a painful feeling, there is an emotion that is present."

2. Then we attempt to name the pain or feeling (feelings often come up in families). By naming we see the roots of the pain experience.

3. Next, we need to ask: Where is this pain in the body? Where am I feeling it?

4. Once we discover where it is in the body, we embrace it. We can use a gentle tender hand to touch the body part where it is held.

5. Breathe with it and guide it...Guide the feeling to the surface with your breath.  If it is an intense feeling, don't sit...take it out into nature and walk with it. Take refuge in nature....surrender yourself to your steps in nature.

6. When the feeling/ feelings is/are  in your conscious awareness, compassionately communicate with these feelings. Don't reject or resist these negative feelings. They will only get stronger. Give emotion an opportunity to be listened to. And remember: We are more than these emotions. 

7. Become aware of and then let go of story. Which stories are we carrying?

8. Allow pain to shift and transform.

Hmm! Pain can be transmuted and transformed. We do not need to continually attempt to escape suffering.  We must learn to sit with it, look into it, allow it to be heard, to be validated, and then released. It begins with recognizing when we are attempting to escape.

Let that tendency to run away be the bell that brings you home to the reality of your experience, to this moment.

All is well

Brother Phap Huu/ Plum Village ( August, 2024) Let that Negative Habit Become Your Mindfulness Bell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY1rtPBPA5g

Beyond Intellectual Ascent: Wild Chariot Rides and Balancing on the Razor's Edge

 What is real? That which never changes, the Self of man, the Self behind the universe. Then, again, it is said that it is very difficult to know Him. Knowing does not mean simply intellectual assent, it means realisation. ...The organs or instruments see outwards, but the self-existing One, the Self, is seen inwards. You must remember the qualification that is required: the desire to know this Self by turning the eyes inward. 

Vivekananda

I am far from awakened. Yet, I do know on an intellectual level that there is a Oneness to everything.  I comprehend the ways of yoga on a very deep conceptual level. I can see it so clearly in my mind that there is an essence in everything my senses cannot pick up. I see and understand the nature of certain laws. I know that everything I am looking at is 99.9 percent space...wavelets forming quartz, leptons and bosons which then form electrons, neutrons, and protons, which then form atoms, which then join up with others to form molecules...and molecules form those things we see, touch, hear, taste, and smell.  Yet, below it all, I know  there is a "nothingness", and at the same time it is "everything". I feel so detached from it all now and at the same time so connected to everything I look at.  I know that which I seek will not be found out there.  That I must look inward. I do.

I have turned my eyes inward to some extent. I have been observing my ego, my personality, this human I call 'me' for decades now...and I know its antics. I know I am not it.  I know that! I know my body is not who I Am either. I know there is a Self  that is unchangeable, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient beating my heart and breathing through my lungs. A Self that is observing my thoughts and feelings.

I have intellectually ascended to a certain truth.  I have and I am so grateful for that, but that does not mean I am awakened.  I am not Self realized yet. How do I know?  

My chariot ride is a little wild. I get pulled back into what my senses are picking up in a second. I get pulled away from my quest for Self into the dramatic world of self in an instant.  I still get lost in that world of thinking through the ego with its problems and its desires and its fears and aversions.  So much so I forget too often what my true goal is. I forget the Self.

I have a deep and genuine desire to look inward to discover this Self. I fully understand that my preferring, averting, and stuffing and storing are creating samskaras that are in the way of me fully realizing this Self. I realize that self is in the way of realizing Self.  I am walking the razor's edge between life and death, between realization and ignorance; between dream state and awakening; and between self and Self. I am at this point of this difficult journey still being pulled by my senses and though my intellect knows the truth I have yet to experience it. 

In his lectures, Vivekananda often relays the ancient vedic story of a young boy named Nachiketas who sacrificed himself to Yama (death) to save his father who had cheated death by providing a less than appropriate ritualistic sacrifice. In this discourse Yama is explaining to Nachiketas how to save himself through true Self realization and connection with God. He explained that one must be able to get beyond the senses and the intellect to know God. 

This body, O Nachiketas, is the chariot, the organs of the senses are the horses, the mind is the reins, the intellect is the charioteer, and the soul is the rider in the chariot. When the soul joins himself with the charioteer, Buddhi or intellect, and then through it  with the mind, the reins, and through it again with the organs, the horses, he is said to be the enjoyer; he perceives, he works, he acts. 

The mind needs to control the senses or else they will run wild. It takes the right skill to rein in a way that controls the senses.  Intellect is an amazing thing. It determines how those reins of mind are held and which direction the horses will go in. I want to go inward.  My intellect knows that is the direction to go in...yet the horses are still a bit frisky and the reins are a little too tight or a little too loose in intellect's hands. I have yet to master the reining technique. 

He who has discrimination, whose mind is always in the way to understand truth, who is always pure -he receives that truth, attaining which there is no rebirth.

I have faith that I am heading in the right direction, that the mind will soon master the reins and the horses will follow the direction of the Charioteer. 

This, O Nachiketas, is very difficult, the way is long, and it is hard to attain. It is only those who have attained the finest perception that can see it, that can understand it. Yet do not be frightened. Awake, be up and doing. do not stop until you have reached the goal.

At least, I am gaining the intellectual perception.

For the sages say that the task is very difficult, like walking on the edge of a razor.  He Who is beyond the senses, beyond all touch, beyond all form, beyond all taste, the Unchangeable, the Infinite, beyond even intelligence, the Indestructible- knowing Him alone, we are safe from the jaws of death.

We need to keep checking in with our progress on this chariot ride we call Life. We must learn to balance on this razor's edge. I, personally, have a long way to go but I will get there. We all can! 

What about you?  Are your senses still wild horses taking you all over the place or can you see them settling?  Is your mind able to handle those senses more and more each day and bring them back to the path?  Is your intellect developed enough to handle the reins of mind and keep calling out the most wholesome directions so your body, through speech and action, takes you where you need to go? How are you balancing on the razor's edge?

I hope your journey takes you to the Self. I hope my journey takes me there as well. 

All is well.

Vivekananda ( n.d.)  2.6.8 The Way to Blessedness. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Kindle Edition. 

Michael A. Singer (January, 2025) Learning to Channel Lower Energies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujIdIyvVAvY&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1&t=2665s

Ambassadors

 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. 

2 Corinthians: 5: 20

All is well!

Releasing Emotional Energy

You should never fight with your mind....everything is energy and all emotions are just energies trying to be released.

Michael A. Singer

Michael Singer tells us that, Thinking is just an attempt by the mind to release the energy

I too believe emotion, like everything in this world, is just energy but it is an energy that is too often misdirected and knotted inside us. It is an energy we need to untangle and release.

It is more productive to consciously work with the energy than it is to resist or supress it...allow it to release.

I sat in bed this morning before and during my meditation noticing the tendency in me to resist certain lower energies that come up with thoughts about things I have done or not done. I felt the energy, possibly just one energy, wrapped around these superficial passing thoughts emerging. I recognized these energies/this energy as the shame -fear combination that I am all to familiar with. 

Thoughts and Beliefs

I discover when I am willing to look deeply into these feelings when they start coming up, instead of the usual pushing them back down I do by saying "How can I fix this situation or what can I do to sedate that feeling or make it go away?",  that these experiences are subliminally directed by several deeply rooted thoughts below the superficial ones. When I look closely into that which is being triggered, as recognized by that uncomfortable body sensation, and really allow for an open space for release, these deeper thoughts will come up to the surface: "Who do you think you are? You shouldn't be speaking out, making a noise, or thinking you know anything. You don't!"  (In a very critical and condescending voice), "You are not doing enough for people...you are so selfish.", and the deepest and probably most toxic of these, "You are going to hurt people with your inadequacies and mistakes. You are not only going to fail in "helping" , you are going to cause great grief in the world." (I have no idea where that one came from lol) 

At these moments when I am willing to release, I not only become aware the thoughts are there, I experience them completely. It isn't pleasant. I want to resist. I usually automatically do, but this morning I didn't.

The Emotional Energy

What I was experiencing this morning was the fear-shame energy I have attempted to supress and repress my entire life.  It is something that is very uncomfortable for me. Shame is a twisting feeling in my gut that makes my body cringe and curl forward. Fear is that which keeps me in fight or flight when there is no actual danger around.  I also know that this emotional combo ...just normal human energy...is knotted and tangled inside this human I call "me" because of how I resisted it over the years.  The knot I created with this energy is blocking my shakti.  It is is blocking my life energy. Sigh!

Reacting to these knotted energies

Shame and fear are not the problem.  They are just normal human emotions that flow in and out of our experiences.  They are just energy and like all energy they want to move freely.  Left alone...they will not last.  They will be like a breeze blowing through two open windows, not always pleasant as they are blowing through but important to the human experience.  They are not the problem.

The problem is what we tend to do with them. We trap them inside under heavy rock layers of samskaras...experiences we did not let pass through us like breezes but shut the windows on once they were in. So, shame and fear are trapped in most of us because we do not want to experience them. Like all energy they want out and are constantly rumbling and tumbling inside us, triggered by life events. They slip through the cracks of our stuffed stuff, come to the surface, feel terrible, so we push them back down.  We also stuff so many other emotionally charged experiences on top of them. And these emotions continue to swirl around getting all tangled up in each other forming knots as they try to be released. What a mess. This mess makes life difficult.  It keeps us from experiencing the peace that is ours to experience.

What have I done all these years to endure these knots of shame and fear I have within me and the combo's toxic nature, to deal with these thoughts and their associated feelings? I have done what most of us do. I buried the thoughts and the memories they came from.  These thoughts are not on the surface...they are deep core beliefs hidden beneath layers of superficial self- concept, self-esteem thinking. With the buried thoughts is the buried emotional energy always wanting to be released. 

Besides putting great, great effort into holding them down, which is exhausting, I also did whatever I could to control the external world so it wouldn't bump into this emotional energy duo. I avoided the wrath of the inner voice originally responsible for these thoughts. I was quiet.  I didn't speak out.  I put myself down before others could. I tried to stay in the background. I didn't "show off".  I was "nice and quiet" so people, if they couldn't like me, would at least not get mad at me. I pleased. I also did my best to avoid situations where I would not be in the limelight or asked to "perform" in front of others. I did that most of my life but that was very difficult. I still got called out.  I still got rejected and criticized as we all do in life.  My samskaras still got triggered.

From Shame to Redemption

 So, at one point I convinced myself that there were two extremes to this scenario: I could continue to try to stay hidden which was proving to be next to impossible, or I could create a persona of being "extra special" so that it was okay to be seen. Maybe I could share myself while avoiding rejection or wrath, if I was really good at doing certain things.  I was trying to redeem myself from shame. I was on a mission of self-redemption. I set out to do more, be more, appear more. I tried to "help" more than the average person would. I became a nurse and later went on the educational path to become a psychologist (though I did not stay on that path). I couldn't seem to redeem myself in these ways so I said I would try seeking redemption in other areas: writing, speaking, teaching.  I studied writing, and I wrote.  I studied how to speak through Toastmasters, and I spoke.  I studied how to educate, and I educated. When I was in the lime light redeemer ego would feel only momentary relief or even pride before I realized I was standing in the firing line for rejection and criticism...not so much from others...but from myself. Even if they are initially flaunted, I would/ will often pull back my accomplishments, diminish them, hide them, not allow them to be exposed and seen. I might create something with the greatest intention...with nothing but pure intention...and I know in my core it is mean to be shared but will feel such shame if I do. My job here is not for "ego glory" I will chastise myself, "but to help others."

Shame About Not Helping Enough.

I studied how to help, and I helped. I studied a lot and spent a great deal of my life in formal and informal learning scenarios. I helped others but while helping others in my professional, parental, familial, community and universal roles there were so many beings I couldn't help. There were always people and animals I couldn't help.  And even when I put great energy into helping certain individuals or beings I never seemed to help them enough.  It would often get  turned around onto me and I or others would perceive that not only was I not doing anything right, I was hurting others. That triggered the greatest resurfacing of shame and fear in me. It seemed to be an endless battle.

No wonder why we resist!

Another Approach: Responding to the Arising of Samskaras rather then Reacting 

So, when the feeling emerged in me this morning...when that emotional energy that wants nothing more than to be released was disturbed and started to make its way up into consciousness...my first reaction was...and I could almost visualize it happening... to push it back down. 

I didn't.  I decided to allow and welcome it to the surface.  And it was a totally different ball game with willingness and welcome in the picture. It started with some superficial thoughts about the student, the book I wrote, my sister -in-law. I felt the physical reaction. I allowed it and called whatever was beneath this to come up. Shame and fear came up and I welcomed them.  I visualized myself hugging these big blobs of moving colour one by one. I heard the core thoughts in my head that they brought with them. I recognized where those thoughts came from. I really felt what was in my body as it intensified and this urge I had to suppress and repress it emerged but I didn't. I just sat there with the experience. The thoughts slipped to the background and there was just the feeling.  I allowed it.  I spoke to it, "It's okay...you just do what you have to do."  

And it passed.

Hmm!

There are no psychological needs [when we are open and free of samskaras]

We all need to, as Singer suggests, look deeply beyond this conversation or fight we have with the mind to supress or soothe these feelings that are coming up and ask instead "why" are they there.  We need to get to the point where we say, "I am ready to stop stuffing more in here."

I think I am ready...finally.  I hope you are too.

All is well in my world!

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( January 23, 2025) Learning to Channel Lower Energies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujIdIyvVAvY&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1&t=2466s

Distracted?

 

How much of the universe is your thoughts? How much of the universe is your feelings? ...Why then am I distracted by these stupid little thoughts [and feelings]?

Nothing in this world can take away your growth, It can only stimulate it. 

Michael A. Singer

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( January 20, 2025) Living Life Beyond Fear and Desire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5j7BOtHaPY&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1

Over rated

 Getting what you want is over rated; avoiding what you don't want is over rated too.

Michael A. Singer

Most of us are living our life out of fear...getting what we want and avoiding what we dont want.

Michael A. singer, in the below linked podcast explains that we spend our life chasing after these desires and wondering , "Why can I not get what I want?". We are also spending our lives running away from our fears and asking, "Why do bad things keep happening? How do I avoid it?" 

We should be asking:

• Why do I want things?
• Why do I have desire?
• Why do I have fear?

Desires or fears are due to the fact that something is wrong....based on what you stored inside of you. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True (January 20, 2025) Living Life Beyond Fear and Desire.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5j7BOtHaPY&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&ind

Meditators, Warriors, and Artists

Vipassana is the art of living. Not the art of escaping.

??

I forgot somehow how the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, passed down to those he trained at Plum Village, loaded with the Practical Wisdom of Zen Buddhism, were so beautuful!!! 

In an address to a younger audience (Thich Nhat Hanh's aspiration, I heard many times,  was to bring mindfulness to the younger population where mind was  not yet heavy with opposing habit tendencies or resistance). Brother Phap Huu spoke of Vipassana and the two wings of  Mindfulness: Vipassana and Samatha.(Though he did not use that terminolgy.) It centered around this idea that we were all three things: Meditators, artists, and warriors.

We all have the ability to be still and look deeply into our inner worlds (our home) so we experience insight. (Vipassana and Samatha).

Meditators, and Mindfulness Practitioners

The first step is coming home into the space and stillness of who we are....stopping in the face of our nonstop thinking and falling back into the moment, the body, the breath.

We all have the seed of enlightenment in us, the seed to understand.

Our spiritual home is in our breath, in our steps and in the way we look after one another.

The first wing of meditation is having the capacity to take a pause and notice what the body is experiencing...to feel

When you are able to feel, it is being able to be alive

He explained how this is not always easy because many of us have seeds of resistance in us and a habit tendency of running away from pain. These seeds, of course, do not have the potential to enrich the more wholesome and skillful qualities in us. Most of us, spend our lives looking for that sense of love, acceptance, belonging to end our inner feelings of lonliness and of not being enough. We attempt to create appearances of being solid and stable when witin us we actually have the space of vulnerability that we may be running from. This is what we are conditioned to avoid by main stream society...it is almost normal but it isn't healthy. We may recognize parents and ancestors in our habit tendencies...they may have been transmitted to us. 

Warriors

The warrior part of us is that which  couragously attempts to get past our conditioning, and to look deeply into these painful feelings and vulnerbility. Warriors recognize they are the continuation of their ancestors and attempt to honor their journey and what was  transmitted to them, while also creating and  developing a new understanding. 

Coming home is befriending self, feelings, emotions etc

Mindfulness is to be present to stop and to identify what is there

The mechanism of avoiding grief...of avoiding pain is very strong

When you come home to the body be compassionate as you look deeply.

Relaxation is an art...gifting self the time to release, take refuge in mother earth. Learn to relax for ancestors and others

Need to put away our expectations of others and Life...the story

It is okay to feel, to rely on others for help or support when we tap into our vulnerbaility, our grief, and our insecurities.  We all have them. 

Somewhat paraphrased.

Artists

Brother Phap Huu tells us we are artists of teh present moment.

We are all artists...artists of this present moment. Are we able to highlight what is bringing us joy right now? 

The present moment is only made by the past and it is the infra structure of the future

We define joy and happiness and discover it is in the present moment but we also need to recognize there is also pain and suffering within us. Recognizing our pain is a wonderful healing step taht can bring joy. 

After becoming aware of capacity for joy and happiness in these breath exercises...we tap into our suffering

We recognize inwholesome seeds like pride and shift it into something more wholesome. We see the interbeingness of our accomplishments.  Though it is okay to feel good when we do good , it is even more important to turn it into gratitude.

We call this "Sharing the merit". 

We can do things here like breathing with our inferiority complex

We need to be aware of first and second arrows.

The inferiority complex is just a perception, not even a reality. We pierce our selves with second arrows with our thinking...growing own suffering...

We need to be aware of  the painful feeling, where it is in the body, name it, than cognitively deconstruct it...tramsmute it into something more wholesome and life affirming.

Calming it with seeing the value of it...cognitive reconstruction

Anger is connected to love and compassion

We have a lot of mud in us

Painful emotions are a part of and when we express them we can find joy and healing.

We also need to recognize the story around that feeling.

Where is the story here and what story am I holding onto?

Is there a new story I can generate? 

As an artist of the present moment, we are all drawing a new past for today... creating a new infra structure for the future

So, as BR Phap Huu shares with his young audience, we are meditators, artists of the present moment, and  warriors with the courage to feel.

All is well

Plum Village/ Br. Phap Huu ( October, 2024) Who Are You Meant to Be? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73qcaaI747E

Distracted Away from the Unchangeable "I am It! I am It!"

My real pleasure was never in earthly things-in husband, wife, children, and other things. For I am like the infinite blue sky: clouds of many colours pass over it and play for a second; they move off, and there is the same unchangeable blue.  Happiness and misery, good and evil, may envelop me for a moment, veiling the Self; but I am still there.  They pass away because they are changeable.  I shine because I am unchangeable.

...For I am It! I am It!

Vivekananda ( 2.6 Practical Vedanta in Complete Works)

 Spirituality, according to Michael A. Singer, is all about ceasing to be distracted from our thoughts.  It is not about stopping or controlling the mind's thinking...but simply about not getting distracted by thinking, feeling, all the stuff we pick up from our senses, or our attachments to all these worldly things we tend to get attached to. 

We can not see the "I am It!" that Vivekananda declares because we are so distracted away from It that we do not even know we are distracted.  We are the blue sky, but are focusing so hard on all those "clouds of many colours" : happiness, misery, good, and evil that pass over the blue sky ...we come to believe that is who we are....the clouds.  Then we spend our life times defending and protecting these attachments through our philosophies and beliefs...creating more dark clouds over this spacious blue sky. 

We are the changeless sky...not the ever changing phenomena that comes and goes across this sky. This cannot, however, be understood with the mind. It can only be experienced.

Philosophy is of mind, and Truth is of direct experience.

Ancient Rishis didn't sit around philosophizing. They directly experienced Truth in Himalayian caves. They realized they were the ones looking at things and not that which they were looking at. They realized that humans were constantly being distracted from the consciousness they were/are by the objects of consciousness. They passed on this hard earned knowledge through yoga so we didn't have to do the asthetic and renounciant cave thing. 

Consciousness, soul is the essence of your being...The Kingdom of Heaven is within You...not in your thoughts, emotions, beliefs, worldly attachments...in You...

I like how Singer uses the analogy of 'taking away' to discover we are still there. If our thoughts were taken away...we would still be in here realizing that our thoughts are no longer there. That would mean we are not our thoughts....we are the ones that were witnessing our thoughts.  If our feelings were taken away...we would still be in here knowing that our feelings were suddenly not there ( that might be a pleasant experience for many of us). We would realize that we are not our feelings.  We were the ones that were witnessing and experiencing our feelings. 

We could go further to say if we were standing in a room with those people we are attached to and the furniture was taken away piece by piece...we would be aware that the  pieces of furniture were suddenly gone. We would see we were not the material objects we "possessed" and we were not the "woner" of them. Then if the walls were taken away, we would see we are still here watching and experiencing.

And what about "husband wife, children, and other things"? What if our spouse was taken away? We would still be in here witnessing that we no longer had a spouse, yet we were still here.  We would see that we are not the "spouse" we identified as. If our children were taken away, we would see that we were not the parent we identified as, because we didn't cease to be when our children were removed.  If our jobs or roles are taken away do we cease to be?  No. What about parts of our body...eyes, ears, limbs, certain organ functions? No. Heck...we do not cease to be when the body dies because we are not the body! We are that changeless Self beneath it all simply being distracted from the consciousness we are by the objects of consciousness. 

We could practice saying to ourselves: I Am It... I am not that which I am looking at...

I think this from the Kena Upanishads says it all:

Not that which the eye can see, but that by which the eye can see; know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore.

Not that which the ear can hear, but that  by which the ear can hear; know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore.

Not that which speach can illuminate , but that by which speech can be illuminated; know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore.

Not that which the mind can think, but that by which the mind thinks; know that to be Brahman, and not what people here adore.

The Kena Upanishads

All is well.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( January, 2025) Beyond Philosophy: Experiencing the Truth of Consciousness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj8GD_JXL6U&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=6

Vivekananda...Complete Works...Kindle Edition

Do I have Any Business Doing What I Am Doing?

When I speak I try to convey my feelings, my insight, and I guess that there are people  that have  a heart that is not so burdened with sorrow and with anger... a heart that is still free to listen and receive the message. ...

Thich Nhat Hanh

Is anyone receiving this message from me as an imperfect messenger. 

Like Thich Nhat Hanh (on a much lesser scale lol,) that is why I come here ....to plant some seeds (even though I still feel like I have no business planting seeds :) 

I reach out to whomever might be tapping in and I share what is becoming my truth, my dharma ( even though I still feel like I have no business doing so) 

To take the opportunity to plant some seeds  is what we could...what we should do in our everyday life. And who knows when the seed will sprout and become a real plant, a tree. 

I agree that effort should be made to start living now and I share that opinion (Though I still feel I have no business sharing my far from expert opinion with anyone.)

Effort should be made so that  the present moment is the most important in our life.  The next moment is made of this moment. So the best way to take care of the next moment is to take care of this moment. 

I am aging and it has taken me decades to get to this part of my understanding.  I am far from enlightened and in fact, I am not even sure if that is my goal.  Peace is my goal. I seek peace (Though I still feel that...because I am not a monk/nun let alone a young one... I have no business sharing that I am seeking peace on a public platform.)

The Buddha said enlightenment is not a matter of time. You should not underestimate something small like a spark of fire...a little poisonous snake...a baby prince...a young monk.  A spark of fire is very small but if you are not very careful it can burn down a whole city.  A small snake can kill you in just a few minutes. A baby Prince will become a King...you must not under estimate him.  And a young monk...if he practices correctly, he can get enlightenment in a very short time.

I practice and I share my practice (even though I still feel I have no business sharing because I have no  idea if I am practicing "correctly".)

Despite my lack of sangha I have come to see that true happiness is peace and I share that here. (Though I still feel I have no business sharing such with you.) 

True happiness should be based on peace inside, solidity, and freedom...Happiness cannot be obtained by running after wealth, fame, sex and things like that...[When we realize this  we are closer to enlightenment than someone who doesn't.]

I attempt to "help" many suffering people close to me and am constantly failing in my attempts to show them, through my example only, a better way of looking at their lives. They cannot see the value of what I have learned and am trying to live by because their own pain is too thick to see through.  So, I come here in hope that my "hard-earned"  learning will benefit someone, if it isn't benefitting the ones physically close to me. (Though I still feel I have no business doing so.)

But there are many others who have no patience, no courage, no time for tranquility in order to listen to us....Is there anything we can do to help these people?  The presence of a loving person, the presence of someone who is able to listen, to understand is that which we need the most in our life, in our world. 

Am I helping anyone? I don't know.  I really don't. But here I am, showing up on the page doing what I feel compelled to do, anyway, whether I have any business doing so or not.

All is well.

Baba Ram Dass (November, 2024) Ram Dass & Thich Nhat Hanh/ World Forum 1995/ Full Interview Re-Mastered. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR1adXsNyw0&t=1384s

Students Showing Up for the Lecture?

 Well...I am now up to over 300/day readers or hits or whatever you call them.  I don't have much faith in those numbers.  I do not think I am reaching 300 people ...maybe some bot activity again.  It's okay...all I need is a couple of students in front of me and I will lecture. 

Who am I kidding?...I still come here when there is no readership. lol

(I wrote this yesterday and felt embarrassed in making the assumption that I was a "teacher". [Still have that battle between shamer and redeemer ego within me. I go between trying to redeem myself with the role I had in the past and the concern I still have about what others might think...even after all my practice. lol] I am not a "spiritual tecaher" ...just  a learner.  I make that lecture analogy based on my times in a college lecture hall...and how silly it would seem to be lecturing to empty seats.  I never did that before in real life either. Though I am convinced sometimes the sudents wished their seat was empty during some of my lectures lol.)

It is all good. 

Acceptance and the Three B's

 What will you do about what happened? You have two choices...accept or resist.

Michael A. Singer

Please Accept! 

There is a difference between surrendering and acceptance, as Michael A. Singer explains in the below linked podcast.

Accepting does not mean that we do not "do", that we do not participate or take action in life. It simply means when we truly accept we do not react to life circumstance with ego. We do not resist. Our doing becomes inspired doing rather than reactive doing. 

Just do your best...if you do your best at what ever you are doing all the time what comes back is your teacher

Reality is reality. Can you handle it?"  If you can't accept reality it will  cause a lot of trouble

Respond do not react...dharmically interact...not because of ego but to serve the situation.

Surrender the part of you that cannot accept reality. 

As I was listening to Singer speak yesterday, I was reminded of one of the lessons I taught my practical nursing students about dealing with crisis. So often in nursing we come across unexpected emergencies that require clarity and immediate action. Too often we may rush in to act with unclear heads...heads and bodies full of panic and fear. That does little good and can even make the situation worse.  I explained to these students that the few seconds it may take to practice the three B's could make the difference between life and death.

3 B's

1. Take a step back. Distance yourself from the problem you encounter...widen your lens so you get a wider perspective...putting distance between you and the so called problem . This will put distance between you and the situation so you can see it clearly and disentangle from unhealthy attachment.
2. Breathe...That breath soothes the nervous system and neutralizes this innate desire we have as humans to "react". Clarity arises. Reaction diminishes.  Acceptance ensues. Accept what is happening from clarity. Look at the situation objectively and release the "panicking me" that is in the way.
3. Begin again...now you can proceed again from the higher Self. Yes, you will deal and do what is needing to be done but you do so directed by the higher Self not by ego...your action is not a reaction but a response. 

Hmm! 

All is well. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True (January 16, 2025) Life as a Teacher. Lessons in Acceptance and Clarity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghpCIxiJYaQ&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=2

I Am It! I Am It!

 I have no fear nor death; I never hunger or thirst. I am It! I am It!

The Whole of nature cannot crush me; it is my servant.

Assert thy strength, thou Lord of lords and God of gods!

Regain thy lost empire!

Arise and walk and stop not!!

Vivekananda ( What he would tell himself in the height of depression, when he felt like giving up)

Vivekananda tells us in Practical Vedanta and Other Lectures...to speak  to ourselves in this way when we are feeling small and powerless...succumbing to depression or this idea of 'death'. 

Thus, whenever darkness comes, assert the reality and everything adverse must vanish.

Help thyself out by thyself...

Get hold of the Self, then. Stand up. Don't be afraid. In the midst of all miseries and all weakness, let the Self come out, faint and imperceptible though it be at first. You will gain courage, and at last like a lion you will roar out, "I am it!  I am It!". I am neither a man, nor a woman, nor a god, nor a demon; nor any of the animals, plants, or trees.  I am neither poor or rich, neither learned or ignorant. All these things are very little compared with what I am: for I am It! Behold the sun and the moon and the stars: I am the light that is shining in them! I am the beauty of the fire! I am the power of the universe! For, I am It! I am It!

Whoever thinks that I am little makes a mistake, for the Self is all that exists because I declare it does. Without me they cannot remain, for I am Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss Absolute- ever happy, ever pure, ever beautiful. Behold the sun is the cause of our vision but is not itself ever affected by any defect in the eyes of anyone; even so am I.  I am working through all organs, working through everything, but never does the good and evil of work attach  to me. For me there is no law, nor karma. I own the laws of Karma. I ever was and ever am....

My real pleasure was never in earthly things-in husbnad, wife, children, and other things. For I am like the infinite blue sky: clouds of many colours pass ove rit and play for a second; they move off, and there is the same unchangeable blue. Happiness and misery, good and evil, may envelope for a moment, veiling the Self; but I am still there. They pass away because they are changeable. I shine, because I am unchangeable. If misery comes, I know it is finite, therefore it must die. If evil comes, I know it is finite, it must go. I alone am infinite and untouched by anything. For I am the Infinite, that Eternal, Changeless Self."

This is so beautiful and wise.  I'll come back to it again but for now just soak it in.

All is well.

Vivekananda ( n.d.) 2.6 Practical Vedanta and Other Lecture. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Kindle Edition 

Obstacles and a Video

 

By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.

Christopher Columbus ( not sure if good old Chris actually said that...like how would we know lol...but I like the quote)

I have been dealing with obstacles in life and in the creation of this imperfect video, let me tell ya.  The more obstacles I encountered, the more I was determined to get it done and up.  I am not sure I am finished with it yet, lol.

Anyway...here it is...an expression of what has been on my mind for a few days after pulling out this question from the jar.

All is well

Problems are Statistically Insignificant

 

If you have a problem...you have a problem.

Michael A. Singer

Huh?

The only problem there is...is the thought that "I have a problem." 

The only problem is what the mind is telling you about what is unfolding in front of you...not what Life is giving you or not giving you. 

You are a speck of dust that happens to breathe, sense, think, and feel on a bigger speck of salt rotating around a star that can hold 1.3 million of this speck of salt we call Earth. You are given a tiny little crumb of Life to experience...this crumb is much, much bigger and grander than you but it is still just a crumb. ...a tiny piece of all there is to experience but man, is it magnificent! 

Yet we take this wide angle of consciousness from which we get to explore the world we are given and narrow it down even farther...down to the immediate vicinity of this speck we are...and from there to that which directly effects the inside of this speck.  Why? Because the speck is not okay inside and that light is so drawn to that okayness and anything that will make it okay. We become consumed with problems.

Why am I not okay? 

That is the question we should be asking but instead we ask, "What can I do to be okay?" . With that question directing us our focus narrows even more. We grab and cling...resist and stuff and store.  We create problems. Sigh

Anyway...that is something we need to look at.

All is well. 

Happy?

 I suppose if we don't think about it...we are happy.

Kim Eng

Are you happy? Or are you so busy thinking about not being happy that you do not realize you are happy? Are you so busy  filling the space that you are with thinking and doing that you forget you are that space? 

Do you see yourself as a seperate little entity with lots of problems? Despite my practice and my 'knowing better' I still see myself in that way a little too often. Sigh

I asked D. this question yesterday: "Why do I feel I have problems?  Why do these things bother me...this human ... when I am just a speck of dust having an amazing opportunity to explore a beautiful and colorful speck of dust in an infinite universe? "

He just looked at me strangely and shrugged his shoulders. And I felt myself having a problem with him and his reaction to my question. lol

Kim Eng in her "Who am I" meditation video says, "I suppose if we don't think about it...we are happy." 

I am often  too busy thinking about problems to realize that I am happy. What about you? And I have had a committed spiritual practice for many, many years. 

Michael A. Singer reminds us in the below linked podcast :

It is not about how to solve problems...it is all about why do I have them.

Why then do we have this experience of focusing so much on "problems" and our so called suffering?

Well first, what is suffering? Suffering means you are not completely at peace and content...the cause of suffering is desire/preferences

It takes two things to suffer...it takes the world unfolding the way it does and it takes you who desire and prefer it to be different than it is...

We are not okay and that decides what we are going to do in this lifetime. Like the little bird on the lower branches in the story I shared yesterday, we are always jumping around trying to feel better. We are always attempting to escape the moment we are in, not completely satisfied with it because it is not "fixing" what is not okay inside us. We are always trying to decide what will make us happy and what will make us okay inside. We miss our entire life when we do that.

There is a higher way to live.  That higher technique involves accepting, appreciating, respecting, and honoring reality as we clean out the mess inside that prevents us from being open to it all. 

Hmmm!

All is well in my world. 

Kim Eng/Eckhart Tolle (2020) "Who Am I" Guided Meditation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk5dlmylOZk

Michael A. Singer/Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True. ( January 13, 2025) Why We Suffer: a Spiritual Persepctive on Problems. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WuETyBIpY8

Two Birds in the Same Tree

 

He whom I have described to you as the Life of this universe, as present in the atom, and in the suns and moons - He is the basis of our own life, the Soul of our soul. Nay, thou art that.

Vivekananda

There is a lovely analogy I heard many times that research tells me comes from both the Rig Veda Samhita, the greatest of all the Vedas (writings that help to preserve the rites and traditions of Hinduism) and the Upanishads (writings about the philosophy of enlightenment associated with the Hindu religion [Jainism and Sikhism as well?] ) Vivekananda shares this story many times in his "Great Works" which I am reading from every night before I go to bed. It is a long, long, collection.  I am sure I will still be reading from it when I am 75 if I am still here on this planet lol. 

I read this story again last night and knew it was perfect timing to do so. I am going to share it in my own words. 

Two Birds in the Same Tree

Two birds sat on the same fruit tree.  One, a restless and hungry bird, jumped around on the lower branches from fruit to fruit attempting to quench a hunger it could not seem to quench.  It rustled the branches and created disturbance for all other insects, birds, and rodents that attempted to nest or feed on those branches. It broke off twigs and destroyed the growth of new leaves with its never-ending restlessness. It created a lot of noise. 

Another bird sat on the top branches with its colorful plumage radiating the day's golden light, especially around its stately head as if it was being coronated to high ranks by the sun itself. This bird was quiet and still for the most part but when the wind blew from the north it moved gracefully to the south; when the wind blew from the south it moved gracefully to the north. It did not jump around.  It did not make a lot of noise.  It simply sat there in its majestic pose and with its head up high taking in the rain when the rain fell; basking in the sun when the sun shone. It was a magnificent thing to see.

At first, the bird on the lower branch was completely unaware of the other bird above it.  It was too busy tasting the abundant fruit that grew in plenty on the lower branches.  Most of this fruit was sweet and quenching and the bird ate in delight, finding happiness with each bite, but only to find minutes afterwards that it was still hungry and thirsty again for more. So, it would jump noisily around from one fruit to another in search of that sweetness it came to prefer. Not all the fruit, however, was sweet. Despite its similar appearance, some of the fruit the bird hungrily dug its beak into turned out to be bitter and distasteful, making the little bird recoil and spit out the flesh as quickly as it took it into its mouth.  

The bird's restlessness increased.  It was desperate to eat only from the sweet fruit and to avoid tasting the bitter but there was no way to tell what the fruit would offer until its beak was already sunk well into the flesh of the fruit it had chosen and it had no choice, then, but to taste what was there. There was then, a lot of sucking in for this bird on the lower branches and a lot of spitting out, a lot of trial and error, and a lot of hopping between happiness and misery. There was very little calm or peace for this little bird living on the lower branches. Sigh!

Then one day the bird on the lower branches bit into an exceptionally bitter fruit that burned its throat and made its stomach turn with disgust.  No matter how much it spit out it could not get rid of the taste of the bitter fruit and the sickening feeling it left him with. In fact, with every attempt to spit out it was actually drawing in the bitterness to be stored in its cells, a reminder for the body not to ingest such fruit again. 

The bird was miserable. Recoiling from the onslaught to its senses it looked up and was suddenly taken by the golden aura of the bird on the top branches. This bird, the lower bird noticed, did not seem to be disturbed by bitter fruit.  It seemed satisfied and healthy. It was not restlessly jumping around. It was still and calm. There must be, the lower bird decided, an abundance of sweet fruit and an absence of bitter on those top branches where this majestic bird sat so satisfied and so stately. 

"I must move up," the bird exclaimed. "This other bird is quite high above me.  I must begin my climb one branch up at a time to a better life." 

The bird on the lower branches climbed to the branches above it, seeking the sweetness it was longing for and an end to bitterness.  It was still hungry, so it began to peck away at the fruit that was there.  At first, there indeed seemed to be nothing but sweet fruit and the bird was happy. It forgot all about the majestic bird on the top branches and its commitment to climb to the top.  It happily jumped from one fruit to another thinking to itself that this branch was paradise. This was where all the sweetness and the freedom from bitterness was. The bird thought it could indeed be happy here. That is until, it bit into another fruit that was more bitter, more repugnant than the one it had eaten on the lower branches.  Sick and miserable, it once again looked up at the bird on the top branches. glowing in the sun light.  This bird it noticed, had not moved since the last time the lower bird looked up.  The bird on the upper branches was not jumping from sweet to bitter fruit because it wasn't jumping at all.  It was not moving from wellness to sickness, from happiness to misery.  It was stable and calm where it was.  

The lower bird, so sick of going back and forth between the extremes of its experience, longed for that condition the upper bird was glowing with.  "I must keep climbing," it said. "I must get to the top." 

With every branch higher the little bird climbed, the canopy became thinner, and the sunlight was able to ripen and sweeten the fruit in an amazingly tempting way.  The little bird began to eat the fruit on every higher branch to find it even sweeter than the one below.  Its hunger intensified and once again it would begin to jump from fruit to fruit, thinking it was already in paradise, forgetting all about the bird on the top branches above it. That is until it hit that bitter fruit and became consumed with the suffering of it. Then it would look up and see a higher state of being reflected in the golden bird in the upper branches and it would begin once again to climb up higher towards it. 

The little bird climbed and climbed and climbed....it ate and ate, and it ate. It forgot its mission again, and again. And it remembered with every bit of suffering it endured...again, and again, and again. 

When the little bird from the lower branches was near the top but still too far away to touch the golden bird at the very top, it moved up to another branch where the fruit was even more abundant and tempting to its still hungry belly. From this high up, it could smell the sweetness coming from the sun ripened fruit and the lowly hunger stirring within became so intense the bird could not resist. It began to eat of the most divine tasting fruit it had ever tasted. Sweet, sweet, sweet... and was once again, convinced that it had reached the top, forgetting all about the bird above it.   But as on all the other branches, once again it bit into a bitter fruit.  This time the bitterness was so intense, the juice so toxic it made the bird so sick and miserable, it longed for death. It lay on the branch writhing in pain and once again looked up. It saw the still, calm, majestic bird on the top branches that was neither searching for the sweet or avoiding the bitter; that was neither dependent on the body being well or succumbing to the feeling of the body being ill; and that was not desperately trying to be happy nor desperately trying to avoid misery. 

"That is what I want and need," the lower bird said once again. "I must stop chasing after sweetness and running from the bitterness. I must get up there." 

The lower bird pulled himself up from the high branch it was laying on and moved slowly and painfully up to the branch above. Instead of eating there, it climbed to the next branch and then the next.  As it got closer to the top, the lower bird noticed how the golden reflection from the higher bird was now landing on its own feathers making them dance with delight. The little bird became inspired to keep climbing.  It then felt its body getting lighter and lighter the higher it climbed toward the magnificent bird at the top of the tree they shared for years. It noticed how its own claws that were grasping for the branches began to melt away, its beak seemed to disappear from its vision as it got closer to its destination. Then just as it approached the top branch ...the lower bird felt itself slowly melting away as it was absorbed into the body of the majestic golden lighted bird that sat so peacefully at the top of this tree.  The lower bird suddenly realized there was only one bird in the tree the whole time.  The little bird from the lower branches was and has always been the higher bird.

Now, I could summarize that and explain it but it could never be as clear as to how Vivekananda explains it in the below:

The lower bird was, as it were, only the substantial-looking shadow, the reflection of the higher; he himself was in essence the upper bird all the time. This eating of fruits, sweet and bitter, this lower, little bird, weeping and happy by turns, was a vain chimera, a dream: all along, the real bird was there above, calm and silent, glorious and majestic, beyond grief, beyond sorrow.  

The upper bird is God, the Lord of the universe; and the lower bird is the human soul, eating the sweet and bitter fruits of this world. Now and then comes a heavy blow to the soul. For a time, he stops the eating and goes towards the unknown God, and a flood of light comes. He thinks that the world is a vain show. Yet again the senses drag him down, and he begins as before to eat the sweet and bitter fruits of the world. Again an exceptionally hard blow comes. His heart becomes open again to divine light; thus gradually he approaches God, and as he gets nearer and nearer, he finds his old self melting away. When he comes near enough, he sees he is no other than God, and he exclaims, "He whom I have described to you as the Life of this universe, as present in the atom, and in the suns and moons - He is the basis of our own life, the Soul of our soul. Nay, thou art that."

All is well in my world.

Swami Vivekananda ( n.d.) 2.6 Practical Vednata and other Lectures. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Kindle Edition