When you wake up everyday, it's like a new birthday: it's a new chance to be great again and make great decisions.
- Poo Bear (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/birthday)
I am not sure if this is a part of the awakening process or a part of the getting older and crankier one, but I don't care too much about celebrating "special" occasions. I don't see everything as 'special' just because society deems it as such. I go along with them and do what is socially expected of me but I really do not see their significance of creating more social recognition through partying and making it known. I don't get excited...I don't go out of my way to plan and organize. I don't care how it appears.
As far as I am concerned, a birthday is just another day on the calendar regardless if it is your 60th or your second, retirement from work is just stopping doing something you did for a long time......and though finishing 13 years of school and graduation is a big milestone that should be celebrated and honored...do we need to buy 700 dollar dresses that the person is only going to wear once for a few hours or stress our selves out to have these lavish celebrations? Shouldn't it be about 'joy' more so than stress?
Where do we draw the line between honoring a milestone and getting lost in social expectation and competition? Are we celebrating the individual accomplishment or being ritualistic? Is it about the person who was born on this date so many years ago, the one who is stepping away from a job or graduating or are we simply compelled to keep celebrating by doing what everyone else is doing to appease social norms? Is this about the human being or the human-doing? Oh man...this is the time where I realize just how unlike other people I really am.lol I don't get it. I just don't get it.
Oh do not get me wrong...I believe people should be celebrated. They should be honored and appreciated for years spent on this planet, for the service they provided or provide to humanity , for the learning that they have done. But do we need a 'special' occasion?
Man, do I sound cranky on my birthday or what?.lol. Yep...it is my birthday and I don't really want to celebrate it in the way society deems as correct. I don't want my family to feel like they have to "buy me something" or take me out. I don't even seem to feel comfortable with "Happy Birthday!" anymore. It all just seems to be based on 'social expectation'. I don't want any 'special' attention today.
I am not 'special' because I was born on this date 55 years ago. I am not 'special' because of this personality others have come to know as Mom, sister, friend or partner. There is no 'special'...maybe that is why I find it hard to celebrate...I am learning there is no 'special'....no special date, no special occasion, no special little me. :)
Maybe we should just wish people on all these so called special occasions, "Happy Day!" Let's just celebrate Life in general. I have been in this body which is forever changing :) for 55 glorious years and I am so grateful. Let's celebrate every breath we can take....every moment instead of years of marked and mentally constructed time. Instead of stress, expectation, obligation...I want people to just appreciate Life with me on my birthday....to feel joy. I want to feel 'joy'...that is my birthday wish for myself. I want to feel peace, joy, gratitude and love and no external designation of 'special' can give me that.
As I write this, my sister is leaving me a message on my voice mail. She always calls all of her siblings on their birthday to sing them happy birthday. She prefers to leave it as a message. That's sweet! Do I hear joy in her voice?
It's all good. "Happy Celebration of Life. Happy Day" to all.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Monday, July 23, 2018
Going away to discover you can't go away.
Every once in a while, people need to be in the presence of things that are really far away.
-Ian Frazier (https://www.lifehack.org/315715/10-quotes-for-those-who-need-get-away-right-now)
Been away and it did wonders for my mind and body. One night away with D. and I came back lighter, rejuvenated and with a bit more energy. I even had the oompf to clean the house when I came home...yep and I did it with a smile on my face. I felt good.
We have been trying to get things done around here so we can sell...a mini split and the help of my daughter helped to give me enough zip to begin the cupboard painting. Still it is very tiring and the added mess leads to more visual chaos surrounding me, which in feng shui terms ...is mentally and emotionally chaos inducing. I also...as we all do ...have a lot of life situations going on around me and I am still challenged in my ability to mentally and physically pull away from it. The world around me has been weighing heavy on me (so I perceive). D. took me 'away' from it all for a day even though I didn't think that was going to change anything. Did it?
Does getting away change us?
So coming home with this energy was surprising and thrilling. I even started to think things like..."Man! It is all gone. I am so much better! I am healed! Life is going to be so different from now on. All I have to do is get away from the stress every now and again. " I was convinced once again that the mind heals the body and the awareness of Spirit heals the mind.
Does it last?
Then when I got up this morning and stuck my head out in the humid air...I deflated like a balloon. Humidity and my condition (okay...the condition of symptoms I have been believing are my reality lol) do not get along. ZAPPED! With the deflation of physical energy and the return of these symptoms as well as the reminder of my life circumstances, I begin to doubt my direction for healing. I said to myself, "It's gone! That joy...that energy...is gone."
Or is it?
I do believe that the mind can heal. Well I believe if we heal the mind the body will follow suit. I do believe that. That belief is not gone but that 'experiencing and feeling' of it has slipped away because ego has popped back in. What I felt yesterday was the 'natural' way I was intended to feel...or at least an introduction to it. We are meant to feel physically well and vibrant. We are meant to feel peace and joy. When we don't, our mind is being clouded once again with mental modifications. It is the mind that is interfering with our natural state of being.
When we get down physically or mentally because of our reaction to bodily and life situations...ego sees a chance to come in and shake a finger in our direction ( with the support of 80% of all other humans with active egos :)) "That's all craziness. See what the humidity does to you? If you are sick you are sick. If life situations are challenging...life is challenging. You cannot solve these problems with your mind, crazy lady! Get real!"
But I can!
But I can! And I will. That's what something stronger and more powerful tells me. I know I am not a body...with the mind's help I can heal in the truest sense of the word so that trips away are not necessary to bring me back to who I really am.
Lessons Learned
There are several little things I learned from this little experience:
All is Well in my world.
-Ian Frazier (https://www.lifehack.org/315715/10-quotes-for-those-who-need-get-away-right-now)
Been away and it did wonders for my mind and body. One night away with D. and I came back lighter, rejuvenated and with a bit more energy. I even had the oompf to clean the house when I came home...yep and I did it with a smile on my face. I felt good.
We have been trying to get things done around here so we can sell...a mini split and the help of my daughter helped to give me enough zip to begin the cupboard painting. Still it is very tiring and the added mess leads to more visual chaos surrounding me, which in feng shui terms ...is mentally and emotionally chaos inducing. I also...as we all do ...have a lot of life situations going on around me and I am still challenged in my ability to mentally and physically pull away from it. The world around me has been weighing heavy on me (so I perceive). D. took me 'away' from it all for a day even though I didn't think that was going to change anything. Did it?
Does getting away change us?
So coming home with this energy was surprising and thrilling. I even started to think things like..."Man! It is all gone. I am so much better! I am healed! Life is going to be so different from now on. All I have to do is get away from the stress every now and again. " I was convinced once again that the mind heals the body and the awareness of Spirit heals the mind.
Does it last?
Then when I got up this morning and stuck my head out in the humid air...I deflated like a balloon. Humidity and my condition (okay...the condition of symptoms I have been believing are my reality lol) do not get along. ZAPPED! With the deflation of physical energy and the return of these symptoms as well as the reminder of my life circumstances, I begin to doubt my direction for healing. I said to myself, "It's gone! That joy...that energy...is gone."
Or is it?
I do believe that the mind can heal. Well I believe if we heal the mind the body will follow suit. I do believe that. That belief is not gone but that 'experiencing and feeling' of it has slipped away because ego has popped back in. What I felt yesterday was the 'natural' way I was intended to feel...or at least an introduction to it. We are meant to feel physically well and vibrant. We are meant to feel peace and joy. When we don't, our mind is being clouded once again with mental modifications. It is the mind that is interfering with our natural state of being.
When we get down physically or mentally because of our reaction to bodily and life situations...ego sees a chance to come in and shake a finger in our direction ( with the support of 80% of all other humans with active egos :)) "That's all craziness. See what the humidity does to you? If you are sick you are sick. If life situations are challenging...life is challenging. You cannot solve these problems with your mind, crazy lady! Get real!"
But I can!
But I can! And I will. That's what something stronger and more powerful tells me. I know I am not a body...with the mind's help I can heal in the truest sense of the word so that trips away are not necessary to bring me back to who I really am.
Lessons Learned
There are several little things I learned from this little experience:
- Accept that the change may not seem to last: This learning to control the mind thing is no easy task. :) Yogis spend their lives in caves meditating trying to master this...so don't beat yourself up if you are, like me, still in the process of mastering the mind at the most basic levels. In the beginning, these moments of experiencing our natural states: wellness, vibrant energy, peace and joy, will likely be few and far between, lasting only briefly. It may take time, lots of time, for us to get beyond the need for time.
- Appreciate the natural state when you experience it. Every glimpse of our natural states of being are to be cherished and appreciated. We can stay where I was in the "It was here and now it is gone!" mentally and moan and complain about the loss of it ...or we can appreciate when we do experience it, revel in it as a reminder that it is there waiting for us to return to it.
- Know the only thing keeping us from experiencing wellness and joy are these mental modifications: The mind stuff is what is preventing us from experiencing what exists beneath it...our natural state. If we can control the mind ...we can control everything. It's not the stressors, the bodily symptoms or the weather...that is pulling us from that...but the mind.
- Know nothing can pull us from that natural state: We need to see that we are that natural state ...and that is a permanent unchanging thing. Nothing is pulling us away because it can't. We are simply not always 'aware of it' in terms we can experience and feel because of the junk we are telling ourselves...because of our identification with ego and the chaotic world around us. This idea of being pulled away...is just an idea. When we don't experience peace and wellness or feel it...we have simply lost awareness of what is always there. Our natural state goes nowhere, nor does it change.
- Physically step away until you can mentally step away: It is okay to take a break from the external world's idea of stress. Take mini vacations: leave the situation that 'seems' to be stressful for a few hours or a few days if you can. When you step away physically, it is easier to step away mentally and when you step away mentally...the body recuperates from the damaging blows the mind has unleashed on it.
- Know that it is possible to know who you are without going anywhere. There is only one solution to every problem and that is control of the mind. We will all eventually learn that if we can learn to control our monkey minds. Wherever we go out there, doesn't change who we are in here.
All is Well in my world.
Friday, July 20, 2018
Freedom
Freedom
Not this body, but carried by it
not this mind, but using it
not of this world, but creating it
Not doing life, but Being It.
Thursday, July 19, 2018
A Bad Translation
Stillness is the language God speaks. Everything else is a bad translation.
-Eckhart Tolle teachings
What's this nonsense then about stillness and presence when the world around us is obviously so busy? Imagine being still in this world. We all have clocks and calenders in our lives...telling us where we need to be and what we need to do in the next moment, away from this one which only has the purpose of taking us to the next one. And this idea about waking up and being more conscious, that we will become aware that we are living with a delusion in an illusion. Are you on drugs crazy lady?
We know what is real and what isn't; we know who we are!
No, I am not on drugs but Yes, I am still a bit crazy because I am not completely awake yet. I was even crazier when I thought in the way above. I still do from time to time. I slip. I still find myself occasionally looking at a bad translation of truth. Why? Because I am not always aware of stillness. I still get lost from time to time in this idea that I know.
The Beauty of Not Knowing
Not knowing implies that you are not thinking. Socrates once agreed with the oracle' of Delphi's comment that he was the wisest of all men. He said he was the wisest because he was the only man who knew he knew nothing. True consciousness or presence he believed, is the only wisdom...it is the essence of who we are. He urged over and over again, Man, know thyself! And we know by not knowing...by being.
Whose Crazy?
If we are not aware of our essence...who we are...are we not crazy? Tolle describes this state of not knowing as what happens when we are in alert presence, stillness and spaciousness. When we are conscious, like Socrates was, there is access to the Being dimension within us. When we are not living in an idea, thought, belief system of who we are and are simply being that ...we are awakened. Otherwise we are asleep. We are crazy.
Every human being who is not yet awakened has some form of craziness within them. Even when we are on our way to becoming enlightened we still have elements of craziness within us. When we feel ego taking over, when we get lost in the drama of world events splattered over papers and computer screens, when we define ourselves by what we do and what others think we are, when we react to the behaviours of others with defence and attack, when we find ourselves rushing and bustling our way through this moment, this here and now just so we can get to the next one......we are slipping into unconsciousness again. And if we haven't even gotten to the point that we are aware that we are off the mark and are convinced that we know...then we are really unconscious; we are really crazy.
What's real or unreal? They are just words, ideas. There is no knowledge found in words, images, descriptions or thought. Those belong to ego. And ego takes us anywhere but to the truth. It translates very poorly.
Truth can only be heard in stillness. When we get beyond thought and ego and listen to the Divine within us. There is no way of knowing that...only Being that. Being that is the only thing that is important. It is the only language that is true. Everything else is a bad translation.
All is well.
References:
https://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/characters/socrates_p4.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02Vx2mUXsB8
-Eckhart Tolle teachings
What's this nonsense then about stillness and presence when the world around us is obviously so busy? Imagine being still in this world. We all have clocks and calenders in our lives...telling us where we need to be and what we need to do in the next moment, away from this one which only has the purpose of taking us to the next one. And this idea about waking up and being more conscious, that we will become aware that we are living with a delusion in an illusion. Are you on drugs crazy lady?
We know what is real and what isn't; we know who we are!
No, I am not on drugs but Yes, I am still a bit crazy because I am not completely awake yet. I was even crazier when I thought in the way above. I still do from time to time. I slip. I still find myself occasionally looking at a bad translation of truth. Why? Because I am not always aware of stillness. I still get lost from time to time in this idea that I know.
The Beauty of Not Knowing
Not knowing implies that you are not thinking. Socrates once agreed with the oracle' of Delphi's comment that he was the wisest of all men. He said he was the wisest because he was the only man who knew he knew nothing. True consciousness or presence he believed, is the only wisdom...it is the essence of who we are. He urged over and over again, Man, know thyself! And we know by not knowing...by being.
Whose Crazy?
If we are not aware of our essence...who we are...are we not crazy? Tolle describes this state of not knowing as what happens when we are in alert presence, stillness and spaciousness. When we are conscious, like Socrates was, there is access to the Being dimension within us. When we are not living in an idea, thought, belief system of who we are and are simply being that ...we are awakened. Otherwise we are asleep. We are crazy.
Every human being who is not yet awakened has some form of craziness within them. Even when we are on our way to becoming enlightened we still have elements of craziness within us. When we feel ego taking over, when we get lost in the drama of world events splattered over papers and computer screens, when we define ourselves by what we do and what others think we are, when we react to the behaviours of others with defence and attack, when we find ourselves rushing and bustling our way through this moment, this here and now just so we can get to the next one......we are slipping into unconsciousness again. And if we haven't even gotten to the point that we are aware that we are off the mark and are convinced that we know...then we are really unconscious; we are really crazy.
What's real or unreal? They are just words, ideas. There is no knowledge found in words, images, descriptions or thought. Those belong to ego. And ego takes us anywhere but to the truth. It translates very poorly.
Truth can only be heard in stillness. When we get beyond thought and ego and listen to the Divine within us. There is no way of knowing that...only Being that. Being that is the only thing that is important. It is the only language that is true. Everything else is a bad translation.
All is well.
References:
https://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/characters/socrates_p4.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02Vx2mUXsB8
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Imagination's Canvas
This world is but a canvas to our imagination.
-Henry David Thoreau (https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/henry_david_thoreau)
If you could paint anything you wanted onto this background, what would you paint? (Please don't say the Teletubbies lol)
-Henry David Thoreau (https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/henry_david_thoreau)
If you want to view paradise
simply look around and view it
Anything you want to do, do it
If you want to change the world,
there is nothing to it.
-Roald Dahl (Pure Imagination)
If you could paint anything you wanted onto this background, what would you paint? (Please don't say the Teletubbies lol)
What matters it, that all around
Danger, and guilt, and darkness lie,
If but within our bosom's bound
We hold a bright, untroubled sky,
Warm with ten thousand mingled rays
Of suns that know no winter days?
-Emily Bronte (To Imagination)
Monday, July 16, 2018
Freedom or Confusion in Not Knowing?
Freedom is given you where you beheld but chains and iron doors. But you must change your mind about the purpose of the world, if you would find escape.
-ACIM-W-200:5:1-2
Hmm! I am going to step back a bit and listen to the words that came sputtering out of me onto the page over the last few entries. You are not the only one who may have been confused by them...let me tell ya lol. I am.
I have to think about why these things are coming out and whether or not I should (I know ...one of the bad words lol) share them here. I read so much, I listen to so much outside and inside of me, I 'feel' so much and I write to understand. This stuff literally just comes pouring out of me. I cannot seem to stop it any more than I could stop a cut from bleeding. I could cover it, put something over it but isn't that what got us into this confused mess in the first place lol?
Anyway...I am not an expert! I know nothing! I really don't know anything and it is actually quite an experience. The more I realize this, the more I pull away from the way I used to live and function on a daily basis. I can't seem to function the way I used to. I do not socialize like I used to because when I am around people I realize that I do not know all the things I used to think I knew and we used to share. I don't know them...I mean I see egos and personalities but I know that isn't them ...so I find myself staring at people in such a different way. It's like, "Wow! Who are you?" (And I know they are saying the same about me because I appear so different to them.) ...I say so little...I listen but I find myself bored with social chit chat or petty problems...I want to hear about the 'meaning of life' and peace. (And very few people want to talk about that lol). I am becoming so reclusive. I do not need people the way I thought I did. I still care very deeply but in a deeper more connected way that doesn't quite make sense to me yet. (another bad word lol)
I do not enjoy what I thought used to be so much fun but I revel in being able to sit outside on a beautiful evening and listen to the wind through the trees or watch as the light changes. I do not need 'excitement' and thrills. I don't need to 'do'. I see all the 'numbing' behaviours going on around me and I feel sad...the use of substances, mindless activities, work etc to dull or distract us from the life experience saddens me deeply. Don't get me wrong, I see it in myself too. I want it to be different or at least, I want to see it differently.
I am knowing less and less and changing more and more. How can I share what I don't know? And how come it sometimes comes out of me like I do know? It is all so bizarre...so wonderfully freeing, awkward, nonsensical and amazing at the same time.
So I caution you to take what I write here with a grain of salt. I can't validate the 'knowing' only the information that comes from sources that have come to me. I can tell you that it feels so right regardless of how confusing it may seem to those reading and to myself. It feels right. But I definitely do not know!
All is well in my world.
-ACIM-W-200:5:1-2
Hmm! I am going to step back a bit and listen to the words that came sputtering out of me onto the page over the last few entries. You are not the only one who may have been confused by them...let me tell ya lol. I am.
I have to think about why these things are coming out and whether or not I should (I know ...one of the bad words lol) share them here. I read so much, I listen to so much outside and inside of me, I 'feel' so much and I write to understand. This stuff literally just comes pouring out of me. I cannot seem to stop it any more than I could stop a cut from bleeding. I could cover it, put something over it but isn't that what got us into this confused mess in the first place lol?
Anyway...I am not an expert! I know nothing! I really don't know anything and it is actually quite an experience. The more I realize this, the more I pull away from the way I used to live and function on a daily basis. I can't seem to function the way I used to. I do not socialize like I used to because when I am around people I realize that I do not know all the things I used to think I knew and we used to share. I don't know them...I mean I see egos and personalities but I know that isn't them ...so I find myself staring at people in such a different way. It's like, "Wow! Who are you?" (And I know they are saying the same about me because I appear so different to them.) ...I say so little...I listen but I find myself bored with social chit chat or petty problems...I want to hear about the 'meaning of life' and peace. (And very few people want to talk about that lol). I am becoming so reclusive. I do not need people the way I thought I did. I still care very deeply but in a deeper more connected way that doesn't quite make sense to me yet. (another bad word lol)
I do not enjoy what I thought used to be so much fun but I revel in being able to sit outside on a beautiful evening and listen to the wind through the trees or watch as the light changes. I do not need 'excitement' and thrills. I don't need to 'do'. I see all the 'numbing' behaviours going on around me and I feel sad...the use of substances, mindless activities, work etc to dull or distract us from the life experience saddens me deeply. Don't get me wrong, I see it in myself too. I want it to be different or at least, I want to see it differently.
I am knowing less and less and changing more and more. How can I share what I don't know? And how come it sometimes comes out of me like I do know? It is all so bizarre...so wonderfully freeing, awkward, nonsensical and amazing at the same time.
So I caution you to take what I write here with a grain of salt. I can't validate the 'knowing' only the information that comes from sources that have come to me. I can tell you that it feels so right regardless of how confusing it may seem to those reading and to myself. It feels right. But I definitely do not know!
All is well in my world.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Knowing Self
To know and not to be[or feel] is not to truly know.
-Adyashanti
I Do Not Know
I want to confess, just in case I am coming off otherwise... I do not know Self fully and completely yet. (I used that 'yet' word to create hope lol). I am no further ahead in my 'knowing' than anyone else. This blog is not about my expert ability to pass 'knowing' on to others either. I have no expertise that will take us further on our silly little journeys to knowing this elusive It with our minds. I simply write as someone learning about the desire most of us have, regardless if we know it or not, to simply experience Who We Really Are fully. I can't take you there. I can't take me there lol.
'I' is not Who We Really Are
Because I am using words, metaphors, ideas and images to explain something that really cannot be explained; because I am using 'mind 'to describe something so far beyond mind... it gets confusing and I often confuse myself lol.
The 'I' that doesn't know is of course this idea of me that mind created. If this 'I' knew I would feel that knowledge truly and fully not just with my mind but my whole being and I would be 'feeling Self' all the time. Right now as I write I would recognize that I can't be anything but IT. If I was there...there would be no talk of journey or getting there or not being there 'yet' or on a part time basis. I would simply Be from that state. There would be no need for thought.
Though I have felt It from time to time and 'I' know Self is in me...mind still gets in the way to either pull me back into the 'idea of knowing Self' so I don't stay there in the being and feeling of It. Again I stress the 'I' to be the one my mind or ego created, that part of me that doesn't stay there in the knowing Who I Really Am Space.. I am not always aware of being there. But in all truth the I that Self recognizes as an extension of Itself in this physical form...doesn't go anywhere. It is always is. I am always there, just not knowing it truly or fully yet.
Mind or Whole Being Knowing?
As long as mind is busy explaining, narrating, pointing, describing this place where Who I Truly Am is I know nothing. I am in my head not the heart knowing. I like how Adyashanti describes the feeling of truly knowing in his video Why mindfulness isn't enough. When we finally get it when we finally know it is like finally getting a joke...we feel it all over, we giggle, we laugh and even when we say, "Oh! I get it." our whole body sings along. When we feel that knowing, we are there.
True knowing is different than mind knowing. True knowing is feeling the truth, Being the truth. There is no doubt. Mind knowing is thinking the truth, using words, ideas, images to describe the truth,Man can only have a doubt when there is a possicility of doubt. (Mooji)
When we know Self truly there is no possibility of doubt. Self doesn't doubt Itself, doesn't leave Itself, doesn't get pulled into mind. Self always just is. To Be is to Know.
Knowing Self with the mind is limited, and truly not what we want. We want to know Self with our entire being...to be giddy with it because we finally "got it."
The mind cannot intimidate the pure Self, it can only intimidate the idea we have of our Self...that comes from the mind. (Mooji)
Mooji takes us there again and again with his invitation. What is this Self he takes us to? It is something that cannot be described or explained. It has no form, no shape, no size, no color...it has "NOTHING" . It is simply emptiness and space. That is our true consciousness. That is not just where we are, it is who we are.
-Adyashanti
I Do Not Know
I want to confess, just in case I am coming off otherwise... I do not know Self fully and completely yet. (I used that 'yet' word to create hope lol). I am no further ahead in my 'knowing' than anyone else. This blog is not about my expert ability to pass 'knowing' on to others either. I have no expertise that will take us further on our silly little journeys to knowing this elusive It with our minds. I simply write as someone learning about the desire most of us have, regardless if we know it or not, to simply experience Who We Really Are fully. I can't take you there. I can't take me there lol.
'I' is not Who We Really Are
Because I am using words, metaphors, ideas and images to explain something that really cannot be explained; because I am using 'mind 'to describe something so far beyond mind... it gets confusing and I often confuse myself lol.
The 'I' that doesn't know is of course this idea of me that mind created. If this 'I' knew I would feel that knowledge truly and fully not just with my mind but my whole being and I would be 'feeling Self' all the time. Right now as I write I would recognize that I can't be anything but IT. If I was there...there would be no talk of journey or getting there or not being there 'yet' or on a part time basis. I would simply Be from that state. There would be no need for thought.
Though I have felt It from time to time and 'I' know Self is in me...mind still gets in the way to either pull me back into the 'idea of knowing Self' so I don't stay there in the being and feeling of It. Again I stress the 'I' to be the one my mind or ego created, that part of me that doesn't stay there in the knowing Who I Really Am Space.. I am not always aware of being there. But in all truth the I that Self recognizes as an extension of Itself in this physical form...doesn't go anywhere. It is always is. I am always there, just not knowing it truly or fully yet.
Mind or Whole Being Knowing?
As long as mind is busy explaining, narrating, pointing, describing this place where Who I Truly Am is I know nothing. I am in my head not the heart knowing. I like how Adyashanti describes the feeling of truly knowing in his video Why mindfulness isn't enough. When we finally get it when we finally know it is like finally getting a joke...we feel it all over, we giggle, we laugh and even when we say, "Oh! I get it." our whole body sings along. When we feel that knowing, we are there.
True knowing is different than mind knowing. True knowing is feeling the truth, Being the truth. There is no doubt. Mind knowing is thinking the truth, using words, ideas, images to describe the truth,Man can only have a doubt when there is a possicility of doubt. (Mooji)
When we know Self truly there is no possibility of doubt. Self doesn't doubt Itself, doesn't leave Itself, doesn't get pulled into mind. Self always just is. To Be is to Know.
Knowing Self with the mind is limited, and truly not what we want. We want to know Self with our entire being...to be giddy with it because we finally "got it."
The mind cannot intimidate the pure Self, it can only intimidate the idea we have of our Self...that comes from the mind. (Mooji)
Mooji takes us there again and again with his invitation. What is this Self he takes us to? It is something that cannot be described or explained. It has no form, no shape, no size, no color...it has "NOTHING" . It is simply emptiness and space. That is our true consciousness. That is not just where we are, it is who we are.
There is no cloud inside a cloud;
There is no tree inside a tree;
There is no man inside a man.
There is only consciousness
and the Life force expressing.
There is only consciousness
and the Life force expressing.
-Mooji, On the Concept 'You must have a purpose'
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm8QYnQKqss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJZOyGOmuwE
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm8QYnQKqss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJZOyGOmuwE
Saturday, July 14, 2018
Ahimsa and Letting Go
In the presence of one firmly established in nonviolence, all hostilities cease.
-Patanjali (Sri Swami Satchidananda)
What is violence and what injures?
We often think of violence as that which causes physical injury to another. But what is violence actually? The Sanskrit term himsa means to cause pain. That pain is not necessarily physical in nature but it can be. Anytime we say a negative word to another or even when we think a negative thought about another we are in fact being violent, according to the teachings of many wise masters including Patanjali and Christ. So our minds can injure as well as our bodies. We condemn in many ways.
Who gets injured?
Of course, most of us believe that the only person who gets injured by such acts of violence are the targets for our wrong doing. And we often see ourselves as the target of himsa from others.
Is it just the target that is harmed? Most spiritual teachings will explain that the one inflicting the pain on another is just as likely to suffer as the one who receives the unkind act, thought or word. ACIM teaches that if you condemn, you can be injured. When we throw a blow at another, say an unkind thing about or to another or when we think cruel thoughts we are only harming ourselves in the long run.
What happens when we or others perceive violence or condemnation?
Think about it. If you thought I was about to attack you what would you do? You would do what you could to defend and protect yourself first of all. Remember that defense is a form of attack.
You may equip yourself with a firearm to protect me from you. If you shoot me, in your defense when you perceive me attacking you, you are the one being violent, are you not? We call it "self-defense" but it is still himsa. You will be causing pain to another and you will be causing pain for yourself. No matter how society sanctions it, you will have to live with the knowing that you seriously harmed or killed another being.
What if you thought I was saying unkind things to you or about you? What will you do then? In your hurt and your anger and your fear...will you not say unkind things back? Will you not attack me directly or at least go to another and say, "Do you know what she said about me? She is so cruel, so mean. etc etc" You may go so far as to get the authorities involved on grounds of harassment, defamation etc. That too is a form of attack.
And what about our thoughts. If you assumed that a crowd of people you had to walk through were condemning you for one reason or another, that they disliked you and that they were in fact thinking 'unkind' thoughts about you...what would be going on in your head as you walked through? Would you be thinking how wonderful all those people were or would you be thinking how mean they were? Would you be on the mental defensive, ready to attack?
Now...just the opposite is true. If you were condemning yourself, thinking unkind thoughts, saying cruel things or actually physically harming yourself, will others be hurt by that? Yes. Those that know you and love you, and even those that don't, will hurt for you. And if we blame or insinuate that someone else is to blame for the way we feel about ourselves we are hurting them...leading to guilt and judgement.
Violence creates violence; hostility creates hostility and himsa creates himsa. Illusion creates illusion.
What is the answer then?
There are two things we can do to get rid of hostility. We can practice ahimsa and we can forgive and let go.
What is Ahimsa?
Ahishma is one of Patanjali's Yamas and involves making a commitment to not purposefully inflict pain on another being. Gandhi lived by this as well as many of the other saints who walked or walk in our world. He was able to establish freedom for his nation without lifting a hand against anyone. People felt peace in his presence. Saint Francis of Assissi was another being who practiced ahimsa and it was said that wild animals flocked to him and felt safe in his presence.
When we put aside our need to defend and attack, when we adopt a commitment to non violence hostility ceases. If you knew I was perfectly harmless would you feel the need to protect yourself from me? Would you feel the need to point a gun at me, to foster negative opinion about me to protect your idea of 'self' or think unkind thoughts? You wouldn't feel you had to, would you?
So if all beings on this planet vowed to be non violent, would there be a need for national defense, border protection and war?
Ahimsa then can save us from ourselves.
Forgiveness and Letting Go of the Illusion.
How on earth are we going to get to the point we do not need to defend against attack? You know what that world is like, what people are like. It's crazy out there...get real...we can't realistically practice ahimsa!
Is the world as crazy and as threatening as we perceive it to be? What if I were to tell you that: Injury is impossible. And yet illusion makes illusion. (ACIM-W-198: 1:1-2)? Would you swallow the idea that the world isn't crazy but we are? That the world cannot hurt us anywhere but in our minds. ACIM and Yoga teaches that the only thing we need to defend against is our crazy, mixed up minds that are feeding us one illusion after another.
To change perception so we see the world clearly, all we need to do is to forgive. When you feel condemned, persecuted , being treated unkindly instead of picking up that shield or that weapon, instead of justifying the need for violence in any form...just say to yourself. "...forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34). For the truth is, they, you, know not what you are doing.
Our monkey minds are feeding us with a whole bunch of crazy nonsense that seems pretty darn real...but it isn't. It is just thought, story and distorted perception creating fear.
Forgiveness, is recognizing that the injustice we are perceiving, the violence we are witnessing is just an illusion that cannot really hurt who we really are. When we wake up from this nightmare, we are no longer afraid and therefore no longer in need of defense and attack.
As long as I am defending. As long as I am attacking. As long as I am condemning for whatever reason...I am stuck in a nasty dream of violence. But if I forgive others and myself and let go of this illusion I wake up. Condemn and you are made a prisoner. Forgive and you are freed. (ACIM-w-198:2:1-2)
When we let go of the illusions that keep us stuck there will be no need for violence. Ahimsa is the natural consequence. Peace within and peace without is what follows.
-Patanjali (Sri Swami Satchidananda)
What is violence and what injures?
We often think of violence as that which causes physical injury to another. But what is violence actually? The Sanskrit term himsa means to cause pain. That pain is not necessarily physical in nature but it can be. Anytime we say a negative word to another or even when we think a negative thought about another we are in fact being violent, according to the teachings of many wise masters including Patanjali and Christ. So our minds can injure as well as our bodies. We condemn in many ways.
Who gets injured?
Of course, most of us believe that the only person who gets injured by such acts of violence are the targets for our wrong doing. And we often see ourselves as the target of himsa from others.
Is it just the target that is harmed? Most spiritual teachings will explain that the one inflicting the pain on another is just as likely to suffer as the one who receives the unkind act, thought or word. ACIM teaches that if you condemn, you can be injured. When we throw a blow at another, say an unkind thing about or to another or when we think cruel thoughts we are only harming ourselves in the long run.
What happens when we or others perceive violence or condemnation?
Think about it. If you thought I was about to attack you what would you do? You would do what you could to defend and protect yourself first of all. Remember that defense is a form of attack.
You may equip yourself with a firearm to protect me from you. If you shoot me, in your defense when you perceive me attacking you, you are the one being violent, are you not? We call it "self-defense" but it is still himsa. You will be causing pain to another and you will be causing pain for yourself. No matter how society sanctions it, you will have to live with the knowing that you seriously harmed or killed another being.
What if you thought I was saying unkind things to you or about you? What will you do then? In your hurt and your anger and your fear...will you not say unkind things back? Will you not attack me directly or at least go to another and say, "Do you know what she said about me? She is so cruel, so mean. etc etc" You may go so far as to get the authorities involved on grounds of harassment, defamation etc. That too is a form of attack.
And what about our thoughts. If you assumed that a crowd of people you had to walk through were condemning you for one reason or another, that they disliked you and that they were in fact thinking 'unkind' thoughts about you...what would be going on in your head as you walked through? Would you be thinking how wonderful all those people were or would you be thinking how mean they were? Would you be on the mental defensive, ready to attack?
Now...just the opposite is true. If you were condemning yourself, thinking unkind thoughts, saying cruel things or actually physically harming yourself, will others be hurt by that? Yes. Those that know you and love you, and even those that don't, will hurt for you. And if we blame or insinuate that someone else is to blame for the way we feel about ourselves we are hurting them...leading to guilt and judgement.
Violence creates violence; hostility creates hostility and himsa creates himsa. Illusion creates illusion.
What is the answer then?
There are two things we can do to get rid of hostility. We can practice ahimsa and we can forgive and let go.
What is Ahimsa?
Ahishma is one of Patanjali's Yamas and involves making a commitment to not purposefully inflict pain on another being. Gandhi lived by this as well as many of the other saints who walked or walk in our world. He was able to establish freedom for his nation without lifting a hand against anyone. People felt peace in his presence. Saint Francis of Assissi was another being who practiced ahimsa and it was said that wild animals flocked to him and felt safe in his presence.
When we put aside our need to defend and attack, when we adopt a commitment to non violence hostility ceases. If you knew I was perfectly harmless would you feel the need to protect yourself from me? Would you feel the need to point a gun at me, to foster negative opinion about me to protect your idea of 'self' or think unkind thoughts? You wouldn't feel you had to, would you?
So if all beings on this planet vowed to be non violent, would there be a need for national defense, border protection and war?
Ahimsa then can save us from ourselves.
Forgiveness and Letting Go of the Illusion.
How on earth are we going to get to the point we do not need to defend against attack? You know what that world is like, what people are like. It's crazy out there...get real...we can't realistically practice ahimsa!
Is the world as crazy and as threatening as we perceive it to be? What if I were to tell you that: Injury is impossible. And yet illusion makes illusion. (ACIM-W-198: 1:1-2)? Would you swallow the idea that the world isn't crazy but we are? That the world cannot hurt us anywhere but in our minds. ACIM and Yoga teaches that the only thing we need to defend against is our crazy, mixed up minds that are feeding us one illusion after another.
To change perception so we see the world clearly, all we need to do is to forgive. When you feel condemned, persecuted , being treated unkindly instead of picking up that shield or that weapon, instead of justifying the need for violence in any form...just say to yourself. "...forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34). For the truth is, they, you, know not what you are doing.
Our monkey minds are feeding us with a whole bunch of crazy nonsense that seems pretty darn real...but it isn't. It is just thought, story and distorted perception creating fear.
Forgiveness, is recognizing that the injustice we are perceiving, the violence we are witnessing is just an illusion that cannot really hurt who we really are. When we wake up from this nightmare, we are no longer afraid and therefore no longer in need of defense and attack.
As long as I am defending. As long as I am attacking. As long as I am condemning for whatever reason...I am stuck in a nasty dream of violence. But if I forgive others and myself and let go of this illusion I wake up. Condemn and you are made a prisoner. Forgive and you are freed. (ACIM-w-198:2:1-2)
When we let go of the illusions that keep us stuck there will be no need for violence. Ahimsa is the natural consequence. Peace within and peace without is what follows.
Now is there silence all around the world.
Now is there stillness
where there was before
a frantic rush of thoughts that made no sense.
Now is there tranquil light
across the face of the earth,
made quiet by a dreamless sleep.
(ACIM-W-198:11-1-3)
All is well!
Friday, July 13, 2018
Gratitude & Forgiveness
[Self-Gratitude]...is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own.
-ACIM W-197:1:1
Say What????
To make today's topic a little clearer, I want you to think very deeply about these other words from ACIM that I want to share with you now.
You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn.
-ACIM W-197:1:2-4
How true does that ring for you? Honestly? I know how true it rings for me. I talk about being kind and forgiving others but there still lingers an ego expectation with that offering. I want to be recognized and appreciated for it. If I perform a kind act...ego still wants to be rewarded. I want to hear a 'thank you' from those I helped or from the world. If I don't hear that thank you, I might go so far as to think the person is rude and unappreciative and decide I don't want to help them any more. Or even go farther and 'attack' by saying to someone else, "Do you know what I did for that person? Look at how they responded. How rude, eh?"
What about forgiveness? Many times we forgive from a place of ego superiority. "I will forgive you and by so doing I am raising myself above you. My turning the other cheek makes me more 'Christ-like' for all the world to see therefore much more superior to you, you little sinner." Is that forgiveness? And how many times do we say, "I forgive you but...."
Are we not looking for external gratitude and honor when we give in this way? Are we even giving?
Lesson 197 teaches that the only gratitude we can ever earn is our own and the only act that is worthy of it occurs when we let go of our illusions. When we look at the injustices that seem to be coming from others as things that are not real and that cannot hurt who we really are we are forgiving in the real sense, in the only sense. We are doing so unconditionally...not holding onto if, whens or buts. Not waiting for some 'external reward' to come back to us.
The reward we get for doing so is internal! We earn our own gratitude for freeing ourselves of these illusions that kept us stuck.
All good!
-ACIM W-197:1:1
Say What????
To make today's topic a little clearer, I want you to think very deeply about these other words from ACIM that I want to share with you now.
You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn.
-ACIM W-197:1:2-4
How true does that ring for you? Honestly? I know how true it rings for me. I talk about being kind and forgiving others but there still lingers an ego expectation with that offering. I want to be recognized and appreciated for it. If I perform a kind act...ego still wants to be rewarded. I want to hear a 'thank you' from those I helped or from the world. If I don't hear that thank you, I might go so far as to think the person is rude and unappreciative and decide I don't want to help them any more. Or even go farther and 'attack' by saying to someone else, "Do you know what I did for that person? Look at how they responded. How rude, eh?"
What about forgiveness? Many times we forgive from a place of ego superiority. "I will forgive you and by so doing I am raising myself above you. My turning the other cheek makes me more 'Christ-like' for all the world to see therefore much more superior to you, you little sinner." Is that forgiveness? And how many times do we say, "I forgive you but...."
Are we not looking for external gratitude and honor when we give in this way? Are we even giving?
Lesson 197 teaches that the only gratitude we can ever earn is our own and the only act that is worthy of it occurs when we let go of our illusions. When we look at the injustices that seem to be coming from others as things that are not real and that cannot hurt who we really are we are forgiving in the real sense, in the only sense. We are doing so unconditionally...not holding onto if, whens or buts. Not waiting for some 'external reward' to come back to us.
The reward we get for doing so is internal! We earn our own gratitude for freeing ourselves of these illusions that kept us stuck.
All good!
Thursday, July 12, 2018
Satya
First follow truth, and truth will follow you.
-Sri Swami Satchidananda , The Yoga sutras of Patanjali
In an article written over a year ago, I had used a graphic from another site to illustrate a point and did so without permission from the author or illustrator. I am responsible for that. I had intended to reference it and I never did. I am sorry to whomever owned the rights.
I guess, what makes it worse is that in my honest expression of my views about a model of thought that so many still have faith in today, I unintentionally discounted a profession that does so much good and I discounted the people who still adhere to the ideology that is the foundation for the model and the profession. It was not my 'obvious' intention to 'hurt' but to express an opening of my own mind that took me beyond this ideology. I thought I was simply being honest.
Honesty without ill intent is necessary if we want to think and feel better; if we want the world to think and feel better. I expressed a point of view that I still adhere to strongly. I rationalize by telling myself I was practicing 'satya' one of the pillars of Yama in yoga and following the wisdom of Patanjali when he said, " To one established in truthfulness, actions and their results become subservient."
I was being honest, but for the right reasons?
Patanjali also said, "If by being honest we will cause trouble, difficulty or harm to anyone, we should keep quiet." I reread the post and I see now there was still anger and resentment in my tone based on my own 'perception' of my experience with this model. My honest expression was also a venting and when we vent we often blame....whether it be done covertly or overtly, doesn't matter. If we have any sense of grievance in our hearts when we express 'honesty' we are blaming someone or something. I was using the post to express a grievance of a past experience that has ( and still to some degree) causes me great frustration and anguish). I was blaming the model for that and I was blaming the people who follow that model for that. Part of me wanted to hurt someone or something somewhere because I felt hurt. It did feel good to vent lol...it was an 'ego' good though not a true Self one. "...the ego, under what it sees as threat, is quick to cite the truth to save its lies." (ACIM W-196:2:2) I should have kept quiet!
How do I know offense led to offense?
Well ego still demands I look at the stats everyday and tells me the usual stuff we tell ourselves, "It would be nice to see who is following and what posts they are reading? Man, I wrote that over a year ago...I better run over it for grammar and writing errors, etc etc" So I opened up for a reread. When I saw the pic was taken down I knew that someone had done something about it. I figured it was done because their ego was a little ticked off from finding the pic on such a post and from what I wrote...as it is allowed to be. I understand.
Venting, done to tell a story that passes blame regardless of the nature of the grievance, is not something I want to continue doing. I want to effect change. I want to do my part in opening the eyes and minds of others. But I have no right to assume or judge something as wrong or right nor do I have the right to judge others for their opinions.
I learned a lesson."you will realize that to attack another is but to attack yourself." I will strive to do better in my quest for satya and Yama. Someday, I will get to where I want to be.
I wouldn't worry too much though if you find yourself somehow discredited on my site lol...few read it. Still that is not the point, I know. I will do better from now on.
All is well
References:
ACIM Lesson 196
Sri Swami Satchidananda (2011) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yogieville: Integral Yoga Publications
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Praying with Gratitude and Love
Gratitude goes hand in hand with love, and where one is the other must be found.
-ACIM W-195:10:2
Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
I love this lesson on gratitude from ACIM and I agree with it. Yesterday we spoke of imaginative love as described by Neville Goddard way back in the 40's and 50's when The Secret and this whole idea of manifesting was nothing more than hocus pocus and voodoo magic. (For many it still is). Imaginative love is a way of making the world a better place through mental focus and concentration on the well being potential of all.
Goddard wasn't a pioneer though in this area. Yogis have been talking about how the world is nothing more than a reflection of the mind for over 15,000 years. In Sri Swami's translation of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali's view of such is discussed in detail: "The entire outside world is based on your thoughts and mental projections. The entire world is your own projection."
I wonder if Goddard's ideology was inspired by Patanjali. Using different terminology, both refer to the distorted reflection of self we have when the mind is overrun with these mental modifications and how when it is clear, when we change the way we think, we can see the true Self clearly.
What does this have to do with being grateful?
If our lives are merely a reflection of what is going on in our heads and if we are feeling miserable, stuck in a life pattern we do not want we have to change the way we think and feel. We will want our lives to be different. In order for that apparent change in life pattern to occur we don't necessarily have to put great effort into it and do, do, do. We just need to allow it to happen at the mental level. We have to somehow still the monkey mind and then feel better.
That feeling better is going to firstly involve a certain acceptance of where we are at the present moment so we can connect with that now. It will involve what we spoke about yesterday...a certain forgiveness and a letting go of resistance to the present moment. Remember that acceptance of life as it is now doesn't mean you stop wanting it to be different, you just stop the fighting and struggling against it and simply settle into what is. The monkey mind just gets busier the more we resist. Letting go of resistance is not giving up. It is a necessary step to gratitude and living better.
When we settle into quiet stillness, when the monkey mind stops jumping around, we can focus on what we want. Or we can at least feel better. We can settle into the "divine' space where higher energy feelings like mercy, pity[sympathy/empathy/compassion], , peace and love exist.
Pray
From that place we can then pray in a way that the Native Americans have done for years, in a way that Goddard and others have taught us to do. Pray like you are already where you want to be and pray with gratitude for that. "My third way of praying is simply to feel thankful. If I want something for myself or another, I immobilize the physical body, then I produce the state akin to sleep and in that state just feel happy, feel thankful which thankfulness implies realization of what I want."
Get quiet, feel better and be grateful when you pray.
The 18th century poet William Blake says it so beautifully in his poem, The Divine Image:
Well from forgiveness, we progress to peaceful gratitude and from gratitude we see clearly that everything is love. "When your forgiveness is complete you will have total gratitude, for you will see that everything has earned the right to love by being loving, even as your Self. (ACIM w-195:8:6). Seeing love instead of fear we feel faith instead of doubt and our lives turn around according to that faith. More importantly, we realize how connected we are to everything and everyone and we want the same for all.
I guess the only way to prove that is to try it. :)
It's all good.
References:
ACIM Lesson 195
https://freeneville.com/free-neville-goddard-the-third-way/
Sri Swami Satchidananda (2011) The Yoga sutras of Patanjali. Yogaville: Integral Yoga
Sharma, K.N. "The Divine Image by William Blake: Summary and Critical Analysis." BachelorandMaster, 24 Nov. 2013, bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/the-devine-image.html
-ACIM W-195:10:2
Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
I love this lesson on gratitude from ACIM and I agree with it. Yesterday we spoke of imaginative love as described by Neville Goddard way back in the 40's and 50's when The Secret and this whole idea of manifesting was nothing more than hocus pocus and voodoo magic. (For many it still is). Imaginative love is a way of making the world a better place through mental focus and concentration on the well being potential of all.
Goddard wasn't a pioneer though in this area. Yogis have been talking about how the world is nothing more than a reflection of the mind for over 15,000 years. In Sri Swami's translation of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali's view of such is discussed in detail: "The entire outside world is based on your thoughts and mental projections. The entire world is your own projection."
I wonder if Goddard's ideology was inspired by Patanjali. Using different terminology, both refer to the distorted reflection of self we have when the mind is overrun with these mental modifications and how when it is clear, when we change the way we think, we can see the true Self clearly.
What does this have to do with being grateful?
If our lives are merely a reflection of what is going on in our heads and if we are feeling miserable, stuck in a life pattern we do not want we have to change the way we think and feel. We will want our lives to be different. In order for that apparent change in life pattern to occur we don't necessarily have to put great effort into it and do, do, do. We just need to allow it to happen at the mental level. We have to somehow still the monkey mind and then feel better.
That feeling better is going to firstly involve a certain acceptance of where we are at the present moment so we can connect with that now. It will involve what we spoke about yesterday...a certain forgiveness and a letting go of resistance to the present moment. Remember that acceptance of life as it is now doesn't mean you stop wanting it to be different, you just stop the fighting and struggling against it and simply settle into what is. The monkey mind just gets busier the more we resist. Letting go of resistance is not giving up. It is a necessary step to gratitude and living better.
When we settle into quiet stillness, when the monkey mind stops jumping around, we can focus on what we want. Or we can at least feel better. We can settle into the "divine' space where higher energy feelings like mercy, pity[sympathy/empathy/compassion], , peace and love exist.
Pray
From that place we can then pray in a way that the Native Americans have done for years, in a way that Goddard and others have taught us to do. Pray like you are already where you want to be and pray with gratitude for that. "My third way of praying is simply to feel thankful. If I want something for myself or another, I immobilize the physical body, then I produce the state akin to sleep and in that state just feel happy, feel thankful which thankfulness implies realization of what I want."
Get quiet, feel better and be grateful when you pray.
The 18th century poet William Blake says it so beautifully in his poem, The Divine Image:
To mercy, pity, peace and love
All pray in their distress
And to these virtues of delight
return their thankfulness
And what does that have to do with love?
Well from forgiveness, we progress to peaceful gratitude and from gratitude we see clearly that everything is love. "When your forgiveness is complete you will have total gratitude, for you will see that everything has earned the right to love by being loving, even as your Self. (ACIM w-195:8:6). Seeing love instead of fear we feel faith instead of doubt and our lives turn around according to that faith. More importantly, we realize how connected we are to everything and everyone and we want the same for all.
I guess the only way to prove that is to try it. :)
It's all good.
References:
ACIM Lesson 195
https://freeneville.com/free-neville-goddard-the-third-way/
Sri Swami Satchidananda (2011) The Yoga sutras of Patanjali. Yogaville: Integral Yoga
Sharma, K.N. "The Divine Image by William Blake: Summary and Critical Analysis." BachelorandMaster, 24 Nov. 2013, bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/the-devine-image.html
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Imaginative Love
Never, never lose sight of the power that is within you. Imaginative love lifts the invisible into sight and gives us water in the dessert. It builds for the soul its only fit abiding place. Beauty, love and all of good report are the garden, but imaginative love is the way into the garden.
-Neville Goddard, By Imagination We Become
Hmmm! I am pretty perplexed by these words. They pull me into something I do not as of yet completely understand.
I do believe there is a power and a light within us all. Goddard calls this power 'Imaginative Love' and from what I can understand from his essay, imaginative love is actually the visualization of our essence. When we can imagine who we really are, which is love because God is Love, we will see who we really are. We will see the truth. We will be quenched of the thirst we long to be rid of.
Focusing our attention on "Love" allows us to reach our spiritual center. It allows us to 'awaken'. When we awaken we create a welcoming place for our Soul. What do we achieve when we do that? : Beauty, the experience of love and all the good in the world. How do we get there...by imagining Love.
Love is just not about the little self...it is about the greater Self. So imaginative love is compassion for all. In that compassion we want to bring everyone to the garden with us. Love takes us beyond the egoic needs of 'me' to the grander needs of all.
We all have this power, this light within us and we can use our imagination to pull it out.
All is well in my world.
References:
Goddard, Neville (2011) The Law and Other Essays on Manifesting. Sublime books, Kindle Edition.
-Neville Goddard, By Imagination We Become
Hmmm! I am pretty perplexed by these words. They pull me into something I do not as of yet completely understand.
I do believe there is a power and a light within us all. Goddard calls this power 'Imaginative Love' and from what I can understand from his essay, imaginative love is actually the visualization of our essence. When we can imagine who we really are, which is love because God is Love, we will see who we really are. We will see the truth. We will be quenched of the thirst we long to be rid of.
Focusing our attention on "Love" allows us to reach our spiritual center. It allows us to 'awaken'. When we awaken we create a welcoming place for our Soul. What do we achieve when we do that? : Beauty, the experience of love and all the good in the world. How do we get there...by imagining Love.
Love is just not about the little self...it is about the greater Self. So imaginative love is compassion for all. In that compassion we want to bring everyone to the garden with us. Love takes us beyond the egoic needs of 'me' to the grander needs of all.
We all have this power, this light within us and we can use our imagination to pull it out.
All is well in my world.
References:
Goddard, Neville (2011) The Law and Other Essays on Manifesting. Sublime books, Kindle Edition.
Monday, July 9, 2018
Forgiveness and Letting Go
Let no one hour casts its shadow on the one that follows, and when that one goes, let everything that happened in its course go with it.
-ACIM W-193:12:4
"I will forgive, and this will disappear".
Imagine...calling others leeches...that doesn't sound much like letting go or forgiveness, does it? I was not really referring to other people as leeches but robotic search engine sites...that redirect ppl here. And I was not putting down Yandex...the Russian equivalent to Google...just the redirect hackings that get attached to it. Spam is no big deal...does no harm...that is why I use the term leeches.
The only thing that gets stung with such spamming is ego when it realizes it isn't special lol...which is a good thing. I want ego to get stung again and again and again. I want it to swell up so much it spontaneously combusts :) or gradually but quickly shrink down to a manageable size. So it is all good.
So let's get to the topic of today: Forgiveness and Letting Go.
I do not want to talk about forgiveness in terms of morality because I do not want to talk about others or ourselves needing to "repent" according to those terms. Morality is a social construct based on what the majority or the powerful determine is "right" or "wrong" ...often using some interpretation of God as the reference point.
Did you know that the actual translation of repent from Greek is 'to change one's mind'? So yes we all need to repent because we are all "guilty" of thinking wrongly about ourselves and about others. This is the basis of forgiveness in ACIM and in the essays of a man named Neville Goddard who taught his ideologies in the 40's and 50's.
Many were afraid of what he had to say and deemed him to be some messenger of the occult but if one reads his work they will simply see that he may have laid the real seed behind "The Secret". Many of his ideas can be found in yoga teachings and ACIM .
Regardless of that he makes some wonderful points about our need to let go of conditioned ways of looking at the world and ourselves. Like A Course does, he implies that what we think is real, isn't. and our holding on to it is the closest thing to sin that is possible. And all we have to do to correct it is to forgive it or let go of it.
We don't need to cling to grievances and the things that others , ourselves or life is doing 'wrong'. The only penance needed is for us to perceive differently. If we let go of our thoughts on what we don't want in our lives...those things will cease to be. "Nothing is independent of the perceiver. Everything is 'burned up' when I cease to behold it." (The Law).
It never ceases to amaze me as how all the little teachings I receive occur synchronistically. This lesson in A Course and this lesson in Goddard's essay came to me at the same time and they echo the same thing to me..."The sin we need to look at is that which occurs because we are seeing incorrectly. We repent when we change our minds and begin to see differently. Letting Go is forgiveness. When we let go of grievances every hour...we develop healthier habits and a better way to live in the next hour...and the next...and the next.
Hmmm! I have a feeling I will be getting back to that.
All is well.
-ACIM W-193:12:4
"I will forgive, and this will disappear".
Imagine...calling others leeches...that doesn't sound much like letting go or forgiveness, does it? I was not really referring to other people as leeches but robotic search engine sites...that redirect ppl here. And I was not putting down Yandex...the Russian equivalent to Google...just the redirect hackings that get attached to it. Spam is no big deal...does no harm...that is why I use the term leeches.
The only thing that gets stung with such spamming is ego when it realizes it isn't special lol...which is a good thing. I want ego to get stung again and again and again. I want it to swell up so much it spontaneously combusts :) or gradually but quickly shrink down to a manageable size. So it is all good.
So let's get to the topic of today: Forgiveness and Letting Go.
I do not want to talk about forgiveness in terms of morality because I do not want to talk about others or ourselves needing to "repent" according to those terms. Morality is a social construct based on what the majority or the powerful determine is "right" or "wrong" ...often using some interpretation of God as the reference point.
Did you know that the actual translation of repent from Greek is 'to change one's mind'? So yes we all need to repent because we are all "guilty" of thinking wrongly about ourselves and about others. This is the basis of forgiveness in ACIM and in the essays of a man named Neville Goddard who taught his ideologies in the 40's and 50's.
Many were afraid of what he had to say and deemed him to be some messenger of the occult but if one reads his work they will simply see that he may have laid the real seed behind "The Secret". Many of his ideas can be found in yoga teachings and ACIM .
Regardless of that he makes some wonderful points about our need to let go of conditioned ways of looking at the world and ourselves. Like A Course does, he implies that what we think is real, isn't. and our holding on to it is the closest thing to sin that is possible. And all we have to do to correct it is to forgive it or let go of it.
We don't need to cling to grievances and the things that others , ourselves or life is doing 'wrong'. The only penance needed is for us to perceive differently. If we let go of our thoughts on what we don't want in our lives...those things will cease to be. "Nothing is independent of the perceiver. Everything is 'burned up' when I cease to behold it." (The Law).
It never ceases to amaze me as how all the little teachings I receive occur synchronistically. This lesson in A Course and this lesson in Goddard's essay came to me at the same time and they echo the same thing to me..."The sin we need to look at is that which occurs because we are seeing incorrectly. We repent when we change our minds and begin to see differently. Letting Go is forgiveness. When we let go of grievances every hour...we develop healthier habits and a better way to live in the next hour...and the next...and the next.
Hmmm! I have a feeling I will be getting back to that.
All is well.
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Got a match? I got a leech on me.
Feed your own ego, I'm busy.
-Kushandiwisdom
I know I occasionally go on and on about my readership or lack of but believe me that behaviour is not intended to induce pity from you or from myself. I am just trying to understand how to do what I feel so compelled to do. :) I want to reach people...it doesn't have to be many. As I said before I will continue as long as I am making a difference in one person's life...even if that person is me. lol. Not ego but something much greater is driving me. I am not saying that ego isn't present because it is still my noisy and annoying back seat driver on this ride.
Ego got another little burn. I suddenly received a number of viewers over the last few days and I was excited. I thought I was connecting to a larger audience again (getting 25 + a day...which may not seem like much to some but it makes a perfect class size for me:))....I was getting what I wanted to say out there. I was confident that of all the new readers I "seemed" to be getting, there would be 2-3 who would really "get it" and benefit from it. My teaching and learning desire would be supported.
I decided to check out the new, much appreciated site that seemed to be "following" this blog. It turned out to be, as shocked as I was, a sex site...connected to me (I assume...and we all know we should not assume) via the yandex redirect that showed up a few months ago. I was floored, embarrassed that I let ego get inflamed again, and angry. I am not judging the site or those who use it....I am just upset that this site and me, who is practicing continence in Brahmacarya Yama (look it up lol), is so not fitting with the message of that site.
It also tells me that no one from that search link is reading. I have been used as an unsuspecting travel host to carry leeches from one area of this vast cyber lake to the next. These "leeches" ( such a strong word) do not mean to hurt me, just suck a bit of my blood and go a little distance using my body as the vehicle. It really is only ego that feels the sting of their bites....but I don't want to carry them. Please get off. :) Of course, that won't be read that because they aren't actually reading, just being carried. Do leeches even have eyes?
It is all good. It is exactly the way it is meant to be for now. Eventually readership here or elsewhere will be doing what I intend it to do...reading lol. For now things are the way they are for my learning purposes. I want to thank again the people I know who are reading this and for letting me know you are. I also want to thank yandex redirect for reminding me once again...that my ego still needs a bit of an anti-inflammatory. Though it is shrinking tremendously...it is still a red and swollen hemorrhoid on my psyche. Ouch! :)
All good!
-Kushandiwisdom
I know I occasionally go on and on about my readership or lack of but believe me that behaviour is not intended to induce pity from you or from myself. I am just trying to understand how to do what I feel so compelled to do. :) I want to reach people...it doesn't have to be many. As I said before I will continue as long as I am making a difference in one person's life...even if that person is me. lol. Not ego but something much greater is driving me. I am not saying that ego isn't present because it is still my noisy and annoying back seat driver on this ride.
Ego got another little burn. I suddenly received a number of viewers over the last few days and I was excited. I thought I was connecting to a larger audience again (getting 25 + a day...which may not seem like much to some but it makes a perfect class size for me:))....I was getting what I wanted to say out there. I was confident that of all the new readers I "seemed" to be getting, there would be 2-3 who would really "get it" and benefit from it. My teaching and learning desire would be supported.
I decided to check out the new, much appreciated site that seemed to be "following" this blog. It turned out to be, as shocked as I was, a sex site...connected to me (I assume...and we all know we should not assume) via the yandex redirect that showed up a few months ago. I was floored, embarrassed that I let ego get inflamed again, and angry. I am not judging the site or those who use it....I am just upset that this site and me, who is practicing continence in Brahmacarya Yama (look it up lol), is so not fitting with the message of that site.
It also tells me that no one from that search link is reading. I have been used as an unsuspecting travel host to carry leeches from one area of this vast cyber lake to the next. These "leeches" ( such a strong word) do not mean to hurt me, just suck a bit of my blood and go a little distance using my body as the vehicle. It really is only ego that feels the sting of their bites....but I don't want to carry them. Please get off. :) Of course, that won't be read that because they aren't actually reading, just being carried. Do leeches even have eyes?
It is all good. It is exactly the way it is meant to be for now. Eventually readership here or elsewhere will be doing what I intend it to do...reading lol. For now things are the way they are for my learning purposes. I want to thank again the people I know who are reading this and for letting me know you are. I also want to thank yandex redirect for reminding me once again...that my ego still needs a bit of an anti-inflammatory. Though it is shrinking tremendously...it is still a red and swollen hemorrhoid on my psyche. Ouch! :)
All good!
Saturday, July 7, 2018
A Ramble About Photography
Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.
-Dorothea Lange
The Annoying Cousin and Photography
I was recently told by someone that I was a "good" photographer. I want to look at that comment without ego sticking its big swollen head in. That isn't easy because I still have one heck of an ego hanging around like one of those annoying cousins who doesn't know its time to leave. :)
All the photographs you find on this blog ( with the exception of the odd graphic used to illustrate a point [hopefully well cited but I think I may have goofed there from time to time] are mine...Well not mine, really...they came from one of my cameras and I was the one to push or guide the push of the shutter release...but they do not belong to me.
Creating an Image
I sometimes want others to think they are mine and that I am the creator. (If they are half way decent...that is lol) I may include the specs, from time to time, for ego reasons. I still want to look like I know more than I do. I still have so very much to learn and I goof up much more than I get things right. Still I want to create the image of a photographer.
I feel I can create a professional image if I use the right lingo when in honesty the math and physics part of photography still confuses me. I finally understand what aperture is and how it effects the image. I can almost understand what shutter speed, ISO and White balance are and how they effect the image. I understand the histograms a little better every time I shoot. But I still get tripped up on exposure compensation and always throw my camera settings off when I venture to use that. I still don't know what shutter speed to use if I adjust the aperture or vice versa in a given situation. I follow my gut more than I follow any tech know how. That doesn't always work out for me lol... I shoot far more pictures that I feel are not worthy enough to share than ones that I do. There is still so much to learn.
A Natural Inclination
I naturally love light and beauty (the internal and external kind). My camera, following my eye, is always taken there so I suppose that helps with composition. I shoot not so much what I think will make a good picture later on but what catches my eye in the moment. ( I have to note her that it has to be quite dramatic if it is going to catch my eye...I do not see clearly lol) . I want to still that moment as if I can capture time in a jar of megapixels. Illusionary of course. Like Dorothea Lange who shot the most beautiful and life altering pictures of the depression years, I love to capture the reality of light and life I guess. Whether or not I do...is another story.
Aperture Priority, f 9, SS 1/2000, ISO 200 55mm
( Had to include the specs. Otherwise I would be trying to hard not to appease the ego lol. My learning brain is saying: I could have gone manual here, widened the aperture to an F5, sped up the SS and or increase the ISO to brighten it up...but I like the way this feels. How it will look off the screen I am not sure.)
Passion and Willingness
I have the passion and the willingness to hold the camera to my eye and shoot at some moment I feel compelled to do so. It is a random thing...not well planned or orchestrated. I don't fret over how people are standing or how perfect they look...I just shoot what feels "real" to me. It is the "realness" I want. For that reason, I am not practiced or polished and it shows.
Just the person who pushes the button
So can I actually call myself a "good" photographer? Can I even say I am a photographer? Can I use the term "good" when I so much want to get beyond duality? A good photographer is viewed as one that shoots "good" pictures I suppose. What is a "good" photo? Just like art that is so subjective. what I think is good, someone else may call 'awful'. I am just a photographer...hey...I am using "I am"... I need to change that. I am someone who likes to take pictures; I have a good camera to take pictures with...that is a better description.
A Real Compliment
Another person once told me my pictures move like they are alive. Now that is a compliment I ( the real me...not the little egoic me) can sink my teeth into. That is what I want to do...bring a moment to life again and again and again. And there is no judgmental descriptor there so it appeals to something deep within me as validation for what I unknowingly set out to do. Sure the ego likes it too. :)
It is all good ....even if I just bored you to tears with my talk about photography. I did not mean to go on about that but I did. My bad:).
All is well.
-Dorothea Lange
The Annoying Cousin and Photography
I was recently told by someone that I was a "good" photographer. I want to look at that comment without ego sticking its big swollen head in. That isn't easy because I still have one heck of an ego hanging around like one of those annoying cousins who doesn't know its time to leave. :)
All the photographs you find on this blog ( with the exception of the odd graphic used to illustrate a point [hopefully well cited but I think I may have goofed there from time to time] are mine...Well not mine, really...they came from one of my cameras and I was the one to push or guide the push of the shutter release...but they do not belong to me.
Creating an Image
I sometimes want others to think they are mine and that I am the creator. (If they are half way decent...that is lol) I may include the specs, from time to time, for ego reasons. I still want to look like I know more than I do. I still have so very much to learn and I goof up much more than I get things right. Still I want to create the image of a photographer.
I feel I can create a professional image if I use the right lingo when in honesty the math and physics part of photography still confuses me. I finally understand what aperture is and how it effects the image. I can almost understand what shutter speed, ISO and White balance are and how they effect the image. I understand the histograms a little better every time I shoot. But I still get tripped up on exposure compensation and always throw my camera settings off when I venture to use that. I still don't know what shutter speed to use if I adjust the aperture or vice versa in a given situation. I follow my gut more than I follow any tech know how. That doesn't always work out for me lol... I shoot far more pictures that I feel are not worthy enough to share than ones that I do. There is still so much to learn.
A Natural Inclination
I naturally love light and beauty (the internal and external kind). My camera, following my eye, is always taken there so I suppose that helps with composition. I shoot not so much what I think will make a good picture later on but what catches my eye in the moment. ( I have to note her that it has to be quite dramatic if it is going to catch my eye...I do not see clearly lol) . I want to still that moment as if I can capture time in a jar of megapixels. Illusionary of course. Like Dorothea Lange who shot the most beautiful and life altering pictures of the depression years, I love to capture the reality of light and life I guess. Whether or not I do...is another story.
Aperture Priority, f 9, SS 1/2000, ISO 200 55mm
( Had to include the specs. Otherwise I would be trying to hard not to appease the ego lol. My learning brain is saying: I could have gone manual here, widened the aperture to an F5, sped up the SS and or increase the ISO to brighten it up...but I like the way this feels. How it will look off the screen I am not sure.)
Passion and Willingness
I have the passion and the willingness to hold the camera to my eye and shoot at some moment I feel compelled to do so. It is a random thing...not well planned or orchestrated. I don't fret over how people are standing or how perfect they look...I just shoot what feels "real" to me. It is the "realness" I want. For that reason, I am not practiced or polished and it shows.
Just the person who pushes the button
So can I actually call myself a "good" photographer? Can I even say I am a photographer? Can I use the term "good" when I so much want to get beyond duality? A good photographer is viewed as one that shoots "good" pictures I suppose. What is a "good" photo? Just like art that is so subjective. what I think is good, someone else may call 'awful'. I am just a photographer...hey...I am using "I am"... I need to change that. I am someone who likes to take pictures; I have a good camera to take pictures with...that is a better description.
A Real Compliment
Another person once told me my pictures move like they are alive. Now that is a compliment I ( the real me...not the little egoic me) can sink my teeth into. That is what I want to do...bring a moment to life again and again and again. And there is no judgmental descriptor there so it appeals to something deep within me as validation for what I unknowingly set out to do. Sure the ego likes it too. :)
It is all good ....even if I just bored you to tears with my talk about photography. I did not mean to go on about that but I did. My bad:).
All is well.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
A Light Within
There is a light in you that the world cannot perceive.
ACIM W-189:1:1
ACIM W-189:1:1
I want absolutely everyone in the world to know that! To know that despite what they or others may think of them or "tell" them they are or aren't; no matter what they do or don't do; whether they succeed or 'fail'; whether they or others have judged them as doing or being "wrongly"; whatever they have done in the past or what their story reports has happened; especially if they are addicted or partaking in crimes or what society has deemed as "unethical' behaviour....if they are lost or seeking...that they know that in them...there is a light so precious and so powerful that they can lean on and trust to show them the way. I want every individual to get past the temptation of giving up and to take a moment instead to look inward to the light that cannot be seen on the outside. I want us all to experience the wonder of being in that light. Sigh! That is what I want.
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
The Unacceptable Bargain
The entire outside world is based on your thoughts and mental attitude.
(Sri Swami Satchidananda; The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, page 5)
Okay, so you heard me, a tiny little voice amongst so many powerful and inspirational ones, saying the same thing over and over again. If you want to be happy, well or at the very least free of suffering all you need to do is let go of old thought processes. Let go of the ideas you have about yourself and the world around you. These beliefs you cling so desperately to do not serve you. They only leave you with fear, make you small and miserable and make the world a tragic, horrible place you have to endure. Yet, you do not have to think this way, live this way. It doesn't have to be this way...in fact...it isn't the way you perceive it to be.
All the suffering you feel right now is because of the thoughts whirling around in your head...nothing more. There is no sight, be it of dreams or from a truer Source, that is not but the shadow of the seen through inward vision. There perception starts, and there it ends. (ACIM W-188: 3: 6-7) There is another way of seeing. And as challenging as it seems to do...you can tame your monkey mind. You can rediscover the peace that exists beneath it...you can experience your true natural state of being.
Where do you start? By being willing to let go.
Willingness to let go seems to be the biggest and most challenging steps for most of us, including me. We are afraid to give up the familiar no matter how it keeps us small and stuck. Having to give up all we thought we knew as the requested payment for our peace of mind is too often the deal breaker for many of us. We simply aren't willing. Why? Kenichi Omhae, an economist guru, puts it this way:
Waking up is not about seeing the world through new lenses. It is about seeing the world with no lenses. It is about letting go of all the dream illusions we are clinging to and seeing the world in a state of conscious wakefulness. It requires no change or exchange. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. (ACIM W-188: 1:4). It doesn't require a new pair of lenses...it requires knowing that we just need to take the foggy ones we are wearing now off. Vision is not eye sight.
(Sri Swami Satchidananda; The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, page 5)
Okay, so you heard me, a tiny little voice amongst so many powerful and inspirational ones, saying the same thing over and over again. If you want to be happy, well or at the very least free of suffering all you need to do is let go of old thought processes. Let go of the ideas you have about yourself and the world around you. These beliefs you cling so desperately to do not serve you. They only leave you with fear, make you small and miserable and make the world a tragic, horrible place you have to endure. Yet, you do not have to think this way, live this way. It doesn't have to be this way...in fact...it isn't the way you perceive it to be.
All the suffering you feel right now is because of the thoughts whirling around in your head...nothing more. There is no sight, be it of dreams or from a truer Source, that is not but the shadow of the seen through inward vision. There perception starts, and there it ends. (ACIM W-188: 3: 6-7) There is another way of seeing. And as challenging as it seems to do...you can tame your monkey mind. You can rediscover the peace that exists beneath it...you can experience your true natural state of being.
Where do you start? By being willing to let go.
Willingness to let go seems to be the biggest and most challenging steps for most of us, including me. We are afraid to give up the familiar no matter how it keeps us small and stuck. Having to give up all we thought we knew as the requested payment for our peace of mind is too often the deal breaker for many of us. We simply aren't willing. Why? Kenichi Omhae, an economist guru, puts it this way:
"It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable with them and we have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eye glasses so long he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses. Today, however, we need new lenses and we have to throw the old ones away."
The Unacceptable Bargain
So if I, a stranger on the street, were to come up to you now to offer you a new pair of glasses that I profess would change your vision and allow you to see absolutely everything of value with remarkable clarity, if and only if you agreed to give me the glasses you were wearing, the same ones you wore for years, would you accept? Chances are you would immediately think it was some type of scam, wouldn't you? "Why would this stranger want to give me, of all people, a gift? She only wants something from me...my glasses."
What if I then told you that before I even let you try on the glasses I had in my hand you would have to give me yours so that I could stomp on them and grind them into the ground? Would you make the exchange then?
More than likely...you would shake your head and walk away from my deal as fast as you could. You would think I was nothing but a crazy person and would not trust me that the glasses I had were better than yours. You would fear that my glasses might be just a scam and you would lose the glasses you were so dependent on for the limited eye sight they gave you... forever. Limited eye sight, you would tell yourself, is better than none. Besides these glasses you are wearing are a part of you now. You had to work hard to earn this particular pair. They look right, they feel right and they define you in some way as they give you the vision you have become used to. You wouldn't want to risk losing all that familiar functionality, as limited as it may be, and end up seeing nothing at all with the plain and bogus pair I was trying to sell you. Would you? That would be crazy.
You would be right to walk away, I suppose, because the pair I am trying to give you have the most plain and indistinctive type of frame and most importantly they have no lenses.
Reasons for Refusing
The reasons many of us refuse to let go of old belief systems and ways of seeing include the following: inability to trust what the Universe/God/ Life offer us in terms of gifts; a lack of trust in our worthiness that we deserve such a gift, fear that people who speak about a new way of seeing are all crazier than a bag of hammers :), distrust in others and in the things we are offered, fear of loss of what we know and have become familiar with, fear of losing self identity, fear of losing functionality in the physical world and a fear of nothingness. Those are just some of the reasons why we might refuse to give up the way we see the world now. We fear enlightenment.
Man when are we going to realize that.....
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
(ACIM. T-Intro)
The fearful things we see with glasses on, suddenly disappear when we take the glasses off...or put on those glasses that have no lenses. :) Take the deal!
All is well in my world.
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Messages in the Poem
Leaves
Rustling about like oak leaves
on winter branches that should be bare,
thoughts blow and rattle in our minds.
The browning instruments play
a song of Dukkha.
Ever changing in their direction,
they blow this way and that way,
creating nothing but noise.
The chords pull the sap from our frozen roots
up to the surface where we,
breathless from anticipation,
wait in a disappointed state of,
'This is it ??"
Then we feel the icy chill
as the fluid of Life once again
plummets to the darkness below.
Up an down we pull and drain,
laugh and weep,
gain and lose,
hope and seek relief.
We are caught in a whirling frenzy of a
dance that leaves us breathless and confused.
Yet,
numb from the storms
we perceive around us,
we do not want the music to end.
We cling,
not willing these thoughts and images to go
from our weary but determined minds.
We plant down into the earth
and steadfast we stand
against the ferocious, unpredictable weather.
We hold with all our might
to this which is familiar.
Over the noise that is created,
we cannot hear the sweet and gentle Voice
that whistles through our branches:
"Let go! Just Let go!
This that you hold onto means nothing.
No storm can touch who you really are."
Only when we release the hold
of these ever changing leaves
and in silence and stillness
watch as they scatter off
in a wind-swept ballet of perfection-
will we breathe the way nature truly intends;
will we sigh and sink back into the steadiness of our trunks
and feel the peace of Life's seasonal soothing mantra
filling us to the core.
It is only when we stop clinging
and let go
that we will know who we really are,
and only then will we finally be alive.
Dale Lyn Revised July 2018
Okay I felt compelled to do something with this poem, not because of ego but because of trying to make the message clear to myself and therefore to others. Poems are all about the message that comes from some deep space within. I never really understand what was said until long after a poem has been written. So I looked at this poem...removed a lot of unnecessary thoughts (inspired action) and words and this is what I have come to feel was meant to be said.
Oak trees cling to their leaves well into winter. A few years ago I looked out at the tree I shot( in the previous post) and thought, "Why don't they let go? Those leaves have no purpose anymore and sustaining them must result in extra energy drain for the tree. " In the first stanza of this poem I am comparing the useless thoughts we cling to...to that of the leaves on an oak tree in winter. "Branches should be bare." Should not our minds be empty? But instead we have this senseless rattling and blowing of thoughts that serve no purpose.
This noise our thoughts create leads to our perception of suffering or dukkha. This suffering is caused by the instability of thoughts that make us happy one moment and sad the next. This going back and forth from one emotion to the next is what is causing us "noise" or the absence of peace. I compare that movement to how these leaves move back and forth on a tree creating the rustling noise (that I happen to love btw but can't say that because it removes the feeling of distasteful noise I am trying to create lol)
The thoughts can feed us or they can drain us. They can give us hope and some form of perceived energy...like when we get excited or enthusiastic as we think about something external, something that might happen in the future or the achievement of some goal we are 'working' toward. We feel the energy rising but when the so called future thing arrives...we realize it will not sustain us. So many of us work so hard all our lives with hope that we are getting somewhere special, that it is going to make it all worth it...and then when that moment comes we ask with great disappointment, "This is it?? This is what I busted my....for? This is what I was dreaming about that was supposed to give my life meaning?"
And down we go into the realm of disappointment, confusion, doubt and above all fear...that this is all life has to offer us.
To compensate for the downward spiral we look for something else out there to focus on that will bring us back up. We will go up and down, gain and lose our entire lives as long as we do this.
It is like being caught in a "whirling dance" where we have no control and are being spun around against our will. Who might we be dancing with? The monkey mind, of course.
Yet, instead of letting go of the thoughts ( leaves) that are causing all this suffering and confusion...we cling even more. For some reason we are so identified with these thoughts and we fear letting them go will mean our demise. We see the world around us, the storm it creates, as responsible for our plights. We don't like pain. The thought activity somehow numbs us and distracts us from that pain...so we are determined to hang on to what is going on in our minds. We cling to what is familiar and find false comfort in that. We are attached to the world our mind creates.
The more unpredictable life gets ( with its unpredictable weather...let's face it...the life around us is unpredictable) the more we cling to this idea of who we are and what the world is. Like schizophrenics we cling to and defend our illusions, hallucinations and delusions. How energy draining that is for us.
And while these leaves are rustling around in our heads making all kinds of noise, we don't hear the one Voice we should be hearing. This Voice is telling us to let go of the leaves we are clinging to. It is telling us that they serve no purpose and mean nothing. Yes ...the life we perceive as real is stormy and unpredictable but it cannot hurt who we really are.
It is only when we are willing to be still and quiet, to stop clinging and let go of our ideas and our beliefs will we know who we are, will we relax into our Self and feel Life flowing through us. The thoughts will come and go but we just need to observe them...watch them flying through and away. We need to become aware we are the Observer before we become aware we are the experiencer of Life. It is then we feel the peace that we are meant to experience. (Side Note:This, I believe has yoga significance...the steadiness of our trunk is achieved through Hatha asanas. The Life filling us to the core is breath ...breath awareness/pranayama and the soothing mantra refers to meditation.)
If we could only let go of our leaves, our thoughts, ideas and beliefs about our little self and the world...we would discover the truth of who we really are and we would know what it means to truly be alive.
Well that is what I spat out! Makes sense to me now. Hope it helps in some way.
All is well.
Rustling about like oak leaves
on winter branches that should be bare,
thoughts blow and rattle in our minds.
The browning instruments play
a song of Dukkha.
Ever changing in their direction,
they blow this way and that way,
creating nothing but noise.
The chords pull the sap from our frozen roots
up to the surface where we,
breathless from anticipation,
wait in a disappointed state of,
'This is it ??"
Then we feel the icy chill
as the fluid of Life once again
plummets to the darkness below.
Up an down we pull and drain,
laugh and weep,
gain and lose,
hope and seek relief.
We are caught in a whirling frenzy of a
dance that leaves us breathless and confused.
Yet,
numb from the storms
we perceive around us,
we do not want the music to end.
We cling,
not willing these thoughts and images to go
from our weary but determined minds.
We plant down into the earth
and steadfast we stand
against the ferocious, unpredictable weather.
We hold with all our might
to this which is familiar.
Over the noise that is created,
we cannot hear the sweet and gentle Voice
that whistles through our branches:
"Let go! Just Let go!
This that you hold onto means nothing.
No storm can touch who you really are."
Only when we release the hold
of these ever changing leaves
and in silence and stillness
watch as they scatter off
in a wind-swept ballet of perfection-
will we breathe the way nature truly intends;
will we sigh and sink back into the steadiness of our trunks
and feel the peace of Life's seasonal soothing mantra
filling us to the core.
It is only when we stop clinging
and let go
that we will know who we really are,
and only then will we finally be alive.
Dale Lyn Revised July 2018
Okay I felt compelled to do something with this poem, not because of ego but because of trying to make the message clear to myself and therefore to others. Poems are all about the message that comes from some deep space within. I never really understand what was said until long after a poem has been written. So I looked at this poem...removed a lot of unnecessary thoughts (inspired action) and words and this is what I have come to feel was meant to be said.
Oak trees cling to their leaves well into winter. A few years ago I looked out at the tree I shot( in the previous post) and thought, "Why don't they let go? Those leaves have no purpose anymore and sustaining them must result in extra energy drain for the tree. " In the first stanza of this poem I am comparing the useless thoughts we cling to...to that of the leaves on an oak tree in winter. "Branches should be bare." Should not our minds be empty? But instead we have this senseless rattling and blowing of thoughts that serve no purpose.
This noise our thoughts create leads to our perception of suffering or dukkha. This suffering is caused by the instability of thoughts that make us happy one moment and sad the next. This going back and forth from one emotion to the next is what is causing us "noise" or the absence of peace. I compare that movement to how these leaves move back and forth on a tree creating the rustling noise (that I happen to love btw but can't say that because it removes the feeling of distasteful noise I am trying to create lol)
The thoughts can feed us or they can drain us. They can give us hope and some form of perceived energy...like when we get excited or enthusiastic as we think about something external, something that might happen in the future or the achievement of some goal we are 'working' toward. We feel the energy rising but when the so called future thing arrives...we realize it will not sustain us. So many of us work so hard all our lives with hope that we are getting somewhere special, that it is going to make it all worth it...and then when that moment comes we ask with great disappointment, "This is it?? This is what I busted my....for? This is what I was dreaming about that was supposed to give my life meaning?"
And down we go into the realm of disappointment, confusion, doubt and above all fear...that this is all life has to offer us.
To compensate for the downward spiral we look for something else out there to focus on that will bring us back up. We will go up and down, gain and lose our entire lives as long as we do this.
It is like being caught in a "whirling dance" where we have no control and are being spun around against our will. Who might we be dancing with? The monkey mind, of course.
Yet, instead of letting go of the thoughts ( leaves) that are causing all this suffering and confusion...we cling even more. For some reason we are so identified with these thoughts and we fear letting them go will mean our demise. We see the world around us, the storm it creates, as responsible for our plights. We don't like pain. The thought activity somehow numbs us and distracts us from that pain...so we are determined to hang on to what is going on in our minds. We cling to what is familiar and find false comfort in that. We are attached to the world our mind creates.
The more unpredictable life gets ( with its unpredictable weather...let's face it...the life around us is unpredictable) the more we cling to this idea of who we are and what the world is. Like schizophrenics we cling to and defend our illusions, hallucinations and delusions. How energy draining that is for us.
And while these leaves are rustling around in our heads making all kinds of noise, we don't hear the one Voice we should be hearing. This Voice is telling us to let go of the leaves we are clinging to. It is telling us that they serve no purpose and mean nothing. Yes ...the life we perceive as real is stormy and unpredictable but it cannot hurt who we really are.
It is only when we are willing to be still and quiet, to stop clinging and let go of our ideas and our beliefs will we know who we are, will we relax into our Self and feel Life flowing through us. The thoughts will come and go but we just need to observe them...watch them flying through and away. We need to become aware we are the Observer before we become aware we are the experiencer of Life. It is then we feel the peace that we are meant to experience. (Side Note:This, I believe has yoga significance...the steadiness of our trunk is achieved through Hatha asanas. The Life filling us to the core is breath ...breath awareness/pranayama and the soothing mantra refers to meditation.)
If we could only let go of our leaves, our thoughts, ideas and beliefs about our little self and the world...we would discover the truth of who we really are and we would know what it means to truly be alive.
Well that is what I spat out! Makes sense to me now. Hope it helps in some way.
All is well.
Monday, July 2, 2018
You can stop suffering by giving up everything you think.
If someone said to you, "You can stop suffering. You can really stop suffering completely, right here and now. All you have to do is to give up everything you think. You have to give up your opinions, you have to give up your beliefs, you have to even give up believing in your own name. you have to give all this up, but that's all you have to do. Give all that up, and you can be happy, completely happy, free of suffering forever." For most people, this would be an unacceptable bargain.
Adyashanti, Falling from Grace (kindle Edition), page 14
Man, I must have been really meant to talk about giving up our thoughts. :) These things keep coming to me.
all is well.
Adyashanti, Falling from Grace (kindle Edition), page 14
Man, I must have been really meant to talk about giving up our thoughts. :) These things keep coming to me.
all is well.
Cling to leaves or let them go?
They [Thoughts]blow across his [mankind's] mind like wind swept leaves that form a patterning an instant, break apart to group again, and scamper off.
-ACIM; W-186:9:5
Leaves
Rustling about like oak leaves
waiting for the snow to take them,
thoughts blow and rattle in our minds,
creating a cacophony of noise.
Their music imprints on our psyches.
Like nails down a chalkboard one moment
and the strings of a classical symphony the next
the browning instruments play
a song of Dukkha.
Ever changing their direction,
this way and that way,
grabbing our attention,
the chords pull the sap from our frozen roots
up to the surface where we,
breathless from anticipation,
wait in a disappointed state of,
'This is it ??"
Then we feel the icy chill
as the fluid of Life once again
plummets to the darkness below.
Up an down we pull and drain,
laugh and weep,
hope and seek relief.
Yet,
numb from the storms
we perceive around us,
we cling,
not wanting these thoughts and images to go
from our weary but determined minds.
We plant down into the earth.
Steadfast we stand
against the ferocious, unpredictable weather
and hold with all our might
to this which is familiar.
Over the noise that is created,
we cannot hear the sweet and gentle Voice
that whistles through our branches:
"Let go! Just Let go!
This that you hold onto means nothing."
Only when we release the hold
of these ever changing leaves
and in silence and stillness
watch as they scatter off
in a wind-swept ballet of perfection
will we breathe the way nature truly intends;
will we sigh and sink back into the steadiness of our trunks
and feel the peace of Life's seasonal soothing mantra
filling us to the core.
It is only when we stop clinging
and let go
that we will know what it is to be alive,
and only then that we will finally be.
Dale-Lyn, July 2018
The picture is a bit depressing this time of year but it does represent how stuck, dark, cold and numb we can feel if we continue to cling to that which no longer serves us, does it not? Anyway...I will lift up with another image in the next entry.
This is simply what it is. I let go of it.
All is well
-ACIM; W-186:9:5
Leaves
Rustling about like oak leaves
waiting for the snow to take them,
thoughts blow and rattle in our minds,
creating a cacophony of noise.
Their music imprints on our psyches.
Like nails down a chalkboard one moment
and the strings of a classical symphony the next
the browning instruments play
a song of Dukkha.
Ever changing their direction,
this way and that way,
grabbing our attention,
the chords pull the sap from our frozen roots
up to the surface where we,
breathless from anticipation,
wait in a disappointed state of,
'This is it ??"
Then we feel the icy chill
as the fluid of Life once again
plummets to the darkness below.
Up an down we pull and drain,
laugh and weep,
hope and seek relief.
Yet,
numb from the storms
we perceive around us,
we cling,
not wanting these thoughts and images to go
from our weary but determined minds.
We plant down into the earth.
Steadfast we stand
against the ferocious, unpredictable weather
and hold with all our might
to this which is familiar.
Over the noise that is created,
we cannot hear the sweet and gentle Voice
that whistles through our branches:
"Let go! Just Let go!
This that you hold onto means nothing."
Only when we release the hold
of these ever changing leaves
and in silence and stillness
watch as they scatter off
in a wind-swept ballet of perfection
will we breathe the way nature truly intends;
will we sigh and sink back into the steadiness of our trunks
and feel the peace of Life's seasonal soothing mantra
filling us to the core.
It is only when we stop clinging
and let go
that we will know what it is to be alive,
and only then that we will finally be.
Dale-Lyn, July 2018
Okay...this just came out of me. Was not what I intended to write this morning. It was one of those "burp-ups'' I guess. I do not question it. I do not judge it for its literary value which is a good thing lol. I just put it down when it comes out that fast. I just let it be. It all came from reading Lesson 186 and hearing Eckhart Tolle say something to the effect ( and I paraphrase): we only suffer dukkha if we look for Self in thoughts and emotions.
The picture is a bit depressing this time of year but it does represent how stuck, dark, cold and numb we can feel if we continue to cling to that which no longer serves us, does it not? Anyway...I will lift up with another image in the next entry.
This is simply what it is. I let go of it.
All is well
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