The River and the Eddy

 You are not letting go of life; you are letting go of the reaction to life.

Michael A. Singer

After listening to Michael Singer today I worked the poem I put down yesterday a bit. It is certainly not perfect but it is a lot better than yesterday's version.  Yesterday, what came out of me was the message in long awkward sentences.  Today, with help from a little writer's ego, it became somewhat of a poem with a message. Still lacks a cadence that I am happy with...who knows maybe I will work it again...or...maybe I won't lol. Regardless, it is what it is.  

I worked it again and I will work it some more lol. It really does not want to cooperate with my writer's sense of "good enough" and that is okay...it doesn't have to. The challenge is good. 

The River and the Eddy,

A prized trophy,

carried high on the shoulders 

of a returning hero

the swimmer bobs up and down

Finally asleep after hours of splashing effort,

unaware of the strong and steady 

waves that carry it protectively along

it moves toward its own demise.

 

Whirling, swirling,

riveting in tormented circles,

the Eddy up ahead

is preparing to pull the swimmer 

from the River’s protective hold.

 

It, without mercy,

 tears all the unsuspecting,

yet the endlessly anticipating,

from its once easy peaceful float.

 

Like a bully,

hiding in the corner of the River’s bend,

it sticks out a dirty foot

from below the sparkling waves.

The surprised River,

so intent on joyfully getting to its destination,

heeding only the voice that calls it forward,

stumbles over the boulder of Samskara

and its lifetime collection of debris.

Losing its momentum, its grasp weakens.

The swimmer is torn from its clutches

and both are clumsily sucked into the

awkward barrier.

 

Tangled up in all the other floating things

the Eddy pulls toward it,

torn from its original trajectory,

splashing about in a desperate attempt

to find something solid to hang onto 

the drowning treasure

swallows the waves of misguided attempts

and sinks to the depths below.

 

All the while the rush of these Holy Waters,

the trough and crests of these mighty waves,

are still being called forward 

by the Oceans’ powerful  but unseen Force.

This Voice is strong and unrelenting,

stirring up the waters that collect behind

the impediment of samskara.

 

Yet, the cries of the River’s cargo,

the drowning swimmer,

pull the river’s attention down.

When the River is drawn

to the stuffed and stored

debris of human preferring,

to the boulders of human resistance,

forming the current of human selecting,

it has no choice but to spin

in a whirlpool of human suffering.

 

 

Down, down, down

the swimmer sinks,

 pulled by this vortex of trapped energy, 

 into the mirky depths

that build up and break down

behind the boulder of samskara.

And the River …

the powerful , majestic river ...

follows,

while the Eddy triumphantly claims

this that will make it stronger.

 

The Ocean sings again,

calling out in compelling whispers,

for the River to leave the swimmer behind

and come home.

Not wanting to abandon that which 

it clung to for so long,

the River still resists

and twirls and swirls

around and around

making the Eddy stronger.

 

Still, that Force calling  the River forward

is determined to bring all its Ripples home.

Unknown to this tiny disturbance of river

trapped in the ferocious Eddy

 Life goes on beyond it.

In the flow of that universal Life,

exists the free- flowing Shakti.

Pure and free, 

moving in glorious sparkling persistence,

back to the Source from where it came

the rest of undisturbed river

flows with a message for all who will listen:

Stop resisting, relax,

and let the ocean pull you home.

 

The River finally hears the soothing chorus

over the rush  of human drama. 

It lets go. 

As soon as it releases its hold on the swimmer,

allowing the flimsy, lifeless carcass 

to fall to the muddy bottom,

its waters move back up to the surface

where they sparkling like a million diamonds

embrace the sunlight once again.

The boulders dissolve, the debris disperses

 and the Eddy is no more.

The River, then, without the heaviness of Swimmer,

the barrier of Samskara, 

 is set free to continue its joyful journey home. 

© Dale-Lyn July 2024

All is well.

The Eddy in Shakti Flow

 All feelings are beautiful. Enjoy everything including the pain...

Michael A. Singer

As you know by now if you have read any of my entries before this one...the release of Samskara is' my thing' as a yogi and as a human being.  I want nothing more in my life than to be free of all these blockages. I see that as the ultimate healing...the ultimate freedom. I truly know in some part of me that I do not quite understand that I have blocked the flow of something magnificent when I created this neurotic psyche I call "me". To protect this "me",  I have stored and stuffed a lifetime of stuff within me that I did not want to experience. I also stored and clung to  all that stuff  whose nature I demanded  would be all I experienced in this Life. All the while this Life goes on doing what it is doing and it does not even recognize this "me" and what it 'prefers', only who I really am. So man is  there ever a lot of the unpreferred showing up, a lot of triggering of the stuff I stored inside, a lot of disturbance.  Sigh! 

So...my journey these days involves freeing the flow of energy inside me.  Not so much because I want to feel the ultimate bliss of Sat Chit Ananda, but because I want to stop drowning in this eddy of swirling energy on the otherside of my blockages.  It isn't fun smashing up against those rocks again and again and again. It isn't fun swallowing so much water and going down into the dark depths of this trapped energy again and again. I would just like to be floating serenely on the top of a gently flowing river, enjoying the sunshine on my face and teh feel of the breeze on my skin as I listen to he magic of bird song all around me.  That is what I long for in my Life. .. to be able to enjoy it all , even the pain, without being pulled down by it.

What about you?

The Eddy

In the middle of the magnificent river

flowing forward

on its predetermined journey,

back to the infinite Source

from which it came,

the Eddy forms.

It swirls and twirls, riveting in

 energetic, tormented circles 

around and around,

its waves smashing up against

 the boulders of Samskara 

that impede the mighty River's flow.  

All the while the rush of these Holy Waters,

the trough and crests of these mighty waves,

are being pulled by the Oceans’ powerful  

but unseen force, forward.

This Force is strong and unrelenting,

stirring up the waters

collecting behind the impediment of samskara.

 

When the stuffed and stored

debris of human preferring,

the boulders of human resistance,

form the current of human selecting,

the water has no choice but to spin

in a whirlpool of human suffering.

 

Tangled up in all the other floating things

the Eddy pulls toward it;

torn from its original trajectory,

splashing about in a desperate attempt

to find something solid to hang on to, 

the drowning soul 

swallows the waves of misguided attempts

and sinks.

 

‘I’, the swimmer, gets pulled down 

by this vortex of trapped energy, 

down into the mirky depths

that build up and break down

behind the boulder of samskara,

while this Eddy claims all that it can

to make it stronger.

 

Still, that force which moves the river forward

is determined.

Beyond this Eddy…this tiny disturbance

in the flow of universal Life,

exists the free- flowing Shakti.

Moving, in glorious sparkling persistence,

back to the Source from where it came,

the undisturbed River

flows with a message for all who will listen:

Remove the debris, the boulders of samskara,

and the Eddy will be no more.

The river and its swimmer will be set free

and will, before long,  be united with the Source

of everlasting peace.

© Dale-Lyn. July, 2024

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( July 14, 2024) Understanding Consciousness and Your Energy Flow. https://tou.org/talks/

Stop Running and Resting on Wings

 If you do not know how to stop running the healing can not take place..

Thich Nhat Hanh

Vipassana, according to Thich Nhat Hanh in the below video, is the process of looking deeply to get insight. Yet, we are reminded that we can not  look deeply if we are running away from what is. Most of us, whether we know it or not, are running from our brokenness into the busy world. If we are so caught up in our busy work that takes us out of the here and now...there is no insight and if there is no insight, there is no healing. 

We all want to heal...whether we know it or not. The first step to that healing is stopping.  When you feel that urge to run...counter it.  Stop!  Breathe. 

Your in-breath is an expresson of arrival: "I have arrived"

Shamatha is stopping...stillness...not running. It is being home.

Vipassana is not possible without shamatha and shamatha is not possible without vipassana. 

I have to work on this, still. :)

Reminded of a poem I wrote many years ago when I first heard of Shamatha and Vipassana. In fact, it was this very same teaching and teacher below that inspired the poem.

Wings

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

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

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

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

©Dale-Lyn  May 2020

All is well.

Thich Nhat Hanh/ Plum Village (January 31, 2024) Stop Running/ Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qch5ISD9Bxo&t=511s

Clearing the Way to Source

 A great being seeks the source of consciousness

I am not a great being, by any means, but I am seeking consciousness.  I know consciousness has a Source for sure and I deeply respect and reveer that Source. Yet, at ths point of my evolution...consciosuness seems far away, the  Source of it seems even farther away. 

Where is this Source anyway?  

Yoganada said , 

He [God] dwells behind your every thought.

Maybe,  I am seeking Source because I do want to get beyond my crazy thinking mind to what is valid and real. This moment, right here and now, is where Source is.  I just do not notice Source or experience Source because my thinking is in the way, this focus on "little me" is in the way.  I can only imagine the peace and freedom I would feel if the path to Source was free of such obstacles. My practice is all about clearing the way. Hmmm!

What about you?

All is well. 

Mochael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( July 11, 2024) Raise YouseSelf- The Doorway to Freedom. https://tou.org/talks/

Dreams, Samskaras, and Gurus

 If you can control the rising of the mind into ripples, you will experience yoga.

Patanjali

I had a dream last night and it was one of those dreams that did not make a lot of sense.  I was in this school like situation where I was supposed to get together with a group to work on some type of project.  I walk into the auditorium where the groups are already working on their projects.  I am seeking a group and feeling a little nervous that I won't be accepted by a group. One group calls me over and I am so grateful. They are quiet and unpretentious, a little shy maybe, but welcome me in. Just as I am about to ask them what their topic is, I hear my name being called to another table ( I am both surprised and warmed by the fact that I am being invited into not one but two groups. That the   groups  actually want me). 

I start to answer with a "Thankyou but I will stay at this first table because they asked first"  when  someone from the second table shouts out "Samskaras. Our project is on samskaras."  And I am like, "Oh my God...yes...I can work on that...I see that as ultimately important." 

I apologise and tell the first group that I have to go over to the Samskara table because I have been working on Samskaras. I feel bad for not being loyal to them and at the same time a little afraid, "What if I go over to the Samskara table and it doesn't work out?" I tell this first table I am just going to check it out and then I will make my decision.  

I start to go over to that other table and as I am leaving, I see this group that I am about to leave  ...much more quiet and reserved  ...are working on Zen Buddhism. I am a bit torn becasue I love Zen teachings but my heart is pulled to the Samskara group. I get there and the people are a little more lively (dressed in white while the others were dressed in black?) .  They show me what they are doing and I am like " Wow! I know about this...I can help here...this is so important...we need to get these Samskaras out of people. I personally need to get them out of myself too." I make the choice to stay with these people.

Be they good or be they bad samskaras do not serve our ultimate purpose.

So, of course I wake up thinking about my dream and about this committment I have to release samskaras. There wa such a pull there in my dream. This morning I felt compelled, then, to find a video on samskaras. I came across videos from a guru named Kamesh Patel. I am not sure about any self professed guru, as you know, or any movement led by one but  decided to listen anyway. He mentioned Patanjali and then he mentioned Vivekananda and I said, okay maybe his message will be pure even if he is or isnt. 

chitta vritti nirodha = freeing your chitt from all these vrittis is the aim of yoga.

Of course that is in the second sutra of Patanjali's yoga sutras, as the quote above describes.

This guru's teachings are all about purifying the heart from all samskaras so heaven can enter. Of course, Vivekananda said the same thing as did the father of  yoga, Patanjali himself.

So, I am not sure if my dream last night is significant and if it led me to see a video from this guru dude for some reason. It doesn't matter.  He may indeed be the genuine thing, or maybe not. He is traditional...in the sense that one has to go to him in order to truly experience the initiation of yoga. What I have a hard time understanding is why one has to be in the actual presence of a guru in human form to receive this "initiation" of yoga. If consciousness is indeed omnipresent should that 'opening up' be transferred over distance too?  And if one studies the teachings from the "older" masters as dictated ( Patanjali) or written (Yogananda and Vivekananda), and practice the steps laid out for Kriya yoga in writing ( Yogananda's written instruction for the practice he learned from Lahari Mahasaya), does that not do something?

Anyway, just questioning.

All is well. 

Heartfulness (2022 ) How to Get Rid of Samskaras. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqy15hHncBs

Awareness is Mind at Rest

The mind that seeks awareness is like a current in the ocean in search of water. Such a mind is destined for endless dissatisfaction. ...mind is awareness in motion; awareness is mind at rest.

Rupert Spira

Become aware of the chair ( or whatever you are)  sitting on right now. You can become  aware of it, right?  Is the chair aware of itself? Of course not, you tell me. "The chair doesn't have a brain or a mind.  It is an inanimate object." Okay. So. we can establish that the chair can't be aware of itself but you can be aware of it. 

Stare at are at your hand. You know the hand is there because you can see it.  You can touch it and feel it...again confirming that you know it is there. But does the hand know it is there? Does the hand think about itself?  No, of course not.  There is no brain and no mind in the hand...the hand doesn't have a self concept...at least not in the way we percieve the thinking mind. Yet, you know it is there.

You look at it and likely refer to it as, "my hand".  Why? It is a part of the body you define as "my body".  If I were to go over and slap your hand you may jump back and yell, "Don't slap 'me'!"  The 'my hand', the 'my body' becomes "me". Why? Because the you that is observing the hand has identified itself with it and the body it belongs to. 

What is this "you" that is staring at the hand and identifying with the body as "me"? There is something observing right? Something that felt the slap and reacted with the "me" statement of resistance? What is that? It is not the body because the body is that which is being observed, right? The body cannot observe itself.  So who or what is observing the  body and the reaction of  the body? Who or what is observing and experiencing that which is being observed? It must be an observer, right? That which observes is an observer. Somewhere in this experience of  body observation and reactivity, there must be an observer doing the observing.

What is this observer? It can't be the body because it is observing the body. (The body cannot observe itself).  It can't be the experience of discomfort and resistance that came with the slap to the hand because it is observing it. (The experience...in order to be an 'experience'...must have an experiencer experiencing it.) 

So we know that the observer is not the hand, not the body, not the reaction, not the mind that saw the body as 'me' and therefore caused the reaction in an attempt  to protect this sense of "me." These are all just objects of observation. These are just objects in the forefront of experience and there is someone or something back here observing and experiencing these objects. 

I am going to give you some names for that thing that is observing and experiencing the objects of obervation and experience. These names, however, are not that which is observing ...they too are objects of observation. Consciousness, Awareness, Self, Spirit, Sat chit Ananda...are the names I can give you for this.  They are, however, just names...they are not that which they are pointing to.  Just like the " me" we are trying to protect in the above hand slapping scenario,  they are merely concepts...with no substance. 

Yet, these concepts point to something deeper than that which "me" points to.  "Me" points to an idea of the you that is observing, as being the body and mind which it is observing. ( And we see the fallacy in this because we know that which you are observing cannot observe itself.) "Me" is not who you are ...it is just an identity you ascribed to the object of consciousness you are observing. It is simply an object of consciousness

So "Consciousness", "Awareness", "Self", "Spirit", and my favorite "Sat Chit Ananda" are labels too. They are just words and mind concepts that point to something deep inside this observer you, past the illusion of "me". I am telling you that you are this observer you...not only that, ...this observer you is awareness, Sat Chit Ananda etc. 

Yet, my telling you this is nothing more than more concepts and words. Until you remove your obsessive focus off of this "me" thing you created and spend your life trying to build,  protect, and defend; until you recognize yourself as the observer of this "me" and not the "me"; until you fall back into the observer in the background of your observing experience; and until you become aware of being awareness and begin to  experience yourself as this awareness... will you be beyond concepts and illusions. Until awareness becomes aware of itself , and aware that it is aware of what it is aware of... you will not experience this Sat Chit Ananda ( Eternal, Consciousness, Bliss) that you are. 

Hmm! I was reminded of that truth today upon listening to Michael Singer .

Serendipitous moments? 

Maybe these are insignificant and nothing more than a grasping woman's desire to put meaning onto something purely coincidental. I just feel a certain like -mindedness with Michael Singer that comes out in a very "coincidental" way. We both seem to be thinking of the same things at the same time (sometimes lol)   

I have been thinking heavily about a passage ...the exact words were rushing through my mind again and again throughout the day yesterday  and while I was meditating this morning. Then, I hear these exact words in this podcast like I knew I would, "The rush of holy waters"

I have also been thinking and writing about the poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" over the last two days, had those words on my mind as well,  and he refers to the "albatross" around the neck. "Ping" feel that connecting string being tightened  again. lol

I also wrote down on a list this morning, a few poems I had written that I would like to revise and edit for a chap book . The first one I wrote down was a poem I wrote about leaving the garden of Eden and making one's way back. (It was inspired by one of his previous podcasts)   And he used that exact analogy again today. The second poem I placed on this list, he also used the analogy of that.

Merely coincidence?  Possibly but I feel a pull.  I feel a pull towards something I will never understand. There is like this like- mindedness that seems so "extra-ordinary".  Does it have to be extraordinary? If there is only one consciousness and we are both yogis attempting to get beyond the personal identification with the ego...so we can expereince this consciousness...wouldn't this similar thinking be perfectly expected? 

Silly, I know.

Anyway. All is well

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe () The Self -Concept: The Pull Downward. https://tou.org/talks/

Fun and The Felt Texture of Lived Life

Girls just wanna have fun...I wanna be the one to walk in the sun...Girls just wanna have fun...

Cydni Lauper

If subjective experience is the felt texture of a lived life we have within awareness, what might this awareness actually be?

Daniel Siegel, Aware (tarcher perigee; 2020), page 160

Those were the two quotes on my mind when I sat down here to write today. 

What the Fork? How can you relate these two, crazy lady?

Easily actually.  I can even relate them to today's, and even Thursday's podcast, from Michael Singer. 

Girls do just wanna have fun and to  be the one to walk in the sun ( be free) so they can truly experience the texture of a lived life.

Huh?...

What is it that most of us, not just the 'girls', really, really want?

We want to have fun...in our life experience. 

What is fun?

F for fulfillment, freedom, 

U for undisturbed by life events, untainted by samskaras, untethered by attachments

N for no-self, Natural Self,

Well I am not sure if Cyndi saw it that way but that is the way I see it.  That is what fun is to me.

And this "felt texture of lived life", what is that?

The felt texture is the true experience of being in the moment, truly touching all that Life gives us whether the texture is smooth and silky or rough and course enough to make the finger tips bleed.  It is loving all of  the perfectly imperfect just the way it is. 

When I look at my life from the human perspective...from that ego that is still convinced it has to "get" things from life in order to be happy...I am not having a heck of a lot of fun.  I still don't feel like "I made it" yet...that I am fulfilled.  I still find myself thinking at times, "When I get this...when I accomplish this...then I will be fulfilled." I definitely don't feel free...I am still bonded to this earth and physical form  with some type of Superglue. Despite my practice and 'how far I have come', I am still grasping and clinging at times for things 'out there', allowing myself to be pulled down into the "nasty" when I fail to get them or hang onto them. I still, very much, get disturbed by life events.  I still feel  the samskaras rumbling in my insides, not yet free, causing all kinds of discomfort.  I am still bound to this earth by a desire for it to be something other than what it is. Oh yeah, and there is still a self, a tormented and tormenting little ego always getting in the way of my Fun, preventing this natural flow of Self, of Shakti, of Sat Chit Ananda from flowing freely through. 

I am not fully touching Life. My self, my samskaras, this busy judging, resisting mind is too often in the way  of that felt texture of a lived life. Though I have more moments than I ever had in the past, though I am closer to awareness than I have ever been, I know I am not living life completely in the now.  My ego, my overactive mind and my samskaras are still very much in the way.

I am having  an experience of watching 'this human' again, possibly with less compassion than she deserves, but just the same I watch her complete and tidy up this little book she is writing for newcomers. She can't tell if the project has become an obsession and major distraction from the reality of her life or a true inspiration motivated by a desire to serve.  Ego and samskara keep getting in the way of her truly feeling the texture of the experience. 

Hours, hours, were spent on putting it together at the expense of other things. Then passing on the unpublished draft to others has left her wondering and questioning her motivations, possibly beating herself up a bit. "Who am I to think I could write a book like this and pass it on to others? I am probably bothering them more than helping? Oh what an ego...shame, shame, shame."... 

I see it all clearly ...I see that deeply rooted samskara that has taken up most of her life being triggered. I know where it comes from.  I watch as it gets aggravated and "this human'' reacts.  I experience that resistance and that self doubt, self-punishment in the body like a giant knot.  I feel the darkness like some movie set prop being set off. I get pulled down into the belly of the beast again. Sigh!

I know why...or at least I assume I know why... there is such reaction there.  This samskara, that I have been intending with every meditataion and yoga practice to allow up, is inching and crawling its way up into the light. That is a good thing...I know...but it doesn't feel like a good thing. What is stored in pain comes up in pain. It is in the way of me seeing clearly. Sigh!

So, I am questioning the true nature of this inspiration I had to write this book. Was it for this part of self that still remains...the ego...that is looking for something from the outcome of this book? It is true I am always trying to redeem myself from this shame I feel. Is that why I wrote this book?

Or was it for something deeper?  Could it have simply been for the inspiration to create and to have fun with the process? Truth is, I enjoyed writing it.  Every moment here learning, writing, sharing, growing went by without me even being aware of time. I feel a sweet challenge...that  sweet spot of motivation between boredom and anxiety , what is known as the Yerkes -Dodson law. I am in a flow state as I write. And I love when that happens in my writing even if it is about a subject matter that many would find boring and even beyond my skill set ( that is why I hit this sweet spot...because this challenge  involved learning and growing on my end, as well as possibly offering something of value to others.) 

This project has literally consumed 'this human' I call 'me' over the last few months. And there always seems to be more to do wth it...my not finishing it might have something to do with an attachment to the process and what I am getting from it...sigh. I don't know.

It is so complicated. I am not thinking of outcome...I am really not.  I am not sure if, or where, I will publish it.  I have my reader, in writing that is all I need.  So what will happen with it...I don't know.

 Ego keeps coming up to 'this human' with the "Shame, shame, shame " thing.  This samskara is so big and easily triggered anyway...like a giant aneurysm that responds to every bump and rumble. Imagine, feeling shame every time you want to do something good for others. Hmmm! But I know it is almost up.  The more it hurts, the closer I am to release of it once and for all. 

Truth is, this girl is not yet having a lot of fun...but she will.  I know this book or anything else out there that I do or gain has no power to give me anything.  It is the awareness underneath  that matters. This book writing is just something 'this human 'does. I can have  fun with it. I can have fun watching this human create. I can have fun  watching this samskara release as I watch  'this human' find her way to awareness.  I can have fun with it all.

That fun, Cydni Lauper, is inside every girl. The felt texture of Life can be beautiful in whatever form it comes in.  I am convinced of that.

All is well in my world. 

Michael Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( July 7, 2024) Working directly on what you really want. https://tou.org/talks/

Michael Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( July 4, 2024) Journey from Distraction to Liberation. https://tou.org/talks/

 

Are you Meditating?

 ...it is like pouring oil from one pot to another. It is a continous string; it doesn't break. Communication between meditator and object of meditation is steady. That is what's called dhyana...Time has no meaning in meditation and space is lost. ...the mind transcends body consciousness. 

Satchinanda's transalation of  Pantanjali's Sutra: Book III. 2

Do you actually meditate?  I know I don't...or at least I do not reach that state above very often. I still struggle a bit with pratyhara (removal of mind from the senses) and dharna ( fixed concentration). So, I do not often get to dyhana and I am okay with that.  I am not seeking samadhi.  Most of my yoga practice, occurs off that mat.

Anyway, I have had moments where I have lost total connection with space, time and body.  It was pretty cool but it isn't someting I seek.

Singer speaks about this practice in the below linked video. He too believes that most of a yoga practice occurs off the mat and off the cushion.

What do you think?

All is well. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( July 4, 2024) Journey from Distarction to Liberation. https://tou.org/talks/

Swami Satchidananda ( 2011) The Yoga Sutra's of Patanjali. Integral Yoga Publications

Recievers of Truth; Organs of Its Activity

 We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us recievers of its truth, and organ of its activity...we do nothing by ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was reminded of these words today when I was listening to Eckhart Tolle speak about breath awareness being the most essential practice that can take us to this space of "immense intelligence". It is a space we never leave though we are pulled away from that truth by  our content of consciousness.

Tolle reminds us to look at this space as 

...consciousness without the content of consciousness...a room with all furniture removed.

I love that idea of just resting in the space...undisturbed by the content of consciousness...this busy mind that so often gets lost in the self created drama of "little me".  'This human', I remind myself again and again, is not who I am so its drama is irrevalent.  We are all just conduits for this truth of consciousness to pour through and as body we are the organ of its activity.  We are that consciousness, not the body or the personality it is in. We all want to fall back into that conscious space whether we know we do or not. We know this "little me" is in the way. 

There is an unconscious desire in every human being to be free of the self.

Most of us  are not truly experiencing each moment as the Self , this consciousness that we are. We walk around serving this  little self instead...doing, thinking, chasing, and or pushing away truth. We collect knowledge but we know nothing.

[As a society] we have a lot of knowledge but no knowing....we have lost touch with the Source, God if you like,

Falling back into the space,  into this lap of intelligence will remind us of what is important and what is known...the Source of all.

All is well in my world.

Eckhart Tolle ( July 2, 2024) The Most Powerful Spiritual Practice for Daily Life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfvovzMMxLI&t=731s

Living Without the Buzz

 You are whole and complete within yourself.

I know it but I have not yet experienced that truth above.

Awkward Stage: Clean but not Clear

I feel like what I imagine a recovering  alcholic feels a few months into their recovery, when they are clean but not yet clear..  This stage occurs after they realized the seeking of the buzz was a problem  never giving them what they truly needed...taking them to a life where that buzz seeking became everything. Then they asked, "Was it worth it?"  And the answer they received was "no".  They woke  up to the reality the buzz never lasts, that it is only a temporary escape from reality, never lasting, This thing they were constantly seeking in their highs and their drunken stupors was not the problem, their seeking of it was. So they stopped seeking. They become clean.

Being Clean Isn't Easy

Without seeking there is no immediate gratification, no buzz. On top of that they are dealing with the unpleasant reality of life...without the buzz to hide behind.  Not fun! Even more challenging...all the stuff they stuffed below their addiction, that they were running from or attempting to escape through their buzz seeking, is now coming up. Ugh!!!

They are, at this stage,clean but not clear.

I am, at this stage of my practice, clean but not clear.

I too stopped seeking for things out there. I have given up this erronous and self deceptive notion that anything out there has the power to make me happy.  I truly realize that nothing out there can sustain me or fulfill me.  I truly do realize that peace, happiness, joy, and love are already in me.  I truly do realize that the problem isn't so much the things I used to chase after but my reasons for wanting them: to escape, to appease a tormented inside world. I see the precipitating factors of my own very normal and socially accepted human addiction: these samskaras I have that my ego wants to keep down.

Without the Buzz

Seeing that and knowing that,  I am at a really uncomfortable stage. Reality is not fun at this stage. It is easy to be tempted or to slip. When I catch myself seeking to make it better...just as an alcholic reaches for the glass...I catch myself and say, "No, that is not going to work.  Whatever I get from that is not going to last.  It is not going to bring joy.  What I need is already in me." Then I step back...just like the alcholic might step away from the bar.  I go without the buzz and I turn around to face reality straight on! Ugh!

I truly, truly believe that everything I need is in me already. I do.  I am not feeling it all the time, if at all, but I know it is there.  I know the reason I am not feeling it is because I have a big heavy curtain between it and my evolving consciousness. My samskaras are in the way.

Obstructed

I feel like cat with a big giant furball in my sushumna. I know it needs to come up.  I am going to be in pain until it does. I stopped trying to resist it when it comes up, or life when it triggers me. I stopped  pushing it back  down.  I go between  trying to cough it up and just passively waiting for it to come up.  It is awakward and unpleasant but I know it is obstructing that which I truly want...freedom and a love for life that is unimpeded by all the trigger and craps it is getting hit by. I want it up and I want it out.

I feel glimpses of light escaping through this blockage like an alcholic probably feels in their early recovery.  I do feel lighter without all this resistance.  Surrender certainly brings peace but I am not happy. This stuff inside is heavy and though I can not define it by shape or size I feel it pulling me down.  I want it out! I want to move to the next stage of recovery. I  not only want to be clean but I want to be clear. Sigh!

And I am constantly tempted.  I catch myself triggered and "wanting".  I catch myself thinking, "If I could only do this for my children...get them there...then I would find peace. If I  could only finish this book and get it out there...maybe I will make money off it, some distracting notoriety,  at the same time I serve...If only I could  get my PHd so I could escape this feeling of inadeqaucy I have. ...I would be happy then." I still get caught up in hoping that things out there will change so things in here will feel better.  I forget that my mission is to change in here regardless of what is happening out there.  I forget that my mission is to clear out the junk. Sigh!  I am committed to that.

That hope for easier external events to deal with, however, used to give me a buzz.  I miss that buzz. 

Oh well, I haven't slipped too much.  I am committed to my practice. It is just a challenging stage to be in. At the same time I know it is an imporatnt stage to be in.  I am so grateful that I am no longer escaping reality.  I am so grateful that I am here. 

I just keep reminding myself that I am whole and complete within myself. Someday the furball and all the samskaras will be gone. Someday I will be clear and free.Sigh!

Hmm! All is well in my world. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe. (July 1, 2024) Truth-Looking Beyond the Appearance of Things. https://tou.org/talks/

Preferring Everything

 The great way is not difficult...for those who prefer everything.

Michael Singer 

Can you learn to love life, all of life?

You were born and you are going to die. What happens in between is 100% your responsibility. 

Wow! That was the wisdom picked up from today's talk.  I agree 100% with that logic now, though I didn't always. I used to set goals like most of us do...I still catch myself doing it at times.

We tend to set up our goals like this: " I will be happy as long as I get everything I want all the time." 

Is that realistic? 

I too used to ask myself and others, "How do I get what I want to feel happy and loved?  What do I do?" 

Social conditioning tells us to, " Set your goals, look this way, act that way, work really hard to get this or that etc." 

That is society's answer to that question.  I used to play that game until I realized this conditioned answer was not the solution but the problem! Not only is the conditioned answer the problem, but our question is the problem. 

It took me a long time to realize that if I wanted to feel happiness and love I had to stop looking out there for it. The wise ones teach that happiness, joy, and peace are already in us.  Instead of focusing on that question then ..."What do I do? Where do I go? etc",  we need to start focusing on why we are  not feeling bliss all the time even when we do nothing.

"Why am I not feeling the happiness, love  and bliss already within me....the sat chit ananda?"

The answer to that question is, "You are not accepting Life as it is.  You are resisting and in your resistance you stuffed and stored so many emotionally charged impressions. You have blocked the natural flow of this energy." 

When we hear this and really get it, it is like, "Wow! So what do I do about it?"

The answer to that one is simple too, "Stop resisting! And allow your insides to self clean."

''What does non resistance look like?"

It is a matter of just realizing that whatever happened hapened; whatever is happening is happening for a billion different reasons that have nothing to do with "this human" and a few that do. It is.  You cannot change what happened in the past and only a small sliver of what is happening now...so instead of closing up and sayng" No!!!! This shouldn't be!" which changes absolutely nothing other than worsening the mess you have inside...Try saying " It is!  It happened."  And accept it! Be willing to not only accept reality but to prefer it."

 Things are what they are. Things happen because of cause and effect. We just need to accept that and relax into it. When we don't resist we stay open.  When we stay open the amazing exprience of Life will come in, we will experience it, and then it will flow right through. We will stop storing stuff that blocks our flow. When we stop putting more stuff in on top, the old stuff already inside that naturally wants to come up for release, will be able to do so.  That energy we want to experience...that happiness, love, and joy will push whatever is in its way  up and out if we let it, if we stay open. Then we will expereince sat chit anada!

Wow! There truly is nothing to be done when we approach everything Life hands us as if we prefer it.

Stop preferring that Life be a certain way so you can feel happy. Start preferring everything Life offers you and you will stay open to the beauty and magic of this experience.  Your natural and innate happiness, love, and joy will flow. 

Yeah...that is the truth.

All is well. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( June 30, 2024) Leraning to Prefer Reality. https://tou.org/talks/

Evolving Beyond the "me" and the Thinking Mind.

 

My life is my message.

Gandhi

My life, I hope, will prove to be  the message I leave behind for the world.  I want to make every moment about evolving and connecting with what is really important. Iwant to honor all of it, the ups and the downs, as being an important part of the process. 

Any life form only grows through challenge. This is what the process of evolution is...challenge brings in a flux of energy...needed to overcome limitations. The body will not grow stronger unless you make life difficult for it [through exercise]. [Challenge creates] a demand for more energy.

Eckhart Tolle

So this process of awakening is all about going up a level of  energy at a time.  This energy , of course, in yoga is called Shakti. In other traditions it is called Chi, the way, the Holy Spirit etc. In science it may be called "the field" or simply energy. Often this going up occurs because of challenge. Something shakes us out of our stuck positions. 

Ram Dass tells us that we all  get to a point where we begin to use  all of Life for the process of awakening...the ups and the lows. I hope I am there.

He also says , in order to evolve, we need to stand back away from the thinking mind. The mind is only one system for knowing the universe. It is the subject observing the object. We need to stand back from the universe in order to know the universe. Knowing about the spirit is different than knowing the spirit.

Yet, is that enough? 

He goes on to say that the sum of all anaytical thinking is not enough.  You are not your thinking mind. Another way of being...is not just knowing the universe as object but being a part of the universe as subject...

We need to basically stop thinking about me and therefore stop strengthening those parts of the brain and those pathways that keep us preoccupied with me. (Siegel)

We are not that self concept we created and are so identified with. "I am and I think"...is more true than Descartes,  "I think therefore I am."

Why are we so stuck there in that identification? 

We basically create the universe we are living in with our thoughts. We go about our worldly days.selecting all sensory input/ perceptions that fit our personal desires or needs with  thinking mind. We create a sense of self in this world that we created. It becomes 'real' to us. 

We forget that  all this drama and personality we created is just the foreground of our expereince here.  We are so glued to this foreground because it is so busy and demanding of our attention that we fail to see the background. Behind the thinking mind and all it creates is an infinite field of awareness or consciousness. That background is the true reality.

Transcendence  can happen when something challenges our usual way of approaching the universe with the thinking mind. We begin to see that which we are staring at as nothing more than moving clouds. We see what is beyond those moving clouds as the true reality.. 

This is a tier by tier process for most of us as we progress through one layer of cloud to another. We progress through the cloud of "It is all physical"...to it is all "mental, emotional beyond the physical"...to that which exists a bit behind the mind...what is called the astral body in yoga...and then we go farther and begin to see the soul in others and ourselves.  We have not transcended completely at this point though. It is not until we  lose the observer/observed and become one that we have completely transcended. It is there where there will be nothing yet everything. We are no longer the observer or the observed.

The energy that Tolle is addressing, that increases  with this evolutionary process is shakti, chi, energy, the Holy Spirit...whatever you want to call it.  The higher we go, which is actually the "deeper" we go, the higher this energy gets. 

The process of  awakening is the process of extracting yourself from every plane of reality. 

When we have transcended, there is no more need for mind, for words or for concepts.  We will be in the position Dante was in when he said:

I saw more than I can say.

All is well in my world.

Ram Dass/ Be Here Now Network. (June 2024) Ram Dass- The Up Level- Here and Now Podcast. Episode 254 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0DdPR6-F2k

Daniel Siegal ( 2020) Aware. Tarcher-Pedigee

Eckhart Tolle (June, 2024) On the True Purpose of Life: Beyond the Pursuit of Happiness-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBNt2nFzwFo

Just Be In It!

Life is a wonderful Dance. It is all amazing...even the mess inside. So, just be in it!

This human I call "me"

There is no right way to live...no "right" life.  I mean I try to follow the eight fold path of Buddhism because of its pure practicality, and there are a lot of "rights' in there lol, but really when we go deep there is just life doing life and all of us mixed up humans doing human. There is no right or wrong about any of it. There is certainly wiser and more skillful ways to approach this life...meaning choices that will bring us closer to what is really important and choices that will slow that process or even impede it...but right or wrong?...Nah...I am starting to see more and more that Hamlet was right on the mark.  "Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so." 

I often ask myself, "Am I doing enough?" This version of life this human I call me is living seems to lack a lot of doing and a lot of having (albeit I am fully aware that I do and have more than many).Am I doing Life right?

For the first time in the 60 some years I have been tramping around on this planet ... I am seeing things clearly. There is no doing it right...In fact, I see that  "doing" is so irrevelent. What is important is the being. We do not have to "do" Life,we just have to be in it. 

Are you in Life? Or are you in your head, your busy doing, your distractions, your seeking and behaving, grasping and reaching for something out there  that you erronously think will fix your messy insides? Are you in this moment, right here and now, allowing yourself to experience  whatever it offers or are you doing whatever you can to escape it?  Are you living Life or resisting Life?

Singer reminds us that we are here on this planet for one reason ...you are doing it for the same reason...to learn to handle reality....It is the meaning of your Life to have a beautiful life. ...Lift your thoughts up to reality.

The reality of Life is that it is all amazing.  Just being here is amazing. The bodies we are in are miraculous and amazing...trillions of cells perfectly capable of looking after themselves...growing, healing. getting rid of what is harmful. What we can do with our minds is amazing...the creativity, the beauty we can create. OMG! The planet is amazing. The experience of being on this planet is amazing. And we get to dance this imperfect but amazing dance. 

You know what is even more amazing? The conscious presence that we are, that is observing all these amazing things. That is even more amazing than this experience. Yet, we do not know that because we do not know that consciousness. If we knew it, if we allowed ourselves to be in it we would see the truth, There is no failure or success, no wrong or right...there is just this amazing journey of learning to do better. 

Earth is the place where souls are sent to evolve. It is not what you are doing it is how you are doing it....do the best you can and whatever comes back is holy. 

So what is the mess inside all about?  I think this mess we have inside is beautiful too. Yeah, we put it there but then we get to have the amazing experience of unputting it lol. We get to heal and learn as we do. 

We just have to use every moment of our lives as an opportunity for learning how to get rid of the mess and do better.  That is a true spiritual practice.  Step back, as objective observer, and watch the human that is you trip and fall and get back up again. Watch it take ten giant steps forward and get stuck...then another  twenty steps forward and fall etc. See it all as the amazing dance it is.

Just be in it!!!

All is well in my world. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( June 27, 2024) Integrating Spituality into your Daily Life. https://tou.org/talks/

Where the Mind Goes

The big secret: to be aware that you are conscious...to be aware of yourself as consciousness.

Eckhart Tolle

Tolle often speaks to the importance of getting beyond our tendency to narrate our way through life; to get past this tendency we have to speak and think about our little problems and dramas, which only gets us more  and more entrenched in this illusion that we are that. Most of us are caught up in the story of "me", thinking, thinking, thinking about how we can keep up with the proverbial rat race as we worry incessently about what others might think of us. That is a pretty common 'human thing', isn't it? 

Did you know though that it is actually a biological thing? Did you know there is a specific portion of the brain that is responsible for this self preoccupation?

In Aware, Daniel Siegel shares the research findings of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. Damasio explored the neural pathways of the brain (which is basically the direction and redirection of energy from one neuron to another). When we have a connection- pathway of firing neurons- between the medial prefrontal cortex, in the front of the brain, and the posterior cingulate cortex in the back of the brain...we have this sense of thinking about ourselves and worrying about what others think of us.  Though this connection (and the brain is constantly forming new pathways and connections as needed) is an evolutionary response to ensure our surival by making us aware of what we need to do to fit into the pack, it can become quite problematic , as we know, if it goes unchecked, These brain parts belong to something called the "default mode network" of the brain or the DMN....that automatic pilot that goes on without any effort from us.  If this DMN activity becomes isolated or cut off from other brain or body functioning...this sense of self preoccupation increases.  We will see ourselves as a "seperate self" rather than an integrated being in union with all of humanity, all of Life. Though we may still have an inherent need to fit in to the pack, we develop an even bigger need to defend and protect this "little me".  Life becomes "all about me". Isn't that where most of humanity is at?   

This "me" focus keeps us caught up in the stories we are creating to support it. Our focus and attention seems to get stuck on "Me and my life; me and my problems."   As long as our atention is there the neural energy will continue to go there. The "me" will continue to grow.  Siegel's famous line goes like this:

Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows. (page 19)

It is almost like the path ends there....stuck on me. So, how are we going to be aware of consciousness, if the mind is stuck on"me"? 

Simple. We redirect our energy. We widen the circuitry. We focus our attention off of "me" . 

Where do we put our attention?

Eventually our goal is to put it onto others, onto our connection with everything,  but we first must become aware of the consciousness that is observing all of this. That is where a mindfulness or meditation practice comes in. We use the brain activity that is already self focused to make it Self-focused.  We begin with pulling the mind's energy away from that part of the brain on which it is stuck, by distracting these pathways away from the mind's preoccupation. We train the mind to focus on the breath, what the senses are picking up, body sensations, and the mental and emotional things we are experiencing...not the content...just noticing the process. (We must be aware of how quickly thoughts, stories, feelings can pull us in if we are not committed to keeping our attention elsewhere.) We then bring our attention to the the absence or pausing of thought streams. We begin to see the consciousness which is embodying this mind and form temporarily, but not confined to it, observing as we make new pathways with our attention.

Remember with every pull away from the pathway that is recircling again and again around "me", the attention is redirected and setting up new healthier neural  pathways. When we begin to focus on "others", on our connectedness with the entire world, we have healthier, fuller brains/bodies and healthier, fuller lives.This is what Seigle referrs to as integration. 

This self obsession, we can imagine, may come from A DMN excessively linked within its own circuitry, and not connected to the wider neural systems in the brain, the body as a whole, or even the flow from others and the greater world. ...A more integrated DMN would instead involve processes of empathy and compassion, as well as a flexible form of self -awareness, harnessing the power of our social brains to focus beyond the solo-self. Page 138

When we can get past this focus on self, we can fall back into Self...becoming not only the Objective Observer of consciousness but consciouness itself. Maybe doing so would be easier if we realized that self, with the lower case 's',  is nothing more than a biological process, a concept stored in a neural circuit. Maybe Antonio Damsio was right?

You still have only one self and one identity. However, self, identity, and personality are not things. they are not objects, and they certainly aren't rigid. Instead they are biological processes built within the brain from numerous interactive components, step by step, over a period of time.

All is well.

Daniel J. Siegel (2020) Aware. tarcher perigee.

Eckhart Tolle (June, 2024) Transcending the Illusion of Time for Spiritual Growth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVuR9ygwRCw

Not Here To Make 'Me' Happy

 

It [the world; Life] is not here to make you happy. It is here to make you conscious.

Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle explained in the below linked video how many of us assume that Life's job is to make  us happy and when we are not happy it is because Life is witholding from us what it should be giving us. We look about us at the faces on social media or those we see passing us by on the street and think..."They look happy! What and why did life give them whatever it has given them, that it hasn't given me?" 

I caught myself doing that the other day. I have not been getting out much or doing what would be deemed by the social media pages as 'exciting or adventerous, what everyone should be doing if they are happy and living a full life'. No, my world these days entails a morning practice, followed by some soulful listening, this blog, some menial chores (done half assed) , in between the hours spent trying to finish a book my mind tells me I have no business writing but that I feel so compelled to finish, a few moments outside, maybe a walk in the woods, time with grandkids, the odd meal out, a yoga class three times a week, a few hours in the evening spent in front of the TV and ending with reading a few pages before crashing for the night. That's my life.  I am very comfortable in this routine.  I kind of like it even but....

As I was driving by a bunch of tourists the other day, watching couples walking hand and hand down the street, laughing and talking  as they explored this city, possibly for the first time, I felt this great sense of FOMO. It was like , "Oh man! They are "out" doing something in this life.  They are being fulfilled by excitement and adventure.  Life has given them what it hasn't given me."

 And when I am speaking to "successful" people...those who have their education all wrapped up in latin bows, or have earned a certain degree of wealth( or  are at the point they are not worried about money), or those who have published with acclaim...or those who have had their health conditions diagnosed early on, validated, and who have recieved the right treatment so they are not consumed with this health seeking shame, nor are they terrified about not being believed when they have to  'present' with a health issue, (I still dream about my struggle at night,,,it is a bit of a nightmare...it reminds me of how big of a samskara it is in me.)I feel this sense of FOMO again. Like " Why have I not been given those opportunities? Why did life take so much from me?"

The FOMO doesn't last long because I know as Tolle says, "It [the world; life] is not here to make you happy. It is here to make you conscious."I am blessed more than the others because Life is making me conscious, more and more so each and everyday, with every old challenge and every new one.  I am exactly where I am meant to be, doing what I am meant to do! I am waking up. Everything I do, albeit not all that exciting and adventerous, is a part of that waking up. How can life be any better than that?

This "me" I refer to when I say, "Why did Life withhold that from 'me'?", I know, more and more, is just a mental construct. It is not who I am.  Life did nothing to this "I am".  The 'me' attempts to make the impersonal nature of Life 'personal'; the "I am" accepts, embraces, and honors Life as it is, realizing 'personal' is just a  term I sometimes get caught up in.

So, it surprises me when I have these momentary glitches of falling into FOMO. I guess, I should be impressed with how quickly I come out of it now though. I come back to the truth quite quickly: Life is indeed making me more conscious.

All is well. 

Eckhart Tolle ( June 25, 2024) Eckhart Tolle on teh True Purpose of Life: Beyond the Pursuit of Happiness.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBNt2nFzwFo

Enjoying Disneyland

 

In this world but not of it...

This is uncanny again. "Be in the world but not of it"...were the exact words on my mind over the last 24 hours. 

I always had this strong inkling ever since I was tiny that I was not of this world, that I was a stranger in it and for that reason (amongst others) I never felt completely in the world or like I belonged to it. That feeling was one of the many things coming up from the closet of stuffed samskaras yesterday. And I was looking deeply at it in my objective observation.  

I think not feeling comfortable in this human skin (the space suit that we inhabit while here) is partly responsible for a sense of insecurity and anxiety many of us feel as we tramp around.  It also may be partly  responsible for this very common experience many of us have of feeling like we are "different" and not enough. We have a sense of being strangers in a strange land. We spend our lives trying to assimilate and fit into this world to ease this innate sense of not belonging. That becomes our focus...how can we fit in to the human drama, like everyone else? So we focus on the human, the space suit we are in, and polish it and maintain it, decorate it, or  hide it so it blends in...We do our best to build it up and to protect it. 

We listen to the fear and heed it. We build preferences and expectations of how it should be out there to make it less "strange and uncomfortable" for this being inside the space suit.  We, then resist so much of this experience of life as it unfolds in front of us. It isn't fun!We stuff so much stuff in here with us and it just gets more and more uncomfortable. So we resist more and stuff more.

Sigh!

Yes, we are in the world but not of it.  We are temporarily here to experience this world, to taste, touch, see, hear, and smell all it has to offer as it passes through.  It is meant to pass through. We are here to learn and to grow. We are here to stay open and enjoy it. And there is so much to enjoy!! Singer tells us that  Planet Earth is God's idea of Disney World. 

We are on this amazing planet with all these awesome  experiences it has to offer for only a short time.  It is a vacation we are meant to enjoy.  These spacesuits are supposed to make that happen not imprison us! We were not meant to forget ourselves and identify with the space suit. We are the visitor inside the space suit! 

Yes, we are visiting here for a number of years....just visiting, with this amazing opportunity to experience and enjoy this vacation land and all it has to offer. We are not the spacesuits...we are that which is inside it.  If we put our focus on the being we are, remembering where we come from, rather than being all caught up in this overloaded suit and trying to fit into the world in the way our fear based mind tells us we shoud...we would be free. We would recognize our omniscient, ominpresent, and omnipotent nature. We would climb up on every ride that showed up in front of us and laugh, cry, scream, and even vomit our way through it...enjoying all of it. We would embrace this awesome opportunity whether it lasts ten years or 110 years...doesn't matter. ...we would enjoy Disney land. 

That is what I was thinking about yesterday . Then I open up to yesterday's podcast and the title is " In the world but not of it." Go figure.

All is well in this world.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( June 24, 2024) In the World but Not of It. https://tou.org/talks/

Kindness, Empathy, and Compassion

Kindness sets the mind for being open and caring; empathy sets the mind for deep feeling, sharing,and understanding; compassion primes the mind for connecting in feeling, thought, and action around suffering and its alleviation. 

Daniel Siegel, Awareness, page 104

A Very Common Question

 

What do you need and want from your Life in order to be happy?

A very common question.

"What do you need or want from your life?''

 I am always stunned by that question when others ask it because I don't know.  I usually say things like, "I don't know if I want or need anything from out there.   I really just want to be able to be peaceful and open no matter what hapens."

They will then counter with a, "Come on...I mean what do you...as a person...beneath all this spiritual crap you do ...want and need ?"

I want to tell them that I am not just a person...I am that which observes the person but I know that won't get me anywhere lol, so I play along by saying, "I want my children to be well, I want to be happy and living life fully, I want what I need to survive."

They will then say, "No, no, what do you want and need from life so you are happy?"  

And I just say, "Happiness comes from inside.  I want to be able to acess it."

At this point they tend to get quite frustrated with me. "No ! No ! No! If life was matching you, as a person,  what would it look like?" 

I usually sigh and give in at that point, "If life was matching my 'little me's' needs I would be free from suffering.  I would not feel so sick or disturbed everytime I looked around at my surroundings  and the beings in it,  seeing how much had to be done, fixed and improved. I would not feel that deep sense of obgligation , shame and fear when I do. There would be less entrophy ...the world around me would stop retreating into chaos...and by some means I would have the energy and power to keep it  in some semblance of  order. There would be less suffering."

"Less suffering? Oh my God!Will you stop with that woo-woo nonsense and the negativity? " they will usually counter again. "Just tell me what you want and need from life  to be happy. Put it in a positive way.  This is supposed to be a fun question to answer.  It shouldn't feel like pulling teeth. What would life be like if it was the way you wanted it to be?" 

It is then that I sigh and ask myself, 'What does this little me want?'  I take a deep breath and answer, " I would be surrounded by healthy, happy loved ones; I would be writing and publishing, studying and tidying up the education I have so far into  neat little packages.  I would have enough in my bank account that I didnt have to worry about money.  I would spend my days writing, sharing, and teaching. I would travel. I would explore and spend lots of time in the natural world. My environment would be neat, tidy, and well maintained. I would be the healthiest I could be physically and emotionally. And I would still be practicing in the way I do. "

"That's more like it" , they would likely say, "that is what you should be working towards." 

They seem to feel better with this answer than the others. Heck, I seem to feel better with this answer.  I even feel hope that maybe this human that I am a part of  could find a certain salvation in the outside world.  Maybe if it had all these things, had its needs met in this way...it would or could be happy. Hmm?

I start imagining all these things and it feels good. I imagine the desiring self as who I am again. My energy rises.  I am, as this little me,  feeling excited.  I am even tempted to put all these things down on a dream board or to attempt to manifest them in some other way. It feels good. Shakti is flowing. 

That is until the wise part of me makes itself known, drowning out the voice of this conditioned psyche with a "Now, now.  You know better than that. You do not need to manifest things or circumstances from the outside world.  You just need to keep practicing in the way you are practicing.  You need to keep going inward and allowing the healing there.  You don't need anything out here but what is necessary for the body's survival. You just need to purify. Purification is what will give you the peace you long for. It will allow you to notice, accept, experience, honour, embrace, and then release what is. Then if these things show up in your life... Great.  If they don't, so be it! No problem.  That doesn't mean you don't do anything. By all means: write, teach, look for ways to earn money, and do what you can to alleviate suffering in this world.  Just don't be too hung up on the outcome. That will trip you up if you are. Make your practice as the Objective Observer the most important thing in your life and all else will fall into order...maybe not an order you will recognize and understand...but an order just the same."

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6: 33 KJV

I don't tell the questioner all that though. I just take another deep breath as I thank Life for showing me what is real again. Then I smile and change the subject.

All is well.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( June 23, 2024) Consciousness, energery, and the "I" in Between.https://tou.org/talks/