Neither Good or Bad

 Do not think that good and evil are two, are two separate essences, for they are one and the same thing, appearing in different degrees and in different guises and producing differences of feeling in the same mind. 

From the Vedanta

I am thinking of Bernardo Katsrup's "daimon" again.  I still do not know much about it at all as I have yet to read the book but I stumbled upon this from Vivekananda's "Complete Works" at the same time. I feel, for some reason, they go together. 

And of course this line from Hamlet that I often quote comes to mind.

Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

All is well

The Goal to Flow

 You are not what happens to you, but what flows through you.

Unknown (I heard this a few days ago and rushed to write it down but forgot to scribble down the name of the author, assuming I would remember. [When will I remember that I won't remember these things?lol])

Most of us are stuck in some form of suffering because we are constantly "reacting" to life events seeing ourselves as fused parts in the drama. We see ourselves as heros, victims, villains based on 'what happens' to us. The above statement tells us, however, that we are not these events or these things that appear to "happen to us"...We are that which flows through us [or should flow through].  

What flows through? 

Uncontaminated Life...unclung to Life, Life that is not resisted and pushed away because we judge it as painful, bad, wrong, shouldn't be.  That is what flows through us. 

We need to, Learn to handle life events. 

Why? 

If you can't handle them you are going to store them....

Why is it wrong to store them?

If you store them, you "cling" to them and  you will create samskaras...blockages, a thick veil within that prevents the Life that you are from flowing through you.  If Life doesn't flow through...if you do not see how it can flow through...you will identify with the stuff that gets stored and stuck within. You will be bound. You will not see Who you truely Are. 

Who are we truly?

We are the Life meant to flow through. We are the Self when purified. 

The purified mind is no different,  than the Self...RamaKrishna

We are not the thoughts...your thoughts are not aware of themselves. We are that which can observe and be aware of those thoughts. We are awareness. We are Consciousness. 

We are That which always was and that which will always be...

Vivekananda pleads, 

Men of childish intellect, ignorant persons run after desires which are external, and enter the trap of far-reaching death, but the wise, understanding immortality, never seek for the Eternal in this life of finite things.

What is the end goal of  purification and Self-realization? 

To go back up with less than you came down with

Hmm! I am still a bit too attached to my 'stinking thinking'  and the drama, but I keep working on it. My goal is purification so Life can flow through...so Who I Am can flow through. What about you?

All is well.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( October6, 2025) You Are Not Your Mind: The Journey Back to Self. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muovC_4DVqA&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1

Vivekananda: Complete Works

More Vedic Wisdom on Self and Soul

 

The Self -existent One projected the senses outwards and, therefore, a man looks outward, not within himself. A certain wise one, desiring immortality, with inverted senses, perceived the Self within.

The Vedas

Huh? Say what crazy lady?

I am assuming "the certain wise one" was one of those early rishis, possibly even patanjali. Anyway, what was discovered by this "certain wise one" supports teachings that apply to life today.

Most of humans have an outward focus...we use the energy of this amazing inner essence we do not understand because we do not take the time to explore It...to focus outwardly.

We then tend to very selectively bring the "external world" in to satisfy, numb, help us to soothe or distract from the mess we made inside (because we neglected it)  through our senses. We depend heavily on what our senses pick up  from the external world around us. We tend to look outward rather than inward for "peace". We have a "worldly" focus rather than a "spititual" one. We often call what is out there "reality" and what is in here "airy-fairy nonsense". 

We live by the mantra: I am not okay inside and this might make me feel okay inside.

In order to find that which we think we can find "out there" we need to turn our gaze inward...away from the impermanent and constantly changing phenomena of the outside world to the 'Eternal Internal'. Everything in the physical world is fleeting, finite and just a reflection of reality. Everything in the Soul is eternal and true. 

Vivekananda goes on to say that:

...the word used for the Soul is very significant: it is He who has gone inward, the innermost reality of our being, the heart centre, the core, from which, as it were, everything comes out; the central sun of which the mind, the body, the sense-organs and everything else we have are rays going outward.

This Truth found in the Atman/ Soul/ Deepest Core can flow from the inside out once we clear the path from all our human junk storage. When we go inward, with seeking Self as our goal, clearing and cleaning the path to that innermost part of all...the Soul [Sat Chit Ananda] can shine through onto the world. 

Back to the Vedanta:

Men of childish intellect, ignorant persons, run after desires which are external,and enter the trap of far-reaching death, but the wise, understanding immortality, never seek for the Eternal in this life of finite things....

Vivekananda explains this to mean

...in this external world, which is full of finite things, it is impossible to see and find the Infinite. The Infinite must be sought in that alone which is infinite, and the only thing infinite about us is that which is within us, our own soul. Neither the body, nor the mind, not even our thoughts, nor the world we see around us, are infinite. The Seer, He to whom they all belong, the Soul of the man. He who is awake in the internal man, alone is infinite, and to seek for the Infinite Cause of this whole universe we must go there. In this Infinite Soul alone we can find it.

This that we are seeking-the Infinite ( whether we call it that or not): everlasting peace and happiness, fulfillment, the answers to Life's most pressing questions, God, Heaven, immortality is not found out there. It can only be found inside where the Soul resides.

As Michael Singer says,

If you can be okay inside no matter what is happening outside, you have transcended into a great being.

Moral of this rampage: Look inside!!!

All is well.

Micahel A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( October 2, 2025) The Real Work: Letting Go from Within. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ts8daBw98&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1&t=2s

Vivekananda (n.d.)2.5.9 Chapter 9: Unity in Diversity [from a lecture delivered on Novemeber 3, 1896] The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda . Kindle Edition

Tathata

 The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing, it refuses nothing. It receives but does not keep.

Zhuangzi

Tathata is  a word that simply means "That, that, and that". It is referring to the ten thousand functions, ten thousand things, one suchness.

Everything is energy. Life is a dance of energy playing around us and through us. Death is just the other face of  that energy, 

and it is the rest, the not being anything around that which produces something around

You can't have space without solid, or solid without space

You are a playing of this one energy

Energy is eternal delight...William Blake

And where does our greater wisdom come in?

...and you suddenly see through the whole sham of things. You realize you're that and you can't be anything else...but that

You are that Tathata...that everything.

All is well

Note: I am trusting the below is actually Alan Watts speaking from past recordings and not an  AI impersonation? 

T & H-Inspiration and Motivation (2024) Trust the Universe-Alan Watts on Finding Zen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBmuvR9QYLs&t=553s

Understanding the Nature of Life a Bit Better

My life is not about me, your life is not about you...I was never in control...I am in the hands of nature, nature is never in my hands...

I listened to an amazing podcast this morning after watching this same speaker be interviewed on Mayim Bailik's Breakdown the day before. Bernado Katsrup spoke on both the Breakdown and The Weekend University about his book, "Daimon and the Soul of the West" which I will, of course, have to add to my library and the already overcrowded recesses of my limited intellectual mind. :) 

I get this guy! I love it when I "get it" with people who seem to think like I do or be on the same wave length. (That is a subjective  interpretation.... of course...my intellectual ego is assuming it is on par with someone who just happens to be brilliant...Am I more than a little arrogant, maybe? In actuality, I could have a conversation with this man and all that would come to be in the thought bubble above my head is a big foggy, "duh!"lol) What I mean by wave length is that we have similar self explored ideation. He speaks to things I just happen to share here. It is cool to realize that first of all, I am not the only crazy person in the world who thinks like this, and secondly, that what I have to say is validated as possibly having the ability of making sense to others. He is  hinting to the same idea of Truth I seek and share here. 

There was a bit of a blanket warning for people, like me, who delve into Eastern wisdom thinking they understand it, "get it" despite all their western conditioning.  I will never understand the wisdom of the East in the way someone from the East does because I lack that cultural conditioining that is the context of these beliefs. I cannot understand the Vedas like a Hindu can, for example, because they were written and shared and taught in and around the context of Indian culture which I was never a part of.  And my English thinking brain can not digest the sankrit without losing much in translation. I miss the subtle but very important nuances wrapped in the culture and language that surround these belief patterns...therefore I can not "get it" completely. 

And my western conditioning gets in the way of the true spiritual goal of these teachings...the ultimate truth! Yes, I want truth now...I want to understand why I am here and what this is all for...and I say that more than anything...but ...if I am completely honest...there is and always has been an ulterior motive to my seeking.  Like many westerns who delve into these wisdom traditions for understanding, my main goal, was and  is "to end this suffering that I, as the human I call "me", experiences now." 

This truth expressed in the ancient wisdom traditions of the East are not personal but my western conditioning personalizes everything. Sigh.

Katsrup speaks of something called the daimon. It is the impersonal essence or force of nature that exists in all of us and if we are not mindful it can "capture"us and make us do unconscious things we would not normally do if we were conscious and aware . Though some may see "demon" in that word, it is neither good or bad...it just is, just as the tornado that tears down cities just is, or the tsunami that wipes away an entire village just it, or the rains that come after a drought to save a population, just is. Neither good or bad...just is.  Not out to reward or punish...just is.   This is nature doing what nature does and we can't personalize the daimon. It is similar to what jung would call the collective unconscious or what Tolle would call the "collective pain body"...come from so many different vraiables that played with nature over the years. It is nature expressing itself through these variables in us. 

The collective unconscious is impersonal...within this impersonal collective unconscious (nature) there can be parts of it that are more individuated and personal..."semi autonomous complexities in collective unconscious"as Jung would say...if we are in the cognitve neighborhood when one  of these complexiies pass by...it may seize us as a means to express itself. somewhat paraphrased.  

It is good to know that and keep that in mind as I proceed.  I mean I am leaps and bounds ahead now than I was when I first started looking into this wisdom from the East, in terms of depersonalizing it, but I have a way to go. I don't yet get it!

I do feel this daimon in me though when I come here to write. The daimon, he goes on to say, wanting through us is also these inexplicable callings we have to do things (like writing this blog) that do not serve the personal self...that are meant for the collective.  I feel the transcendence, creativity, expressing nature the way nature wants to express itself through us Hmm!

Nature, he goes on to say, is who we are and how we are made. Nature gives us life and it expresses itself through us.  There really is nothing personal about it.

Life is something nature is doing through us.

As I often write, we need to surrender to nature, allow it to express itself through us. Unlike Singer and others, however, this author says that surrender is not something we choose to do, 

Surrender is not something you choose to do...it is something that is beaten into you [through life circumsatnce and challenge].

You open up to surrender [when you have had enough and have no other choice]

He reminds us that Life is our greatest teacher. We will encounter many happy accidents from Life that lead us to transformation. These struggles are something we will later be grateful for. We just have to trust that nature knows best.  We as human minds know so little in comparison. 

Whatever can happen in my skull is nothing compared to the wisdom of nature.

We are all microcosms in the macrocosm.

Every life is an entire universe.

He also speaks a great deal about 'evil" in regards to this daimon, but I will wait until I read the book before I speak to that.

So glad I discovered another like minded human on this planet :) 

All is well!

The Weekend University ( October 2, 2025) Bernardo Katsrup:Aligning with Nature's Will...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGbZXMQLYss&t=4481s

Mayam Bialik's Breakdown (October, 2025) Is Reality a Dream? Consciousness, Intuition, and Life After Death./ Dr. Bernardo Katsrup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB0PtR0wMow&t=2s

Not This Reflection

 The Ego's Reflection

Like Narcissus did so curiously, many centuries ago
I look about for who I am.  I simply do not know.
When I glance into the water I am surprised by what I see;
there I find a shiny reflection staring smugly back at me.

"This must be who I am," I utter as I reach in to pick "me" up
but  alas this watery  image, with my hands, I just can't seem to cup.
It slips through my fingers no matter how tightly I hold on.
It drips, slithers  and  trickles away. What am I doing wrong?

Fear then overcomes me. This precious image I do not want to  lose.
So I seek and grasp  at any  form around me that  I can somehow use
to help me retrieve my perfect self from the surface of this lake;
to gather it up  in its shiny  form within me,  to end a desperate  ache.

But no matter what I grab or try to cling to, like the water, it slips through
the space between my fingers and disappears from earthly view.
I can not understand it as my  confusion and  frustration grows
I cry out questions to the Echo, to Nemesis and to anyone that knows.

"Why is it so challenging to hold onto a dense  object made of matter?
And why does this lovely image I look upon break apart and splatter
whenever I dip my fingers beneath the surface the gawking world sees?"
Then I hear the silent  answer from within me and I fall down upon  my knees.
 
What I look upon so longingly, will never be more than a  mere  reflection
always lacking in the depth of being , in sweet stillness and divine perfection.
I am not just a shadow rippling on the surface of this pool of collected rain
I am the Seer, not the seen.  I am the  creator, not the  goddess of the vain.

White and gold petals soon surround the image  marking its glorious rebirth
and the roots of understanding ground the Self I am more deeply into earth. 
Who I am cannot be reflected back for anyone to name, or know or see
and it is with  this eternal knowing that the Observer is finally set free.
 
Dale-Lyn Feb 2020

I am obsessed with understanding the personality and the nature of who we truly are which I know somehow is not the personality. It is much deeper, much bigger than this idea we have of "me" and "you". At the same time it is formless so it cannot be understood in physical terms...it cannot be picked up, held, clung to no matter how much we try to. The personality is just a reflection on a lake.

I wrote the above five years ago.  I have spent the last five years observing  this personality, this ego, I have been so attached to all my life, believing it was what I was and struggling to protect it. I slowly, slowly (and not yet completely) stopped trying to pick it up, to hold onto it, to identify with it. My view has gone from a very small apeture focus of "this is my life",  to a larger one of "this is Life". It keeps getting wider and this personality keeps getting smaller within it. Hmm. 

 I see this "me"...that is the reality for so many of us... as an illusion ...a mere reflection...not who I am.  Nothing in this physical world makes much sense to me anymore. I do not yet know who I am- in the felt experience of knowing but I know it is not this personality I call "me".

Hmm!

All is well.

Be Growth Oriented, Not Goal Oriented

Be the best being that you can, serving what is unfolding in front of you.

Michael A. Singer

Hmm!

Michael A. Singer teaches, in the below linked video, that though society teaches us to be "goal oriented", over being "growth oriented"...

Goal orientation does not make you a Great Being...

Most of us do not wake up in the morning asking the important question, "How can I grow today towards becoming a better "being," more aligned with  my Higher Self?  No... most of us are overly concerned with keeping up with society's goal driven mind set...about the opinion of others. With this mindset...we find ourselves worried about what we can "do", how we can appear so we can avoid not pleasing or not being accepted by others. We find ourselves beating ourselves up for those times we do not do enough or meet the objectives we and others have set for ourselves, for not reaching our smart goals, for not checking off enough on our "to-do" lists. We also project our inadequacies onto others...judging others for not doing enough or not "being" the way we assume they should be. We do not see...that this is what other opinion is.  That it has nothing to do with us but what the other is experiencing, perceiving, based on their own experiences of life.  But we personalize other opinions so much that we spend our lives trying to please and avoid rejection. We do not see that...

Every minute of your life is doing the best that you can....it is never about winning or losing...it has nothing to do with other people and what they think of you

Opinion is just projection of whatever we stuffed and stored inside calling it our "personality".  It is not reality. The opinion and judgement you have of the so-called "failures" of  others should be totally irrevalent for them.  The opinion of others has nothing to do with us, therefore it should be totally irrevelant to us. 

We just have to own our lives and do the best taht we can with every moment ...Our best will depend on where we are -with what we have learned so far, how evolved and conscious we are, the circumstances we encounter and have encountered.  We do the best with that moment based on where we are . Then we ask: 

Did you do the best that you can in that set of circumatnces? Would you do it again. We learn from that and we move on.

The question we should be asking is, "What do I want to do with this day...how an I be better? How can I live from a higher place than I did yesterday?"

What should we do then? What jobs do we do?

Life will give a job to you...How do you know the job for you? It is in front of you...you started the process of applying yourself and doing the best you can in the job that presented itself to you...

And we do that without trying to reach some "external" goal...some idea of "success". There is no attachment to outcome. Our purpose is to learn and grow.  It is to experience this job...whatever it is that showed up...with allowance, and appreciation for the opportunity to experience this "doing" in this moment.

As it Applies to a Photography Job

I had an opportunity to apply this truth to some "doing" that unfolded in front of me.  I was asked to shoot some engagement photos for my daughter. I was ambivalent about doing it. Ego was involved: Shamer said, "Nah! You can't do that...you do not shoot people well...You will screw up and they will be disappointed. Others will judge you as a terrible photographer. " It then reminded me of all my terrible photo shoots.  

Then Redeemer stepped up to say, "Yes do it! Prove to others that you can shoot well. Get that good opinion from others." It reminded me of some of my good and even "great" shots. 

Well, I did it. And as usually happens when I am behind a lens...something takes over and I just shoot.   It isn't about me and my petty ego. It is a doing that is done for the sake of doing with little to no attachment to outcome. It doesn't matter if this "me" is good or bad at what she does. I lose the goal orientation.That is both a strength and a weakness in photography lol. In landscape photography that usually works for me.  In potrait photography, it doesn't always work for "me"...the photographer with an ego. There is so much to consider and you have to "technically" be on the ball which I often am not. Sigh!

I see through this experience that I am still suck in old patterns atht do not align me with Higher Self. 

I am very, very hard on myself when it comes to viewing my pics in Lightroom for the first time. I am very concerned about what others may think. Will my images make others see me as a good photographer? Why do I even care?  I never ever called myself anything but a very amateurish photographer...a life long learner of this craft. I was, at a deeper level, just concerned with my growth and I saw myself simply as a person who wants to learn to take better pictures of this world everytime she shoots. When I shoot lanscapes, animals, or children...it is all learning and growing without any expectation of outcome. I never fear the judgement.  These things...I shoot...I know are not going to judge my skill level. But when you shoot people who want you ...to not capture them as they are...but capture some image they have of themselves or want to have of themselves...it is a totally different ballgame. 

So, as I look at the pics I have taken...almost 200 frames...I lose my growth oreintaation. I see myself judging them through what I assume to be the critical eyes of others. This is what I hear myself saying there:

"I did not succeed at the goal! These pics are not enough! Maybe, I am not enough!There is too much space between the couple there.  He is too stiff and not relaxed enough...the light is not right...should have switched to shutter priority there...too many blurry shots for my liking...oh that light is not right...should have used side lighting rather than backlighting...should have used the other side of the reflector...should have brought her face down in that shot ...too much white of her eyes showing, not enough colour...should have brought her chin down more and turned her face a bit more toward the light...should have posed them this way...should have posed them that way...should have a few more pan shots to show the landscape....should have prompted more to encouraged playfulnees and relaxation etc..."

These are all very truthful realizations. Honest constructive criticism. And this is wonderful in the learning and growing sense of it all. Seeing our mistakes and knowing we can do better the next time is an amazing thing. That is learning! It is what we are here to do. This was a great photography lesson and I enjoyed the experience when I was shooting.  I was 100 percent there ( as a person...if not as a photographer lol). I served what was unfolding in front of me.

What is the problem then? 

If there is a problem in this example, it is that I recognize that I am still too attached to outcome in some of the creative jobs I take on.  I am still too concerned about societal expectations when it comes to meaningless roles or titles.  I am still too concerned about the opinions of others. Despite my practice, I can still be more goal oriented than growth oriented at times.

Ahhh! But there is learning here too, isn't there? 

Today I wake up and say, "In my photography, in any job Life offers me...today...I am going to focus, not so much on doing the job better, but on learning to be a better person doing it. I am going to strive to be better than I was yesterday in doing the best I can with this moment as it is unfolding.  I am going to use this job to grow a little more today...be a little closer to Higher Self than I was yesterday. " 

Enjoy every moment of your life by doing the best that you can with it as it is unfolding...

That is why we are here...to grow...not to achieve goals or meet expectations we or others have of us.

All is well.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( September, 2025) Doing the Best You Can-The path to Liberation.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMRh2_UU1Uo&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1