Do you remember a time when you were dog-tired,
And it felt as if the whole world was coming down on you?
Yet, when you woke up the next morning,
Rested and refreshed,
Those same things didn't look nearly as calamitous
As they had the night before?
It feels similar when we change our point of view,
Our perspective,
Our way of seeing "It",
Our level of being......
When we look at something from a different viewpoint,
We can get an entirely fresh perspective on it;
We can see things we couldn't see before,
And things that previously seemed so monstrous,
Suddenly take on an entirely different shape.
There is, however, a cost to this --
In order to see something from somewhere else,
We do have to relinquish the position we're standing on,
And human minds just hate doing that.
We don't, however, have to make our present position "Wrong" in order to get off it;
We just have to let go our righteous, compulsive grip on it.
We don't have to make a new possibility "right" in order to try it on,
We just have to give it a sincerely curious "maybe...let's see."
Isn't it wonderful to know
That we all have the power and the ability
To change our experience of what is so for us
At will?
Simply by changing our point of view
(i.e. the point from which we view it).
Having gotten a new perspective, though, we have to be ready
To let that go, too,
Before it becomes another fixed position --
Another set of concrete boots to weigh us down.
Take what you get,
And become another context,
Another level of awareness and being,
And get yet another perspective,
And another one,
And yet another........
Ad infinitum.............
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
LAYERS OF ENERGY & AWARENESS
Our only reality is our here/now experience of a thing, person or event;
If something isn't in your experience, it isn't real --
It doesn't exist -- to you.
It you believe something exists,
Then your experience is of the belief, not of the thing itself.
But even the experiences we do actually have
Are abstract, unpredictable, not-measurable, and cannot be agreed upon;
In fact, the very opposite of what we assume reality to be
(i.e. concrete, predictable, measurable, and something we can agree on)
Moreover, experiences that we consider to be "real"
Vary in intensity from strong to weak,
In length from moments to decades,
And can come up and/or evaporate over a lifetime or in an instant.
In short, Experience -- our only reality -- is highly ephemeral and exclusively personal
Even while it's happening.
If two people are present at the same event,
There are two very discrete experiences of that event happening.
So-called Agreement is, at best, limited and highly unreliable
Because, given the fact that our actual-feeling-experiences differ,
We don't really know 100% what it is we're actually agreeing on.....
We can't agree about that.
And "sharing an experience" is just not possible --
I cannot have your experience, nor can you have mine.
"Sharing experience" is a cosy superstition,
Beloved of romantics and sentimentalists,
But nothing more.
The best that being human allows us to do
Is for you to have your experience
And me to have mine --
Together.
We can always compare notes
And gain some depth from the binocular synergy.
That ain't so bad, is it?
What we experience is very largely determined
By the level of Awareness and Energy we're in at the time of the experience.
Things that are obvious at one level of awareness
May appear very different,
Or even be completely invisible at another.
When someone sincerely declares "I have no option",
It may be absolutely pointless arguing that point;
The other, if willing, must be taken on a journey to another level of awareness
Where he/she can see other possibilities for themselves.
This is why really effective communicators spend a good deal of time and energy corralling their audience into some kind of unifying Context before they even attempt to evoke any major insights or experience.
There are differing ways of viewing things
That emanate from differing points on a sliding scale
Of Awareness.
This scale ranges from -- at one end -- an almost universal, "in-here"/"me", separating perspective
That usually blankets our thinking and feeling,
To the other end of the perspective spectrum --
A much less-common, wider and more unifying, "out-here"/"us" standpoint.
An event witnessed while we're parked at the lower end of this Awareness/Energy scale
Is going to be a very different experience from the same event
If it's experienced from the higher end.
In other words, the quality and content of what you're experiencing will depend a lot
On what you're wallowing in or floating on, and the mood you're in, at the time.
I want to make the point very strongly
That the words "lower" and "higher", when applied to levels of awareness,
Indicate the vibrational frequency of the experience,
And not to any moral evaluation of "right" or "wrong''.
I am not inferring that one end of the scale is "good",
And the other, "bad".
On the contrary,
My suggestion is that, no matter where we think we are on the Enheavyment/lightenment Scale,
We would benefit as human-beings
From broadening our willingness
To experience more of the spectrum than we currently allow.
At the moment when we get out of our heads,
When something happens that provokes us
To see something differently,
When perception clicks from a narrower "me" to a wider "us" perspective,
Or vice versa,
There lies a moment of insight and awakening --
An "A-hah!"
The more often we're willing to change our mind,
The more "A-Haha's"" we're bound to get......
"A-hah, a-hah, a-hah, hah, hah, hah............."
Pschoanalytic science and practice does its work at the crude "Me" end of the scale;
Spiritual awareness lies at the more refined, "Us" end of the axis.
Spirituality underpins the whole shebang
It's heartening to contemplate the possibility that
The more obvious motivations, attitudes, think-ings, fee-lings and do-ings
Originating from that unawakened "Me/My" viewpoint
Are relatively automatic reactions
To our being penetrated or perturbed
By higher energies that are emanating from an unperceived, subtler level of our being.
The urge to Evolve is knocking at the door.
Rather than complain about the interruption,
We may do well to answer the call.
But that requires a conscious effort to reach out
For something we've lost touch with......
Sometimes life feels as it we're living at the centre of a cocoon,
Surrounded, insulated and isolated
By layers of screens and filters to perception
Which open and close according to the overall level of awareness
We're in at the moment.
These filters and screens are energised selectively
By the differing levels of energy animating our awareness at the time.
Low-level "Me" awareness activates screening that allows in only self-reinforcing, low-level feelings, thoughts, and perceptions.
Higher-level stuff is there, but it just doesn't get through to us. We're not tuned into it.
For example, as I write this, my radio is tuned in to the ABC. I'm aware that other radio stations exist, and may well be broadcasting, but I can't hear them because I'm not tuned in to them.
Anything we're not tuned into, we don't experience, therefore we don't see or hear it -- it's "not-here",
Until something happens to change our point of view and re-tune us..........
It was mid-afternoon on a suburban commuter train. Much to the annoyance of some of the passengers, three children were running amok in one of the carriages, scuffling with each other, running up an down the aisle, calling to each other and squealing at the top of their lungs. Their father sat staring blankly at the floor, seemingly unaware of the antagonism being caused by his offspring's inappropriate behaviour. Suddenly, one of the children crashed into an elderly lady, hurting her leg. The lady's partner lost his patience. He called to the father -- "Hey! Get your children under control! Where do you think you are?!" Everyone froze. The father startled, looked up and focussed, then motioned for his children to sit down with him. He then spoke quietly to the other passengers -- "I'm sorry. I apologise for them. We've just come from the hospital. Their mother died this morning. I guess they just don't know how to deal with it. To be honest, neither do I. I'm sorry."
Something shifted. The pall of annoyance dissipated in an instant, to be replaced by something quite different.
The good news is that we don't have to wait upon chance circumstances
To knock us off a fixed position --
We can re-tune ourselves at will,
And the more willing we are to re-configure our selves
The more opportunities life dishes up for us to do just that.
When we shift our perception and tune ourselves in to finer energies,
The more sensitively aware we become
Of the fuller spectrum of what's available to us.
We are also capable of crossing several layers of awareness,
Either at once,
Or at least by shuttling very rapidly back and forth
(I'm not absolutely certain which....and it doesn't matter).
What does matter is that this ability to cover several layers of awareness
Exposes us to the challenging phenomena of Contradiction and Paradox.
It's very possible that something seen at a one level of awareness
Will be contradicted by another level awareness of the same thing.
(e.g. "Many hands make light work" -v- "Too many cooks spoil the broth". Both are true, but which truth you adopt will depend on your position at the time.)
At higher levels of awareness
We become more aware of, and capable of accommodating and balancing
Contradictory, rationally incompatible, or paradoxical perceptions
All at once.
It may be that this is why, when we feel spiritually, emotionally and intellectually depleted,
We stick to low-level stuff --
Life is simpler for us in that place.
We can believe what comforts us,
And don't have to face the added challenge
Of actually thinking and feeling outside the square for ourselves.
The downside of this protective shut-down is that,
At lower levels of energy
Our perceptions and awareness of options and choices are severely limited,
Not by the circumstances,
But by our inability to feel the finer stuff.
At lower levels of awareness, a greater intensity of energy is needed
In order for any thing to be felt --
The sledgehammer has to replace the feather.
At lower levels of awareness
We get addicted to Intensity --
A junk substitute for Aliveness.
We weren't born this way, by the way.
This numbing is self-inflicted.
We've responded to life's challenges by de-sensitising ourselves.
That process can be reversed,
But it requires conscious commitment.
In the meantime, remember this --
Regardless of the level of being we are in at any given moment,
Our experience is entirely cohesive, complete and compelling
While we are in it.
There's nothing else.
It's only when we change levels of awareness,
Consciously and often,
Across as many different layers as possible,
That we ever get to know and more fully appreciate
The totality of what we are.
An added bonus to changing levels of awareness is
We begin to drop our addictions to intensity;
We become ever more attuned to the qualities of experience available at each level,
And discover the pure, energetic Aliveness that remains
When we remove the emotional labels from an experience we're having.
For example, "fear" and "excitement" are identical experiences,
But with different labels attached.
We react to the assumptive labels
And miss the gift of the energy.
Tags like excitement, anger, sadness, grief, anxiety..... and so on
That we attach to energy,
Dis-guise and blind us to the abundance and real nature of the intrinsic Aliveness
That could invigorate us,
If only we'd retire the negative judgments
We put on some of the forms in which energy comes.
If something isn't in your experience, it isn't real --
It doesn't exist -- to you.
It you believe something exists,
Then your experience is of the belief, not of the thing itself.
But even the experiences we do actually have
Are abstract, unpredictable, not-measurable, and cannot be agreed upon;
In fact, the very opposite of what we assume reality to be
(i.e. concrete, predictable, measurable, and something we can agree on)
Moreover, experiences that we consider to be "real"
Vary in intensity from strong to weak,
In length from moments to decades,
And can come up and/or evaporate over a lifetime or in an instant.
In short, Experience -- our only reality -- is highly ephemeral and exclusively personal
Even while it's happening.
If two people are present at the same event,
There are two very discrete experiences of that event happening.
So-called Agreement is, at best, limited and highly unreliable
Because, given the fact that our actual-feeling-experiences differ,
We don't really know 100% what it is we're actually agreeing on.....
We can't agree about that.
And "sharing an experience" is just not possible --
I cannot have your experience, nor can you have mine.
"Sharing experience" is a cosy superstition,
Beloved of romantics and sentimentalists,
But nothing more.
The best that being human allows us to do
Is for you to have your experience
And me to have mine --
Together.
We can always compare notes
And gain some depth from the binocular synergy.
That ain't so bad, is it?
What we experience is very largely determined
By the level of Awareness and Energy we're in at the time of the experience.
Things that are obvious at one level of awareness
May appear very different,
Or even be completely invisible at another.
When someone sincerely declares "I have no option",
It may be absolutely pointless arguing that point;
The other, if willing, must be taken on a journey to another level of awareness
Where he/she can see other possibilities for themselves.
This is why really effective communicators spend a good deal of time and energy corralling their audience into some kind of unifying Context before they even attempt to evoke any major insights or experience.
There are differing ways of viewing things
That emanate from differing points on a sliding scale
Of Awareness.
This scale ranges from -- at one end -- an almost universal, "in-here"/"me", separating perspective
That usually blankets our thinking and feeling,
To the other end of the perspective spectrum --
A much less-common, wider and more unifying, "out-here"/"us" standpoint.
An event witnessed while we're parked at the lower end of this Awareness/Energy scale
Is going to be a very different experience from the same event
If it's experienced from the higher end.
In other words, the quality and content of what you're experiencing will depend a lot
On what you're wallowing in or floating on, and the mood you're in, at the time.
I want to make the point very strongly
That the words "lower" and "higher", when applied to levels of awareness,
Indicate the vibrational frequency of the experience,
And not to any moral evaluation of "right" or "wrong''.
I am not inferring that one end of the scale is "good",
And the other, "bad".
On the contrary,
My suggestion is that, no matter where we think we are on the Enheavyment/lightenment Scale,
We would benefit as human-beings
From broadening our willingness
To experience more of the spectrum than we currently allow.
At the moment when we get out of our heads,
When something happens that provokes us
To see something differently,
When perception clicks from a narrower "me" to a wider "us" perspective,
Or vice versa,
There lies a moment of insight and awakening --
An "A-hah!"
The more often we're willing to change our mind,
The more "A-Haha's"" we're bound to get......
"A-hah, a-hah, a-hah, hah, hah, hah............."
Pschoanalytic science and practice does its work at the crude "Me" end of the scale;
Spiritual awareness lies at the more refined, "Us" end of the axis.
Spirituality underpins the whole shebang
It's heartening to contemplate the possibility that
The more obvious motivations, attitudes, think-ings, fee-lings and do-ings
Originating from that unawakened "Me/My" viewpoint
Are relatively automatic reactions
To our being penetrated or perturbed
By higher energies that are emanating from an unperceived, subtler level of our being.
The urge to Evolve is knocking at the door.
Rather than complain about the interruption,
We may do well to answer the call.
But that requires a conscious effort to reach out
For something we've lost touch with......
Sometimes life feels as it we're living at the centre of a cocoon,
Surrounded, insulated and isolated
By layers of screens and filters to perception
Which open and close according to the overall level of awareness
We're in at the moment.
These filters and screens are energised selectively
By the differing levels of energy animating our awareness at the time.
Low-level "Me" awareness activates screening that allows in only self-reinforcing, low-level feelings, thoughts, and perceptions.
Higher-level stuff is there, but it just doesn't get through to us. We're not tuned into it.
For example, as I write this, my radio is tuned in to the ABC. I'm aware that other radio stations exist, and may well be broadcasting, but I can't hear them because I'm not tuned in to them.
Anything we're not tuned into, we don't experience, therefore we don't see or hear it -- it's "not-here",
Until something happens to change our point of view and re-tune us..........
It was mid-afternoon on a suburban commuter train. Much to the annoyance of some of the passengers, three children were running amok in one of the carriages, scuffling with each other, running up an down the aisle, calling to each other and squealing at the top of their lungs. Their father sat staring blankly at the floor, seemingly unaware of the antagonism being caused by his offspring's inappropriate behaviour. Suddenly, one of the children crashed into an elderly lady, hurting her leg. The lady's partner lost his patience. He called to the father -- "Hey! Get your children under control! Where do you think you are?!" Everyone froze. The father startled, looked up and focussed, then motioned for his children to sit down with him. He then spoke quietly to the other passengers -- "I'm sorry. I apologise for them. We've just come from the hospital. Their mother died this morning. I guess they just don't know how to deal with it. To be honest, neither do I. I'm sorry."
Something shifted. The pall of annoyance dissipated in an instant, to be replaced by something quite different.
The good news is that we don't have to wait upon chance circumstances
To knock us off a fixed position --
We can re-tune ourselves at will,
And the more willing we are to re-configure our selves
The more opportunities life dishes up for us to do just that.
When we shift our perception and tune ourselves in to finer energies,
The more sensitively aware we become
Of the fuller spectrum of what's available to us.
We are also capable of crossing several layers of awareness,
Either at once,
Or at least by shuttling very rapidly back and forth
(I'm not absolutely certain which....and it doesn't matter).
What does matter is that this ability to cover several layers of awareness
Exposes us to the challenging phenomena of Contradiction and Paradox.
It's very possible that something seen at a one level of awareness
Will be contradicted by another level awareness of the same thing.
(e.g. "Many hands make light work" -v- "Too many cooks spoil the broth". Both are true, but which truth you adopt will depend on your position at the time.)
At higher levels of awareness
We become more aware of, and capable of accommodating and balancing
Contradictory, rationally incompatible, or paradoxical perceptions
All at once.
It may be that this is why, when we feel spiritually, emotionally and intellectually depleted,
We stick to low-level stuff --
Life is simpler for us in that place.
We can believe what comforts us,
And don't have to face the added challenge
Of actually thinking and feeling outside the square for ourselves.
The downside of this protective shut-down is that,
At lower levels of energy
Our perceptions and awareness of options and choices are severely limited,
Not by the circumstances,
But by our inability to feel the finer stuff.
At lower levels of awareness, a greater intensity of energy is needed
In order for any thing to be felt --
The sledgehammer has to replace the feather.
At lower levels of awareness
We get addicted to Intensity --
A junk substitute for Aliveness.
We weren't born this way, by the way.
This numbing is self-inflicted.
We've responded to life's challenges by de-sensitising ourselves.
That process can be reversed,
But it requires conscious commitment.
In the meantime, remember this --
Regardless of the level of being we are in at any given moment,
Our experience is entirely cohesive, complete and compelling
While we are in it.
There's nothing else.
It's only when we change levels of awareness,
Consciously and often,
Across as many different layers as possible,
That we ever get to know and more fully appreciate
The totality of what we are.
An added bonus to changing levels of awareness is
We begin to drop our addictions to intensity;
We become ever more attuned to the qualities of experience available at each level,
And discover the pure, energetic Aliveness that remains
When we remove the emotional labels from an experience we're having.
For example, "fear" and "excitement" are identical experiences,
But with different labels attached.
We react to the assumptive labels
And miss the gift of the energy.
Tags like excitement, anger, sadness, grief, anxiety..... and so on
That we attach to energy,
Dis-guise and blind us to the abundance and real nature of the intrinsic Aliveness
That could invigorate us,
If only we'd retire the negative judgments
We put on some of the forms in which energy comes.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
MAYBE
"Maybe" saved me from an early death-by-reason.
I'm "blessed" with a virulently skeptical, righteously judgmental and inflexible mind,
Hopelessly at odds with an indefatigably curious spirit.
Somewhere, sometime, at just the right moment
I stumbled across the idea of a universal Maybe file.
I was working very, very hard to change my fortunes,
But the more I changed, the more things stayed the same.
Quantum leaps into a new level of awareness just weren't happening for me.
Then I met a man who ruthlessly challenged some of my most deeply-held assumptions and beliefs.
He held up a mirror to me
And I didn't like what I saw --
Not one bit.
My mind went into open revolt.
But I was desperate for my life to work,
Desperate enough to give up the need to be "right".
An escape-hatch to freedom opened up
When I got that, while I have a mind and there's nothing I can do about that,
My mind is not what I am,
Nor am I anything my mind tells me about anything.
If I could ignore my mind, even for a moment,
Not only would I not die,
I might actually start to live!
I began looking for a way to side-step my revolting mind.
That's when I happened upon a trick
Of putting new concepts and ideas into a kind of buffer zone --
A "Possible File"
Where my ego cannot readily get at them
Without setting off alarm signals of
"Jealous Ego lurking".
Ego will do anything to protect its existing patterns and programming,
And is deeply suspicious of anything that doesn't "fit-in".
My mind hates permanent change;
It goes off its face at the threat of transformation.
[All human minds are like that --
Pay no attention.]
With a message on the door --
"Leave it with me; I'll get back to you."
I can just try them on and see what the experience feels like.
The judge and jury get no voice and no votes this room,
So that I can consciously postpone initial, automatic negative reactions
To "different" and new possible insights.
The Maybe Room is a fun place to be!
In this place, anything my imagination can conjure
Is possible.
I keep going back into this playroom to pretend --
To play a game of "What-If...?",
Until I can get a new view
From the place created by a fresh possibility;
Until a new level of perception dawns.
Once a new way of seeing is reached,
The "Ifs" and "Buts" dissolve
Like coffee in hot water.
And the store of Possibilities grows,
And another bondage is dissolved.
Then, more recently, came the miracle --
I discovered that the "Maybe File" isn't mine.
It is the womb of all existence that has always been.
"Maybe" is the place from which you and I arose,
The space in which we now live
And to which we will return
(Minus ego and body)
When we "die".
"Maybe" is a communal resource,
Infinite and accessible to you,
To me,
And to the whole of existence.
Why not try it for your self?
You don't need a special pass or licence --
You're already entitled.
Tap in --
There's plenty for all.
You've nothing to lose
(Except the dictatorship of your mind)
And everything to gain.
Perhaps...Perhaps....Perhaps.....
I'm "blessed" with a virulently skeptical, righteously judgmental and inflexible mind,
Hopelessly at odds with an indefatigably curious spirit.
Somewhere, sometime, at just the right moment
I stumbled across the idea of a universal Maybe file.
I was working very, very hard to change my fortunes,
But the more I changed, the more things stayed the same.
Quantum leaps into a new level of awareness just weren't happening for me.
Then I met a man who ruthlessly challenged some of my most deeply-held assumptions and beliefs.
He held up a mirror to me
And I didn't like what I saw --
Not one bit.
My mind went into open revolt.
But I was desperate for my life to work,
Desperate enough to give up the need to be "right".
An escape-hatch to freedom opened up
When I got that, while I have a mind and there's nothing I can do about that,
My mind is not what I am,
Nor am I anything my mind tells me about anything.
If I could ignore my mind, even for a moment,
Not only would I not die,
I might actually start to live!
I began looking for a way to side-step my revolting mind.
That's when I happened upon a trick
Of putting new concepts and ideas into a kind of buffer zone --
A "Possible File"
Where my ego cannot readily get at them
Without setting off alarm signals of
"Jealous Ego lurking".
Ego will do anything to protect its existing patterns and programming,
And is deeply suspicious of anything that doesn't "fit-in".
My mind hates permanent change;
It goes off its face at the threat of transformation.
[All human minds are like that --
Pay no attention.]
As an actor, I go into a costume fitting room -- to try things on.
It helps me "get" into the character.
In the same way, I go into my Maybe Room.
Things I cannot accept now go into this elastic buffer zoneWith a message on the door --
"Leave it with me; I'll get back to you."
My "Maybe Room" allows me to accept adventive ideas
Without necessarily buying into, or believing them;I can just try them on and see what the experience feels like.
The judge and jury get no voice and no votes this room,
So that I can consciously postpone initial, automatic negative reactions
To "different" and new possible insights.
The Maybe Room is a fun place to be!
In this place, anything my imagination can conjure
Is possible.
I keep going back into this playroom to pretend --
To play a game of "What-If...?",
Until I can get a new view
From the place created by a fresh possibility;
Until a new level of perception dawns.
Once a new way of seeing is reached,
The "Ifs" and "Buts" dissolve
Like coffee in hot water.
And the store of Possibilities grows,
And another bondage is dissolved.
Then, more recently, came the miracle --
I discovered that the "Maybe File" isn't mine.
It is the womb of all existence that has always been.
"Maybe" is the place from which you and I arose,
The space in which we now live
And to which we will return
(Minus ego and body)
When we "die".
"Maybe" is a communal resource,
Infinite and accessible to you,
To me,
And to the whole of existence.
Why not try it for your self?
You don't need a special pass or licence --
You're already entitled.
Tap in --
There's plenty for all.
You've nothing to lose
(Except the dictatorship of your mind)
And everything to gain.
Perhaps...Perhaps....Perhaps.....
THE CHARMS OF CIRCE
We get distracted from a higher level of consciousness
By emotional side-trips that dissipate energy
And by our mind's incessant need to figure-out and feel better.
These are the twin charms of Cice,
Luring us onto the rocks
Of dissatisfaction.
By emotional side-trips that dissipate energy
And by our mind's incessant need to figure-out and feel better.
These are the twin charms of Cice,
Luring us onto the rocks
Of dissatisfaction.
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
Unconditional love is a soul-space.
When we let-go into it
We see
The soup of lower-level reluctance
In which we were drowning.
When we let-go into it
We see
The soup of lower-level reluctance
In which we were drowning.
ADVANCED COMMUNICATION
The energetic context of an event is of more significance than the event itself.
After all is said and done,
The participants are unified or divided
By the context.
So, you'd better consciously create
A context that invites and integrates
Individual responses.
Don't leave that to chance.
In a lowered (normal) state of awareness
We become fixated upon,
Addicted to,
Or alienated from
An event and its cast of characters,
Without ever knowing the real reason why.
We get swept up in the Intensity
Rather than the intrinsic Quality of the energetic experience.
Caught in all the ways we deaden our selves,
We are junkies for fixes of false-aliveness.
It is no wonder that Inspiration gets better press
Than Empowerment.
We rarely experience the relevance of what's happening
To our whole being;
The whole person is never involved,
The experience is limited
To an immediate emotional or intellectual goosing.
Human energy coalesces and flourishes
When it is attracted to, couched in and focussed by a Unifying Context.
Contexts have to be consciously created;
That is your responsibility.
Within unifying contexts,
Barriers of self-consciousness and withhold are gradually let go of.
And each self merges willingly and unwillingly,
Gladly and reluctantly
Into the flow of the collective experience.
After all is said and done,
The participants are unified or divided
By the context.
So, you'd better consciously create
A context that invites and integrates
Individual responses.
Don't leave that to chance.
In a lowered (normal) state of awareness
We become fixated upon,
Addicted to,
Or alienated from
An event and its cast of characters,
Without ever knowing the real reason why.
We get swept up in the Intensity
Rather than the intrinsic Quality of the energetic experience.
Caught in all the ways we deaden our selves,
We are junkies for fixes of false-aliveness.
It is no wonder that Inspiration gets better press
Than Empowerment.
We rarely experience the relevance of what's happening
To our whole being;
The whole person is never involved,
The experience is limited
To an immediate emotional or intellectual goosing.
Human energy coalesces and flourishes
When it is attracted to, couched in and focussed by a Unifying Context.
Contexts have to be consciously created;
That is your responsibility.
Within unifying contexts,
Barriers of self-consciousness and withhold are gradually let go of.
And each self merges willingly and unwillingly,
Gladly and reluctantly
Into the flow of the collective experience.
TRANSMUTING FEELINGS
There are at least three ways of going about the adventure of transformation:
One is to attempt to change what is happening,
Another is to express the emotion of what is happening,
The third is to allow and experience what is happening.
Any attempt to change something involves a measure of resistance to the way that it is,
And (in varying degrees of subtlety)
Some denial and suppression of un-wanted feelings.
I have found that the way of Change sometimes works in the short-to-medium term,
But not beyond.
Eventually, dynamics seem to re-cycle,
Bringing me back to the same place of dis-satisfaction.
In the interim, I seem to be locked
Into a low-volume, low-frequency level of awareness and being.
A second way is to express long-repressed feelings,
As exemplified in Primal Therapy.
I tried it, wailing long and loud in a verbal colonic.
I've also listened long and often to others,
Catharting Complaint all over the place.
I found there's a very fine line in this approach
Between transforming a feeling on the one hand,
And, on the other, reinforcing and entrenching it.
Unless you're in the hands of a very good PT therapist,
You're almost certain to make your situation worse,
And things never get better.
It occurred to me one day while listening to a dear friend venting his spleen for the umpteenth time
That by purging his feelings, he was actually avoiding HAVING them.
While the feelings were blowing like steam from an over-pressured poppet valve,
His focus was on the never-ending story and the dramatis personae.
Catharting separating emotions feels so gratifying and gives temporary relief,
But there is no healing down that alley.
Emotional outbursts dissipate pent-up energy
But the thought patterns that created the story and gave form and focus to the energy in the first place
Are still there,
Reinforced,
Lurking,
Waiting to fire the boilers yet again and again.
Nothing is changing --
There's a short energy-boost of relief and gratification
But no satisfaction, total-being or transformation.
"Expression = Repression"
A third, less violent way of transforming is simply to by-pass our ego
And go directly to the feelings;
Drop the all-important "story",
Surrender to the feeling itself,
Enter it,
And transmute that energy
While it is happening.
I recommend this meditation not only with feelings you don't like,
But also with wonderful feelings
That, maybe, you may feel you cannot contain,
Or that you may be tempted to "silver-box" (preserve for later).......
Whenever a strong feeling is running,
(If possible, find a quiet place and put on some music suitable to your mood)
Locate the feeling in your body,
Let go of any labels (fear, anger, excitement) you may have attached to it,
And just note where it is in your body, its size, its colour and its shape,
And embrace it.
Then fan the coals of this pure feeling
Until the energy is heightened in volume and frequency,
Burning away all constriction or divisiveness.
Let it spread throughout your body,
Enlivening you through and through.
Keep going until all constriction is dissolved.
Repeat as often as you like.
This process is unifying and uplifting.
One is to attempt to change what is happening,
Another is to express the emotion of what is happening,
The third is to allow and experience what is happening.
Any attempt to change something involves a measure of resistance to the way that it is,
And (in varying degrees of subtlety)
Some denial and suppression of un-wanted feelings.
I have found that the way of Change sometimes works in the short-to-medium term,
But not beyond.
Eventually, dynamics seem to re-cycle,
Bringing me back to the same place of dis-satisfaction.
In the interim, I seem to be locked
Into a low-volume, low-frequency level of awareness and being.
A second way is to express long-repressed feelings,
As exemplified in Primal Therapy.
I tried it, wailing long and loud in a verbal colonic.
I've also listened long and often to others,
Catharting Complaint all over the place.
I found there's a very fine line in this approach
Between transforming a feeling on the one hand,
And, on the other, reinforcing and entrenching it.
Unless you're in the hands of a very good PT therapist,
You're almost certain to make your situation worse,
And things never get better.
It occurred to me one day while listening to a dear friend venting his spleen for the umpteenth time
That by purging his feelings, he was actually avoiding HAVING them.
While the feelings were blowing like steam from an over-pressured poppet valve,
His focus was on the never-ending story and the dramatis personae.
Catharting separating emotions feels so gratifying and gives temporary relief,
But there is no healing down that alley.
Emotional outbursts dissipate pent-up energy
But the thought patterns that created the story and gave form and focus to the energy in the first place
Are still there,
Reinforced,
Lurking,
Waiting to fire the boilers yet again and again.
Nothing is changing --
There's a short energy-boost of relief and gratification
But no satisfaction, total-being or transformation.
"Expression = Repression"
A third, less violent way of transforming is simply to by-pass our ego
And go directly to the feelings;
Drop the all-important "story",
Surrender to the feeling itself,
Enter it,
And transmute that energy
While it is happening.
I recommend this meditation not only with feelings you don't like,
But also with wonderful feelings
That, maybe, you may feel you cannot contain,
Or that you may be tempted to "silver-box" (preserve for later).......
Whenever a strong feeling is running,
(If possible, find a quiet place and put on some music suitable to your mood)
Locate the feeling in your body,
Let go of any labels (fear, anger, excitement) you may have attached to it,
And just note where it is in your body, its size, its colour and its shape,
And embrace it.
Then fan the coals of this pure feeling
Until the energy is heightened in volume and frequency,
Burning away all constriction or divisiveness.
Let it spread throughout your body,
Enlivening you through and through.
Keep going until all constriction is dissolved.
Repeat as often as you like.
This process is unifying and uplifting.
Friday, June 25, 2010
THE MOMENT OF CHANGE
How bad does it have to get
Before we'll commit to change;
And I mean COMMIT.
The precise moment
When we become ready to make a change
Is when we get that what we're doing
Is costing us everything
And benefiting us nothing.
Until that moment
We're pretending,
Playing at it.
Until we're so divinely pissed-off,
So sick and tired of what we're getting for ourself,
That we're ready to do ANYTHING to get another result --
We're playing with our self.
Until we're ready to put our arse on the line
We're frittering away...........
Before we'll commit to change;
And I mean COMMIT.
The precise moment
When we become ready to make a change
Is when we get that what we're doing
Is costing us everything
And benefiting us nothing.
Until that moment
We're pretending,
Playing at it.
Until we're so divinely pissed-off,
So sick and tired of what we're getting for ourself,
That we're ready to do ANYTHING to get another result --
We're playing with our self.
Until we're ready to put our arse on the line
We're frittering away...........
ON WAR & STUPIDITY
I was driving hire-cars in Sydney during the Vietnam War. During a conversation I had with a soldier on R & R one day, he said "We're never going to win this war". Of course, I wanted to know how he saw it. Among the many common-sense things he offered me that day, he said "We rip their country apart with our artillery and our military might, we destroy their villages because we can't tell the difference between a northerner and a southerner, or a capitalist or a commie; we can't find their snipers so we burn down their jungle and flatten their rice crops, and then we expect them to be grateful to us!!???"
He also said something so simply profound --
He also said something so simply profound --
"You cannot napalm an Idea."
You'd think we'd have learned from Vietnam......
But, no.
We still allow our politicians
To let the Military tell us how to solve
Problems like "the war on..... [Insert here the Bogeyman of the Day]".
Our presence in Afghanistan was defended this week by our Defence Minister saying on the ABC's "Q & A" programme that "200 Australians were killed by terrorist bombs in Bali, planted by terrorists trained by Al Qaeida. Al Qaeda are in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have to stop them." Oh, great! Let's stop the killing of any more innocent Aussies by training more of our young people to be soldiers, give them weapons, and sending them off to kill and die. That's working just dandy, isn't it!
And some dumb-fucker war horse on radio this week said "We've trained them to be soldiers; we've got to give them something to do!" I felt like shoving a mortar up his arse and personally paying his airfare to Kabul.
Marvin Chomsky got a bloody sight closer to the mark when he said -- "If you want to stop terrorism, stop committing it."
Hasn't anybody seen "The Hurt Locker"?
End of rant.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
WHAT WE FIGHT -- WE FORTIFY
Wars are never won.
The War on Terror.......
The War on Poverty.......
The War on Cancer........
The War on War........
When we focus specifically
On a need for a "cure" or a "solution" to a problem
We bring equal attention and negative energy to bear upon the dis-ease itself,
Augmenting it.
When we oppose,
We empower what we oppose,
And get towed around by it
By the nose-rope.
This is the Law of Polar Opposites --
Inescapable in this world of self-balancing Duality that we live in.
How do we break a tightening nexus?
Ask any dolphin or dog trainer worth their salt --
Give undesired behaviour no energy,
No feedback whatsoever,
Neither approval nor disapproval.
Do nothing.
Say nothing.
No disapproval?
Yes, you read correctly.
Disapproval reinforces the disapproved behaviour,
And drives it out of sight and out of light,
Where its power becomes more insidious.
When a human being can't get an experience of approval,
We'll settle for, and energetically feed off disapproval.
In the long term,
Nagging has never worked,
And never will.
If your attempts to correct a situation aren't working,
Try another way.
First work on the only thing you CAN effectively work on --
Your contribution to the conflict;
Reclaim your power and balance:
Give up your vain need to control what's going on.
Take what you get , when you get it,
And up-level every addiction to a preference,
And every preference to one of a growing number of possible options.
Surrender and allow,
And find a creative and supportive way to engage
With any incremental steps that show up towards
What you DO want.
The War on Terror.......
The War on Poverty.......
The War on Cancer........
The War on War........
When we focus specifically
On a need for a "cure" or a "solution" to a problem
We bring equal attention and negative energy to bear upon the dis-ease itself,
Augmenting it.
When we oppose,
We empower what we oppose,
And get towed around by it
By the nose-rope.
This is the Law of Polar Opposites --
Inescapable in this world of self-balancing Duality that we live in.
How do we break a tightening nexus?
Ask any dolphin or dog trainer worth their salt --
Give undesired behaviour no energy,
No feedback whatsoever,
Neither approval nor disapproval.
Do nothing.
Say nothing.
No disapproval?
Yes, you read correctly.
Disapproval reinforces the disapproved behaviour,
And drives it out of sight and out of light,
Where its power becomes more insidious.
When a human being can't get an experience of approval,
We'll settle for, and energetically feed off disapproval.
In the long term,
Nagging has never worked,
And never will.
If your attempts to correct a situation aren't working,
Try another way.
First work on the only thing you CAN effectively work on --
Your contribution to the conflict;
Reclaim your power and balance:
Give up your vain need to control what's going on.
Take what you get , when you get it,
And up-level every addiction to a preference,
And every preference to one of a growing number of possible options.
Surrender and allow,
And find a creative and supportive way to engage
With any incremental steps that show up towards
What you DO want.
DOING -v- BEING
Life is whatever you say it is --
For you alone...
(no-one else).
Oh, you may be able to gather some agreement,
But agreement is just a hollow intellectual consensus.
Agreement holds no shared experience
And is devoid of any real validation.
Regardless of what thinks us,
No amount of agreement (or disagreement)
Is ever going to change the truth of a matter.
Truth (unlike belief or propaganda) is Truth,
And it doesn't give a rat's
Whether we believe it or not.
Life is a problem to be solved,
A trial to be endured,
A test to be passed
Full of sinful temptations to be resisted,
And bad experiences to be rejected,
A set of circumstances to be controlled,
A question to be answered,
A tribulation to be triumphed over,
A battle to be won....
Life is about Success
About Doing
About Achieving
About Winning
And Accumulating (wealth or enlightenment, or both)..........
And then one day
It isn't.
It isn't any of those things any more.
Don't fret,
If it hasn't already,
That day will come for you, too.
Maybe today......who knows...?
On that day, life becomes
About Being, rather than doing;
About Experiencing, rather than gathering;
About Living the mystery
And Becoming
More of what you are,
And more of what you are "not".
No special talents or disciplines are needed to get this,
There is nothing complicated about it.....
God, this is so simple
We just can't understand it,
Because there's nothing to understand!
Take a deep breath now, and
Let it go......aaaaahhhhh.
Take another deep breath,
And let that go, too.... aaaahhhh.
Do it again. Breathe in.....
And let the breath go. .......Uh.......
What's left?
A breathless Awareness of You!
Breathe in now.
Let the awareness of that sweet intake infuse you.
And
Get that you've got it!
Got it?
(Thank "got" for that!)
For you alone...
(no-one else).
Oh, you may be able to gather some agreement,
But agreement is just a hollow intellectual consensus.
Agreement holds no shared experience
And is devoid of any real validation.
Regardless of what thinks us,
No amount of agreement (or disagreement)
Is ever going to change the truth of a matter.
Truth (unlike belief or propaganda) is Truth,
And it doesn't give a rat's
Whether we believe it or not.
*-*-*-*-*
Life is a problem to be solved,
A trial to be endured,
A test to be passed
Full of sinful temptations to be resisted,
And bad experiences to be rejected,
A set of circumstances to be controlled,
A question to be answered,
A tribulation to be triumphed over,
A battle to be won....
Life is about Success
About Doing
About Achieving
About Winning
And Accumulating (wealth or enlightenment, or both)..........
And then one day
It isn't.
It isn't any of those things any more.
Don't fret,
If it hasn't already,
That day will come for you, too.
Maybe today......who knows...?
On that day, life becomes
About Being, rather than doing;
About Experiencing, rather than gathering;
About Living the mystery
And Becoming
More of what you are,
And more of what you are "not".
No special talents or disciplines are needed to get this,
There is nothing complicated about it.....
God, this is so simple
We just can't understand it,
Because there's nothing to understand!
Take a deep breath now, and
Let it go......aaaaahhhhh.
Take another deep breath,
And let that go, too.... aaaahhhh.
Do it again. Breathe in.....
And let the breath go. .......Uh.......
What's left?
A breathless Awareness of You!
Breathe in now.
Let the awareness of that sweet intake infuse you.
And
Get that you've got it!
Got it?
(Thank "got" for that!)
BELIEF
Belief
Unchallenged by contrary experience
Is as brittle as biscuit
And hardly worth a cracker.
Unchallenged by contrary experience
Is as brittle as biscuit
And hardly worth a cracker.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
WHOLENESS
Perhaps the ultimate wisdom is
To see the whole
In every part,
And each part in the Whole......
To see the universe in a grain of sand,
And each grain of sand in its place
In the Grand scheme of things......
To eye the "I" in you,
And to see the We in Me.
How many "me's" are there?
The "me" that is writing this, the "me" that is tired, the "me" that is father to my children, the "me" that shows movies.........
There are thousands of "me",
Each with differing priorities, values, attitudes and faces...
And there are none,
Because these "me's" are ephemeral spectres;
They come and go.
What is
Is that there is One --
The One that contains All,
That is totality of all experience (human and in-human).
In this Whole-ness lies our power --
The power to be patient,
The power to heal and be healed,
The power to master (not control) our own destiny,
The power to make a difference by Being the difference.
Paradoxically, I get to sense this Whole-ness -
This "no-me" -
When I'm successfully forgiving and unconditionally loving
All the "me's" that "I" thinks it is.
This state of unconditional open-ness
Leads eventually to a place
Where all that is left for me to do
Is surrender,
Let go,
And just be all that I am.
In this final resting place
A new life begins.
To see the whole
In every part,
And each part in the Whole......
To see the universe in a grain of sand,
And each grain of sand in its place
In the Grand scheme of things......
To eye the "I" in you,
And to see the We in Me.
How many "me's" are there?
The "me" that is writing this, the "me" that is tired, the "me" that is father to my children, the "me" that shows movies.........
There are thousands of "me",
Each with differing priorities, values, attitudes and faces...
And there are none,
Because these "me's" are ephemeral spectres;
They come and go.
What is
Is that there is One --
The One that contains All,
That is totality of all experience (human and in-human).
In this Whole-ness lies our power --
The power to be patient,
The power to heal and be healed,
The power to master (not control) our own destiny,
The power to make a difference by Being the difference.
Paradoxically, I get to sense this Whole-ness -
This "no-me" -
When I'm successfully forgiving and unconditionally loving
All the "me's" that "I" thinks it is.
This state of unconditional open-ness
Leads eventually to a place
Where all that is left for me to do
Is surrender,
Let go,
And just be all that I am.
In this final resting place
A new life begins.
THEN......
One day I'm going to lose this body altogether.....
Then where will I be?
One day I'm going to lose my mind....
Then who will I be?
Then where will I be?
One day I'm going to lose my mind....
Then who will I be?
SELF
"I Am...."
And whatever you add after that,
You are.
Self is not only an Entity;
It is also an Experience,
The experience of being aware of being the entity.
Self created an experiment called Barrie Barkla
By becoming Barrie Barkla.
Self created an experience called "me"
By becoming Me.
Self created an experience experiment called "you"
By becoming You.
Every experience is the Self -- realised.
Do you still want to complain to me
About a "bad" experience you believe you had? Hmmmm?
And whatever you add after that,
You are.
Self is not only an Entity;
It is also an Experience,
The experience of being aware of being the entity.
Self created an experiment called Barrie Barkla
By becoming Barrie Barkla.
Self created an experience called "me"
By becoming Me.
Self created an experience experiment called "you"
By becoming You.
Every experience is the Self -- realised.
Do you still want to complain to me
About a "bad" experience you believe you had? Hmmmm?
FEAR
I love language.
One of the original nuances of the word
FEAR
was
"To pass through".
Wow! Both the condition, and what to do with it --
The dis-ease and the antidote,
All in the one word!
One of the original nuances of the word
FEAR
was
"To pass through".
Wow! Both the condition, and what to do with it --
The dis-ease and the antidote,
All in the one word!
EXPANDING POSSIBILITY
In the ocean of ordinary un-consciousness
We flounder in a turmoil
Of ideas opinions, and beliefs
That classify and calcify
One thing as "better" or "worse" than others.
Such distinctions are falsehoods.
As desires escalate emotionally into preferences,
And preferences into addictions
We contract onto them
And shrink our being,
Reducing Possibility.
We cannot willfully stop all evaluating, comparing, classing, categorising and judging,
But we can release them,
And our attachments to them.
Every let-go
Opens Possibility.
We flounder in a turmoil
Of ideas opinions, and beliefs
That classify and calcify
One thing as "better" or "worse" than others.
Such distinctions are falsehoods.
As desires escalate emotionally into preferences,
And preferences into addictions
We contract onto them
And shrink our being,
Reducing Possibility.
We cannot willfully stop all evaluating, comparing, classing, categorising and judging,
But we can release them,
And our attachments to them.
Every let-go
Opens Possibility.
HEALING ENERGY
We get upset, angry, jealous, frightened......
We judge the feeling and suppress the energy.
Sooner or later our body/mind reacts to the pressure-cooking
And gets sick.
Energy will not be blocked or suppressed
Without dire consequences.
Energy must flow.......
Energy is energy, is energy....
It really doesn't matter
How or from where energy is created.
Energy is energy
Wherever, whenever and however it arises.
When feelings come up,
Triggered by outdated or inappropriate thought patterns,
Have the feelings.
Reclaim and use the energy that underpins them
And empower your healing with it.
We judge the feeling and suppress the energy.
Sooner or later our body/mind reacts to the pressure-cooking
And gets sick.
Energy will not be blocked or suppressed
Without dire consequences.
Energy must flow.......
Energy is energy, is energy....
It really doesn't matter
How or from where energy is created.
Energy is energy
Wherever, whenever and however it arises.
When feelings come up,
Triggered by outdated or inappropriate thought patterns,
Have the feelings.
Reclaim and use the energy that underpins them
And empower your healing with it.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
YES
The journey of Transformation begins
With one word --
YES
This isn't optional, by the way;
No transformation, growth and healing will ever arise
Out of any process involving the slightest taint of denial.
That includes any resistance (covert or overt)
To what-is,
Or to any so-called imperfections,
(Paradoxically, including our "Nay's")
Life begins
With a deep "Yes"
To e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.
Not just in one moment of inspiration,
But every moment of every day --
As often as you remember.
With one word --
YES
This isn't optional, by the way;
No transformation, growth and healing will ever arise
Out of any process involving the slightest taint of denial.
That includes any resistance (covert or overt)
To what-is,
Or to any so-called imperfections,
(Paradoxically, including our "Nay's")
Life begins
With a deep "Yes"
To e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.
Not just in one moment of inspiration,
But every moment of every day --
As often as you remember.
SPIRITUAL, BUT NOT RELIGIOUS
It's the new agnosticism,
Oh, so trendy and hip!
For some, it's a cop-out,
A nice way of avoiding offending,
Avoiding showing your hand:
Others, conversely, go at it with some vigour,
Pursuing the spiritual
With similar fervour
To those who pursue adventure, danger, excitement.....
All to the same end,
To avoid looking within.
Oh, so trendy and hip!
For some, it's a cop-out,
A nice way of avoiding offending,
Avoiding showing your hand:
Others, conversely, go at it with some vigour,
Pursuing the spiritual
With similar fervour
To those who pursue adventure, danger, excitement.....
All to the same end,
To avoid looking within.
Be still, and know the is-ful Am-ness of "I".
THE MEDICINE OF AVOIDANCE
Western medicine has achieved miracles
In sustaining the body.
Fine.
But that is not what we are;
Body is just the vehicle --
As useful as a car
With a sick driver.
We dismiss the deeper questions around our diseases,
We sedate the suffering and the pain,
Suppress the symptoms,
We're encouraged to "soldier on"
And go to war on our woes
With drugs, diets, medications, therapies, attitude-makeovers, meditations, religious rites, mass entertainment spectacles, political shenanigans, material wealth, moral mustitudes and frantic social busy-ness.
We dread boredom.
We look for life
By suppressing our aliveness,
Lowering our energy(??)
Eastern medicines,
With their emphasis on Balancing
Might be onto something.
Perhaps we need more of the polar opposite:
To stand in the questions,
Live the mystery of not-knowing,
Feel into the suffering
(it won't last forever):
And allow the energy of crisis
To elevate us
To a level of here/now immediacy
Where experience gets transmuted
From base lead to pure gold.
In sustaining the body.
Fine.
But that is not what we are;
Body is just the vehicle --
As useful as a car
With a sick driver.
We dismiss the deeper questions around our diseases,
We sedate the suffering and the pain,
Suppress the symptoms,
We're encouraged to "soldier on"
And go to war on our woes
With drugs, diets, medications, therapies, attitude-makeovers, meditations, religious rites, mass entertainment spectacles, political shenanigans, material wealth, moral mustitudes and frantic social busy-ness.
We dread boredom.
We look for life
By suppressing our aliveness,
Lowering our energy(??)
Eastern medicines,
With their emphasis on Balancing
Might be onto something.
Perhaps we need more of the polar opposite:
To stand in the questions,
Live the mystery of not-knowing,
Feel into the suffering
(it won't last forever):
And allow the energy of crisis
To elevate us
To a level of here/now immediacy
Where experience gets transmuted
From base lead to pure gold.
ENRICHMENT
Logic and reason understands reality
By dissecting and evaluating it --
Killing it.
Heart and soul comprehends reality
By embracing and experiencing it --
Enlivening and transforming it.
By dissecting and evaluating it --
Killing it.
Heart and soul comprehends reality
By embracing and experiencing it --
Enlivening and transforming it.
GOD
Many galaxies,
Multi-verses,
Many bodies,
Many life forms,
Many objects,
(Some subjectifying);
An equal number of subjects,
(Some objectifying);
Yet in the overall,
Nothing objectified,
Nothing subjugated,
Nothing quantified,
Nothing qualified.
Many thoughts,
Many feelings,
Many experiences --
Nothing omitted,
Nothing rejected;
All being
In one Be-ing
The undiscriminating Awareness of it all.
Multi-verses,
Many bodies,
Many life forms,
Many objects,
(Some subjectifying);
An equal number of subjects,
(Some objectifying);
Yet in the overall,
Nothing objectified,
Nothing subjugated,
Nothing quantified,
Nothing qualified.
Many thoughts,
Many feelings,
Many experiences --
Nothing omitted,
Nothing rejected;
All being
In one Be-ing
The undiscriminating Awareness of it all.
Monday, June 21, 2010
TAKE CARE OF OTHERS
I get so impatient
For myself and for others.
I need to keep re-minding myself that
Each person, each event, has its own intrinsic timing,
And their evolution will progress as far and as fast
As their timing will allow.
Caring for others is a juggling act
Between nurturing, coaxing and prodding them along
And letting growth evolve.
Although a good, swift wake-up whack on the backside may be called for on occasion,
The process will not be forced.
Support yourself;
Support others.
Care.
Be present and available
And let them be -- not alone,
But let them Be.
For myself and for others.
I need to keep re-minding myself that
Each person, each event, has its own intrinsic timing,
And their evolution will progress as far and as fast
As their timing will allow.
Caring for others is a juggling act
Between nurturing, coaxing and prodding them along
And letting growth evolve.
Although a good, swift wake-up whack on the backside may be called for on occasion,
The process will not be forced.
Support yourself;
Support others.
Care.
Be present and available
And let them be -- not alone,
But let them Be.
THE POWER OF SURRENDER
Turn towards life and death
And embrace both totally as one experience.
Let go of control and contraction
And surrender to What-Is -- Becoming.....
And embrace both totally as one experience.
Let go of control and contraction
And surrender to What-Is -- Becoming.....
CURE -- OR HEALING?
What's the difference?
We seek a cure to escape suffering and death.
We find healing
When we get comfortable with dis-ease and death.
We must first deal with our fear of death;
Before any attempts at healing
Become anything more
Than futile negotiations.
We seek a cure to escape suffering and death.
We find healing
When we get comfortable with dis-ease and death.
We must first deal with our fear of death;
Before any attempts at healing
Become anything more
Than futile negotiations.
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
What a battered term!
It is not limited to an emotional connection
Between two or more people,
Or between You and Yourself........
Unconditional Love
Is the transforming, radiating current of energy,
The gift of Life
That energises, characterises, embraces and unifies
The whole of our experience
And the totality of Existence.
Nothing gets much bigger than that!
It is not limited to an emotional connection
Between two or more people,
Or between You and Yourself........
Unconditional Love
Is the transforming, radiating current of energy,
The gift of Life
That energises, characterises, embraces and unifies
The whole of our experience
And the totality of Existence.
Nothing gets much bigger than that!
RETREATING INTO MY SHELL
When we withdraw from situations we don't like,
We miss the transformations that lie waiting therein.
(You just heard that from a born Cancerian)
We miss the transformations that lie waiting therein.
(You just heard that from a born Cancerian)
DISEASE
It is a Rule of Reality
That whatever we deny or suppress
Will persist and grow
From the energy we give it
By alternately creating and opposing it..
Sure, the disease has to go
But first work on the "Me" that feeds it.
Sit with this possibility for a few minutes:
Just be with that. Give it space to be.
Now, list your symptoms.
Now imagine you're talking about someone else who has these symptoms and ask yourself --
What kind of person would willingly create these symptoms for his/her self?
You're looking for
An irritated person; an emotional person; a person trying to suppress something; a person with someone or something up his nose; an exasperated person; a person looking for an excuse to be miserable????......
[It helps if you're talking about someone else -- real or imaginary -- because you need to be as critical and judgmental as you can possibly be.]
Stay open, keep breathing and take what you get.
ANOTHER REALITY
Heart disease, cancer, diabetes and AIDS --
The modern symbols of repression and death --
Are becoming the greatest blessings to mankind.
Through their grace,
Lives are being transformed.
Compassion
And a new awareness
Are showing up all over the planet.
Selfish obsession is being replaced
By genuine and caring concern.
Volunteering has become a valid and respected occupation.
That whatever we deny or suppress
Will persist and grow
From the energy we give it
By alternately creating and opposing it..
Sure, the disease has to go
But first work on the "Me" that feeds it.
Someone once asked a wise American-Indian Shaman
"What do I do about my demons?"
To which the old man replied tartly
"Stop feeding them."
Sit with this possibility for a few minutes:
Dis-ease is the second-most sincere form of self-criticism.
{Suicide is #.1.}
{Suicide is #.1.}
Just be with that. Give it space to be.
Now, list your symptoms.
Now imagine you're talking about someone else who has these symptoms and ask yourself --
What kind of person would willingly create these symptoms for his/her self?
You're looking for
- personal characteristics
- beliefs and ideas about him/her self
- possible payoffs (e.g. sympathy, compensation)
An irritated person; an emotional person; a person trying to suppress something; a person with someone or something up his nose; an exasperated person; a person looking for an excuse to be miserable????......
[It helps if you're talking about someone else -- real or imaginary -- because you need to be as critical and judgmental as you can possibly be.]
Stay open, keep breathing and take what you get.
ANOTHER REALITY
Heart disease, cancer, diabetes and AIDS --
The modern symbols of repression and death --
Are becoming the greatest blessings to mankind.
Through their grace,
Lives are being transformed.
Compassion
And a new awareness
Are showing up all over the planet.
Selfish obsession is being replaced
By genuine and caring concern.
Volunteering has become a valid and respected occupation.
THE PAIN OF AVOIDING PAIN
Oh the lengths to which we will go
To avoid discomfort:
How we suffer, just to shirk the chafing
Of transformation!
In any crisis
We'll try to dodge the anguish of vulnerability.
Sometimes we hide away,
Hoping that either it will pass
Or a Saviour will ride by
And slay the dragon at the mouth of our self-imposed prison.
Sometimes we'll frontally attack and find fault
With the situation
And those whom we decide are to blame for it.
But we'll keep the cave-mouth close at our back,
Ready to beat a hasty retreat,
Just in case.
We'll trot out every tired old game
In an effort to manipulate and control
The circumstances
And "Thems that are doing it to me".
We'll turn ourselves inside out rather than have this feeling.
All that is needed is Acceptance -- unconditional,
And Re-Balancing along the way.
The suffering of Avoidance is forever
Because what we're jibing around
Keeps showing up;
Hadn't you noticed?
The minute we surrender,
Everything changes,
And the discomfort of Transition soon passes.
But we do have to first unconditionally surrender --
Not as a negotiation,
But as a complete let-go;
Again and again, if need be;
That's usually the sticking-point.
To avoid discomfort:
How we suffer, just to shirk the chafing
Of transformation!
In any crisis
We'll try to dodge the anguish of vulnerability.
Sometimes we hide away,
Hoping that either it will pass
Or a Saviour will ride by
And slay the dragon at the mouth of our self-imposed prison.
Sometimes we'll frontally attack and find fault
With the situation
And those whom we decide are to blame for it.
But we'll keep the cave-mouth close at our back,
Ready to beat a hasty retreat,
Just in case.
We'll trot out every tired old game
In an effort to manipulate and control
The circumstances
And "Thems that are doing it to me".
We'll turn ourselves inside out rather than have this feeling.
All that is needed is Acceptance -- unconditional,
And Re-Balancing along the way.
The suffering of Avoidance is forever
Because what we're jibing around
Keeps showing up;
Hadn't you noticed?
The minute we surrender,
Everything changes,
And the discomfort of Transition soon passes.
But we do have to first unconditionally surrender --
Not as a negotiation,
But as a complete let-go;
Again and again, if need be;
That's usually the sticking-point.
ILLNESS & DISEASE
When the limited mind is assailed
By a force or change it cannot recognise
Or contain,
Illness or disease may be its reaction.
The illness may be a direct causal reaction,
(e.g. Hay Fever = irritation; what's getting up your nose?)
Or a defensive closing-off,
(e.g. Deafness)
Or a simple distraction,
Or it may be an attempt to assimilate the new energies.
Treat the symptoms, by all means possible
AND
Look also beyond the illness
At the energies
And find a balance.
By a force or change it cannot recognise
Or contain,
Illness or disease may be its reaction.
The illness may be a direct causal reaction,
(e.g. Hay Fever = irritation; what's getting up your nose?)
Or a defensive closing-off,
(e.g. Deafness)
Or a simple distraction,
Or it may be an attempt to assimilate the new energies.
Treat the symptoms, by all means possible
AND
Look also beyond the illness
At the energies
And find a balance.
KNOCKS AND KNOCKBACKS
As far as I've been able to observe,
Bumps and bruises go with the territory
Of learning to stand on your own two feet
And walk.
Some of them hurt!
I've also watched
A young gorilla mother gently slapping her new-born babe,
And a group of elephant cows
Kicking a new-born between them.
Stimulating it to breathe in
The sweet air of a new existence.
Love sometimes challenges our cherished definitions
Of what it ought to look like.
On a very personal level,
I got a shock to find recently that,
When I was taken off the respirator,
My body did not begin to breathe independently
Until it got the adult equivalent
Of a sharp smack on the bum.
"Thank you, I needed that!".
In every transforming inner work
You're going to run foul of your ego;
It's going to get bruised,
And it hurts!
I know, I've got one also.
The problem is that our egos do not want transformation,
And they want to look good to themselves.
Our egos are trying to distract us from getting on with it.
Bumps and bruises are inevitable;
Your self-important ego
Demands that you to stop what you're doing
And look after It.
So you stop
To deal with
What's stopping you.
That's OK but, while you're off in your nursery,
Life is on "hold".
How long will you wait,
Distracted by a spoilt child,
Putting your growth on "Pause"?
When do you intend
To get on with what you came for?
Set a date and time.
Make a deal with your ego.
Until then, kiss your ego better.
Then, when the bell rings for the next round,
Get up and get it on.
As we learn to open up to experience,
Including this,
Life's assaults become loving, caring caresses,
Startling us into a new way of seeing
And a new Life.
Bumps and bruises go with the territory
Of learning to stand on your own two feet
And walk.
Some of them hurt!
I've also watched
A young gorilla mother gently slapping her new-born babe,
And a group of elephant cows
Kicking a new-born between them.
Stimulating it to breathe in
The sweet air of a new existence.
Love sometimes challenges our cherished definitions
Of what it ought to look like.
On a very personal level,
I got a shock to find recently that,
When I was taken off the respirator,
My body did not begin to breathe independently
Until it got the adult equivalent
Of a sharp smack on the bum.
"Thank you, I needed that!".
In every transforming inner work
You're going to run foul of your ego;
It's going to get bruised,
And it hurts!
I know, I've got one also.
The problem is that our egos do not want transformation,
And they want to look good to themselves.
Our egos are trying to distract us from getting on with it.
Bumps and bruises are inevitable;
Your self-important ego
Demands that you to stop what you're doing
And look after It.
So you stop
To deal with
What's stopping you.
That's OK but, while you're off in your nursery,
Life is on "hold".
How long will you wait,
Distracted by a spoilt child,
Putting your growth on "Pause"?
When do you intend
To get on with what you came for?
Set a date and time.
Make a deal with your ego.
Until then, kiss your ego better.
Then, when the bell rings for the next round,
Get up and get it on.
As we learn to open up to experience,
Including this,
Life's assaults become loving, caring caresses,
Startling us into a new way of seeing
And a new Life.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
CONNECTING WITH GOD
Q. How do we connect with All-That-Is?
Hint: Not with prayer ... that's just talking to our self.
Hint: It's an untimed local call.
A. By having our experience,
Starting with the one in our face.
Our experiences are the only bits of reality we have.
Everything else is just superstition.
It is through an experience,
And ONLY through an experience
That Existence can get through to us.
But we do have to be at home, awake and willing to engage
When It calls by.
If you forgot and missed out today,
Don't worry, the doorbell's ringing right now.
Go! Answer it!
Hint: Not with prayer ... that's just talking to our self.
Hint: It's an untimed local call.
A. By having our experience,
Starting with the one in our face.
Our experiences are the only bits of reality we have.
Everything else is just superstition.
It is through an experience,
And ONLY through an experience
That Existence can get through to us.
But we do have to be at home, awake and willing to engage
When It calls by.
If you forgot and missed out today,
Don't worry, the doorbell's ringing right now.
Go! Answer it!
ON THE BUS -- BANGKOK TO SURIN (March 2009)
[Post Script: I had absolutely no idea when I wrote the notes below, that these experiences would turn out to be a vital dress-rehearsal to surviving the physical and transformational upheavals immediately following open heart surgery just 12 months later There are no accidents......]
I am a stranger here.
Leaving the land of my birth
At age 66, I have come to live in this beautiful land,
A country that has no niche with my name on it...........
I feel like a homeless tourist,
Welcome (up to a point)
And alien.
I have no control;
I am suddenly so very ordinary
And lost.
I feel my physical and mental well-ness
Being stretched and stressed with such rapid changes in locale.
My mind's reaction is to find and attempt to restore
Something familiar --
To retreat from this locale
To a country more familiar
Into rituals of familiar normality.
But I can't;
There's no-where to escape to.
I feel isolated, fearful and un-well.
I can feel myself creating this moment.
I must accept whatever comes in the next,
Moment to moment
On its terms, not mine.
Here, barreling though picture-card rice paddies
Populated by alien people
Whose lives are filled
With their own concerns,
Notions of my self-esteem and meaning
Have no currency whatsoever.
They have lost their former power
To define and control this experience.
There's something I can do, though
And I'm doing it with all the focus I can muster --
I'm sensing into the the energy of each new locale --
The airplane, the stopover terminal at K-L,
The Bangkok customs hall,
The bus station booking counters,
The lunch-stop markets.......
And maintaining a sense of balance in each place,
Observing and recalling "How it's done here",
And being appropriate to that.
Balancing at that level.
Making it deeply OK to be shifted and swept about
By the unfamiliar currents and eddies of a new environment
Where few of my old rules apply;
Going along with the flow,
And creatively harmonising with it as much as I can.
Surrendering to just this much;
It's all that I have
To hang onto.
Then let go of this, too;
Let happen
Until there is no more resistance.
When the current slows and allows,
I'm opening carefully
Exploring everything gradually
Allowing uncertainty, fear, sadness and loss
To rise and fall --
And allowing a new energy to flow over and through me,
Dissolving the old boundaries between "Will"" and "Won't".
I've been blessed at just about every check-in counter along the way
With reflections from people who bristle with self-important "Won'ts";
People who resist the way it's happening for them.
Thank you.
You remind me
That's not the way to do it.
...... I'm learning a lot today
About transformation.
I am a stranger here.
Leaving the land of my birth
At age 66, I have come to live in this beautiful land,
A country that has no niche with my name on it...........
I feel like a homeless tourist,
Welcome (up to a point)
And alien.
I have no control;
I am suddenly so very ordinary
And lost.
I feel my physical and mental well-ness
Being stretched and stressed with such rapid changes in locale.
My mind's reaction is to find and attempt to restore
Something familiar --
To retreat from this locale
To a country more familiar
Into rituals of familiar normality.
But I can't;
There's no-where to escape to.
I feel isolated, fearful and un-well.
I can feel myself creating this moment.
I must accept whatever comes in the next,
Moment to moment
On its terms, not mine.
Here, barreling though picture-card rice paddies
Populated by alien people
Whose lives are filled
With their own concerns,
Notions of my self-esteem and meaning
Have no currency whatsoever.
They have lost their former power
To define and control this experience.
There's something I can do, though
And I'm doing it with all the focus I can muster --
I'm sensing into the the energy of each new locale --
The airplane, the stopover terminal at K-L,
The Bangkok customs hall,
The bus station booking counters,
The lunch-stop markets.......
And maintaining a sense of balance in each place,
Observing and recalling "How it's done here",
And being appropriate to that.
Balancing at that level.
Making it deeply OK to be shifted and swept about
By the unfamiliar currents and eddies of a new environment
Where few of my old rules apply;
Going along with the flow,
And creatively harmonising with it as much as I can.
Surrendering to just this much;
It's all that I have
To hang onto.
Then let go of this, too;
Let happen
Until there is no more resistance.
When the current slows and allows,
I'm opening carefully
Exploring everything gradually
Allowing uncertainty, fear, sadness and loss
To rise and fall --
And allowing a new energy to flow over and through me,
Dissolving the old boundaries between "Will"" and "Won't".
I've been blessed at just about every check-in counter along the way
With reflections from people who bristle with self-important "Won'ts";
People who resist the way it's happening for them.
Thank you.
You remind me
That's not the way to do it.
...... I'm learning a lot today
About transformation.
A WIDER-SCOPE
Anyone who is willing to travel undiscovered lands
Both outside and inside his self
As an avid experiencer of the curiosities of Be-ing,
Discovers Meaning and Purpose to living
Beyond the mini-meanings we normally derive from work, family and religion
And the mini-purposes we normally attribute to what we do.
The new Purpose doesn't displace the old ones;
It embraces them joyfully,
Widening the Scope of it all
And giving the smaller stuff a rightful place
In the Grand Scheme.
Both outside and inside his self
As an avid experiencer of the curiosities of Be-ing,
Discovers Meaning and Purpose to living
Beyond the mini-meanings we normally derive from work, family and religion
And the mini-purposes we normally attribute to what we do.
The new Purpose doesn't displace the old ones;
It embraces them joyfully,
Widening the Scope of it all
And giving the smaller stuff a rightful place
In the Grand Scheme.
THE MESSAGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT -- FEAR
Conscious energy is not a remedy for any of our stuff;
It is not an antidote for our fears.
Any attempt -- no matter how "enlightened"-- to avert or avoid fear
Will only empower it in another dimension.
The deeper it is driven,
The more damaging it becomes.
It is not an antidote for our fears.
Any attempt -- no matter how "enlightened"-- to avert or avoid fear
Will only empower it in another dimension.
The deeper it is driven,
The more damaging it becomes.
Our fears arise to be fully experienced.
The purpose of our humanity is for for us to live it.
This is a message of enlightenment.
Our fears tempt us to hide and hide-from,
Sliding us into en-darken-ment.
Monsters live in the dark.
Our resistance to fears
Propels us further into fear.
Our fears are not what we are
Sliding us into en-darken-ment.
Monsters live in the dark.
Our resistance to fears
Propels us further into fear.
Our fears are not what we are
But we do have them --
There's no getting around that.
Without fear
There'd be no excitement
No adventure
No courage
No daring
No stretching
No growth
No point..........
We might just as well have stayed in heaven --
Same old same-as, eon after eon --
Bored shitless.
QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS
Every relationship reflects
The levels of consciousness
Of the people involved.
The quality of any relationship evolves
From the dynamic interaction of the participants
And of the individual qualities of consciousness
Each brings in
To serve the purpose of the relationship.
It helps, of course, if at some point
The participants in a relationship
Have shared some frank ideas on the Purpose of their being together.
Even a one-night stand can be a transforming experience.
It really helps if at least one party knows
What needs are there to be met?
Who is responsible for meeting them?
And what defines a "successfully-met need"?
It helps even more if, together, they openly keep track of any shifts, changes and re-definings
That happen along the way.
The effect of a relationship on everyone
Is a function of what the participants willingly give space to,
Share,
Refine,
Amplify,
And give back to the collective consciousness.
Conscious relationships transform perceptions.
The levels of consciousness
Of the people involved.
The quality of any relationship evolves
From the dynamic interaction of the participants
And of the individual qualities of consciousness
Each brings in
To serve the purpose of the relationship.
It helps, of course, if at some point
The participants in a relationship
Have shared some frank ideas on the Purpose of their being together.
Even a one-night stand can be a transforming experience.
It really helps if at least one party knows
What needs are there to be met?
Who is responsible for meeting them?
And what defines a "successfully-met need"?
It helps even more if, together, they openly keep track of any shifts, changes and re-definings
That happen along the way.
The effect of a relationship on everyone
Is a function of what the participants willingly give space to,
Share,
Refine,
Amplify,
And give back to the collective consciousness.
Conscious relationships transform perceptions.
BE PRESENT
It is our presence and availability
To the Now of it
That subtly empowers
Everything we do.
We invest huge amounts of time and emotional energy into seeking --
Asking "Why",
Searching for understanding
Out of the libraries of what we think we "know".
We rely on getting and giving explanations
And advice,
All to very little avail.
It doesn't have to be that hard!
A simple moment of being genuinely present
And emotionally available
To what is actually happening
Will transform everything....
Sometimes instantly.
To the Now of it
That subtly empowers
Everything we do.
We invest huge amounts of time and emotional energy into seeking --
Asking "Why",
Searching for understanding
Out of the libraries of what we think we "know".
We rely on getting and giving explanations
And advice,
All to very little avail.
It doesn't have to be that hard!
A simple moment of being genuinely present
And emotionally available
To what is actually happening
Will transform everything....
Sometimes instantly.
SUPER-CONTEXT
We live in an over-all context
Of Conscious Awareness.
Everything going on in the universe,
Every process
Has arisen from Conscious Awareness,
And nothing can be separated from that.
Anything that Awareness is not aware of
Does not exist.
Whatever you're experiencing,
Meet it in the impersonal spaces of Love and Compassion
(As distinct from the hopelessly person-al sogginess
Of sentiment and sympathy)
Be aware
Of being always in the Awareness of it all.
This is what you are --
The pure Awareness
Of being where you are,
Doing what you're doing,
Feeling what you're feeling, and
Sensing what you're sensing.
You are Awareness --personified.
Of Conscious Awareness.
Everything going on in the universe,
Every process
Has arisen from Conscious Awareness,
And nothing can be separated from that.
Anything that Awareness is not aware of
Does not exist.
Whatever you're experiencing,
Meet it in the impersonal spaces of Love and Compassion
(As distinct from the hopelessly person-al sogginess
Of sentiment and sympathy)
Be aware
Of being always in the Awareness of it all.
This is what you are --
The pure Awareness
Of being where you are,
Doing what you're doing,
Feeling what you're feeling, and
Sensing what you're sensing.
You are Awareness --personified.
HONESTLY......
Stop.
Playing dumb insults both of us.
Frankly, I am offended
When you think I'm so stupid
That I cannot cope with your truth.
How dare you!
Own up
To what you know deep-down.
Be honest, at least with your self.
Tell your truth,
Whether it is palatable or not,
And whether or not you think
You have a right to it.
Require this much of yourself.
You are not as dumb or as helpless
As you would like some others to believe you are.
Nor are you as lost as you think.
Get help and guidance if you really need it,
There is plenty of it out here
In 101 different flavours.
But healing is your responsibility --
No-one else's.
Whether what you experience from life fits your definition of "support" or not,
Life is giving you what you're putting out for.
We are already supporting you
But we're not going to "fix" you,
Or do your life for you --
We can't.
And we're not supposed to.
Your life is your affair.
It you don't like what you've created,
Tell the truth about that
And make some different choices and decisions.
The ball's back in your court:
Over to you.
Playing dumb insults both of us.
Frankly, I am offended
When you think I'm so stupid
That I cannot cope with your truth.
How dare you!
Own up
To what you know deep-down.
Be honest, at least with your self.
Tell your truth,
Whether it is palatable or not,
And whether or not you think
You have a right to it.
Require this much of yourself.
You are not as dumb or as helpless
As you would like some others to believe you are.
Nor are you as lost as you think.
Get help and guidance if you really need it,
There is plenty of it out here
In 101 different flavours.
But healing is your responsibility --
No-one else's.
Whether what you experience from life fits your definition of "support" or not,
Life is giving you what you're putting out for.
We are already supporting you
But we're not going to "fix" you,
Or do your life for you --
We can't.
And we're not supposed to.
Your life is your affair.
It you don't like what you've created,
Tell the truth about that
And make some different choices and decisions.
The ball's back in your court:
Over to you.
MISERY AND SADNESS
There is misery
And there is sadness.
The difference is
That Sadness is rather sweet,
While Misery is bloated with Complaint.
Anger, by the way,
Is Misery with the volume cranked up.
And there is sadness.
The difference is
That Sadness is rather sweet,
While Misery is bloated with Complaint.
Anger, by the way,
Is Misery with the volume cranked up.
PHOBIAS
There are many targets for our phobia --
Open spaces, confined spaces, crowds, being alone......
Enough of them to make good quiz questions.
But perhaps there is only One Phobia.....
A fear of Losing Control.
Feel into that one.
A fear of losing something we've never had??
Open spaces, confined spaces, crowds, being alone......
Enough of them to make good quiz questions.
But perhaps there is only One Phobia.....
A fear of Losing Control.
Feel into that one.
A fear of losing something we've never had??
THE IMPORTANCE OF IMPORTANCE
With thanks to Andy Andrews
The busy-ness of grading events, people, and values in order of Importance
Is a highly personal,
(What's a high priority for me may not excite you in the slightest degree)
Naturally human,
(We all do it, automatically. almost every millisecond of the day)
And vastly overrated pastime.
(It doesn't add a sliver of happiness to the sum of us).
Notions like "This is more important to me than that",
Or "This person is more significant to me than that person"
Clag up our freedom to choose:
We become a victim
Of our own I-dentity, attachments and programming.
And for what?
All for a superstition called "Importance"
That doesn't stand up to any close scrutiny
Of our past experience?
Think back......
Remember all the times when what you thought was vitally important at one time
Turned out to be insignificant,
While other things that turned out in time to be momentous turning points,
Slipped on through almost unnoticed at the time.
We are, far too often for it to be accidental,
Poor judges of what's really important.
We don't have enough perspective for it.
We have too many vested attachments that cloud our judgment.
OK. Given that our notions of Importance are often too wobbly to rely upon,
What might happen if we could shift a step away
To a place of being where we realise that,
Regardless of what we think right here and now,
We really have very little idea of what might prove to be important
In the long run?
We cannot know.
Are you game enough to take that step?
From there, we could,
Just for the fun of it,
Do something we've never done before,
We could adopt an assumption,
[Just as an experiment to see what happens,]
That everything, large or small, is of equal importance,
Of equal value,
Of equal potential.
We could test-drive life for a while
From a stand-point where
Everything is important,
And nothing is more or less important.
It may take some courage,
But the leap is well worth it.
When we get
That nothing matters more or less than anything else,
And that any move we make matters just as much as any other action,
We will become free to live life proactively on purpose,
Unfettered by false, weighty notions of portentousness.
But don't take my word for it;
You won't discover that
Until you try it out for yourself --
For at least 3 weeks
(or 21 days, whichever is the shorter)
Let everything that comes to your notice
Be evenly important.
By all means, sort out what's urgent and non-urgent,
But let the idea of "importance" take holiday
And notice how more refreshed and relaxed you feel
At the end of the trial.
You might like the results so much
You adopt it as a new way of being.
PS. Don't leave "Self-Importance" out of the game.
Give that a break, too.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
CHANCE MEETING
Jesus the Christ is reported to have said something like --
Wherever two or three (or thirty-three) people meet together in a Context
There "I Am" is
In their midst.
In all the rituals of humans interacting
There is an energetic presence,
A quality of be-ing,
An Am-ness,
That envelops and permeates the gather-ing,
Whether the participants are conscious of it or not.
This is the universal Law of Relating-ship.
Ponder this possibility......
There are no accidents......
It is the magnetically attractive powers
Of similar individual energies
That draws people together.
Sometimes a coming-together may seem
To be accidental,
But, external circumstances aside,
What if the coming-together isn't a mishap at all?
Just because we cannot see a useful purpose,
Doesn't mean that fortuitous Purpose-fullness doesn't exist.
A meeting may have no meaning,
But, in a context of Learning Through Experience.
It may have Purpose
That may, or may not be immediately apparent.
[Sometimes the purpose of an experience doesn't show up until quite some time later]
[Sometimes the purpose of an experience doesn't show up until quite some time later]
The same may be said for the related process
Of moving-apart.
Jesus saw people being drawn together
By a shared magnetic desire
For Christ-like-ness.
When two or more people meet,
Each is contemplating a similar thought,
Or feeling a similar emotion.
What is that thought?
What is that feeling?
The energies that draw us together
May be constructive and/or destructive
(That's a matter of perspective)
But it is important that we spend some time
- Becoming aware that this is indeed how "meeting" works -- by attraction
- Becoming attuned to the thoughts, energies, desires and motives of those involved
- Becoming aware of what Chances arise from "chance" meetings.
It will also be helpful to review each of your present core relationships
(Including blood relationships).
Assume that it's no accident that you're in each other's face,
And ask yourself:-
- What is a common thought we're both contemplating?
- What is a common feeling we're both experiencing?
- What is this person reflecting back to me that I haven't yet owned in and for my self?
- How can we each enrich each other's experience?
ATTUNEMENT
Only love
Can rescue us
From the remoteness and lostness
Of a partial spirituality.
Love is Attunement -- At-One-ment.
For as long as we maintain the illusion
Of a self that is separate,
Separated from itself
And from "other" selves,
There will be no blending and interfusing of energies
Into whole-er healing
And uplifting empowering.
But fear not.
That which we call "death" will re-unite us
(But not quite as we imagined in Sunday School).
In the meantime,
The illusion of separation allows us
To dance naked through a Hall of Mirrors
And get the shock of our lives
When we realise who we're really seeing!
Can rescue us
From the remoteness and lostness
Of a partial spirituality.
Love is Attunement -- At-One-ment.
For as long as we maintain the illusion
Of a self that is separate,
Separated from itself
And from "other" selves,
There will be no blending and interfusing of energies
Into whole-er healing
And uplifting empowering.
But fear not.
That which we call "death" will re-unite us
(But not quite as we imagined in Sunday School).
In the meantime,
The illusion of separation allows us
To dance naked through a Hall of Mirrors
And get the shock of our lives
When we realise who we're really seeing!
ENERGY OSMOSIS
I witnessed a phenomenon this morning;
During a lecture on relaxation techniques,
One of the participants got up to demonstrate T'ai Chi.
Within the first five seconds,
The Energy level of the whole room shifted.
Without a word,
His experience became ours.
The miracle had nothing to do with his level of expertise --
He wasn't technically very good at all,
But he was real
And total
In it,
And nothing was the same
For an of us
Any more.
A person of expanded awareness and energy
Is like a womb;
Creating space for others who are perturbed
To re-solve or de-stress,
(Or to freak out in reaction).
During a lecture on relaxation techniques,
One of the participants got up to demonstrate T'ai Chi.
Within the first five seconds,
The Energy level of the whole room shifted.
Without a word,
His experience became ours.
The miracle had nothing to do with his level of expertise --
He wasn't technically very good at all,
But he was real
And total
In it,
And nothing was the same
For an of us
Any more.
A person of expanded awareness and energy
Is like a womb;
Creating space for others who are perturbed
To re-solve or de-stress,
(Or to freak out in reaction).
LETHARGY
Don't confuse low activity level
With a low energy state.
Autisitcs, for example, can have a huge energy field around them.
And I learned, in raw experience,
That depression masks a very highly charged
And chronically turbulent
Level of emotion.
With a low energy state.
Autisitcs, for example, can have a huge energy field around them.
And I learned, in raw experience,
That depression masks a very highly charged
And chronically turbulent
Level of emotion.
INFINITY
What was before the Big Bang?
My mind cannot comprehend it.
How can some fleeting artifice that had a beginning
And will come to an ending,
Understand anything that has never begun
And will therefore never end?
There is no pigeonhole large enough
To file it into.
I'm staggered, too, by the arrogance of this little upstart
That would have me believe in its omnipotence
And create a finite God in its own image.
Only an infinite love can tolerate it.
My mind cannot comprehend it.
How can some fleeting artifice that had a beginning
And will come to an ending,
Understand anything that has never begun
And will therefore never end?
There is no pigeonhole large enough
To file it into.
I'm staggered, too, by the arrogance of this little upstart
That would have me believe in its omnipotence
And create a finite God in its own image.
Only an infinite love can tolerate it.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
MISSING INACTION
Our 5 senses are our handiest link with the present.
The present is the only time they are actually available.
We cannot taste something from the past --
We can only remember that.
We cannot smell anything from the future --
We can only imagine what that might be like,
On the basis of an imperfect memory
Of an unconnected past experience.
Remembering and Imagining
Belong in the realms of Non-Experience.
While you are remembering an experience,
You are experiencing Remembering,
Not the actual experience.
While you are imagining an experience,
You are experiencing Imagining (a memory).
Would you go to a 5-star restaurant
And pay good money to eat its press reviews?
Why not?
While you are busy Imagining or Remembering
You are missing from Now ...
Off in the dead past or the non-existent future ,
Missing inaction.
To bring your self back to Now
See something,
Hear something,
Smell something,
Taste something,
Touch something.
Get real-real.
The present is the only time they are actually available.
We cannot taste something from the past --
We can only remember that.
We cannot smell anything from the future --
We can only imagine what that might be like,
On the basis of an imperfect memory
Of an unconnected past experience.
Remembering and Imagining
Belong in the realms of Non-Experience.
While you are remembering an experience,
You are experiencing Remembering,
Not the actual experience.
While you are imagining an experience,
You are experiencing Imagining (a memory).
Would you go to a 5-star restaurant
And pay good money to eat its press reviews?
Why not?
While you are busy Imagining or Remembering
You are missing from Now ...
Off in the dead past or the non-existent future ,
Missing inaction.
To bring your self back to Now
See something,
Hear something,
Smell something,
Taste something,
Touch something.
Get real-real.
LOOKING VAINLY FOR ANOTHER WAY?
There is always another way,
But it will not be forced upon you;
It can only be allowed for.
Another way will not be made to happen
You may only make space for it
And surrender to the possibility.
Another way won't show up until
You allow that another way is at least possible for you.
Are you willing to let go just this much?
Yes?
But it will not be forced upon you;
It can only be allowed for.
Another way will not be made to happen
You may only make space for it
And surrender to the possibility.
Another way won't show up until
You allow that another way is at least possible for you.
Are you willing to let go just this much?
Yes?
DEFINITION OF AN "R's"-HOLE
One who is fluent
In the Three "R's":
Rigidity, Resistance and Right-ness.
In the Three "R's":
Rigidity, Resistance and Right-ness.
THE NEXT-MOST POWERFUL QUESTION......
Alongside "What am I?"
The next most powerful and creative question I've ever asked (so far) is --
The next most powerful and creative question I've ever asked (so far) is --
WHAT IF.........?
Actors know all about this one ;
They call it the "The Magic 'What-If...'"
It's the basis of their work
Of creating another reality.
When used in everyday life
"What-If" can be
Magical and liberating,
Solvent for the stuck:
It is the harbinger of Possibility..
They call it the "The Magic 'What-If...'"
It's the basis of their work
Of creating another reality.
When used in everyday life
"What-If" can be
Magical and liberating,
Solvent for the stuck:
It is the harbinger of Possibility..
To openly and successfully stand in a "What if..." question
You have to be ........
- fed up with a life of limitation; or
- looking for a new experience; or
- willing to entertain and test-drive a possibility other than the one you're stuck in; or
- voluntarily disposed to give up clinging to the 3 "R"s -- Rigidity, Rightness & Resistance; or
- ready to create yourself as able; or
- eager to allow existence to be "more-than" (what you can comprehend right now.)
For example:
"What if --
- there's another way to look at/experience this?"
- my view of this is distorted or incomplete?"
- I'm mistaken?"
- I let him/her be right?"
- there's more to this than I'm currently so certain about?"
- the seemingly impossible is possible?"
- what I want to happen were to really happen?"
Saturday, June 12, 2010
SENSE MEMORY -- RE-LIVING THE PAST
Actors know about Sense Memory,
They use it to evoke a feeling they need right now,
That isn't immediately available
Within the situation they're currently acting out.
With varying degrees of accuracy,
We can all remember how something once felt.
That's handy;
It helps us learn and re-member from past experience.
But it is a faculty that is often abused....
When we're looking for a feeling that will help us deal with the present,
Our mind will often tootle off into the past
And drag back a past incident with an emotional charge
That is vaguely similar to what we're looking for now.
This happens (usually) automatically, and very fast.
We rarely examine the past incident to check if it's at all relevant;
We just grab the emotion and start swinging it around.
It never occurs to us --
That the past incident (even if recalled) has no relevance whatsoever to the present
Other than a tenuous emotional connection.
When we're "upset",
We're kneejerking
On the basis of an unconnected and dubiously accurate memory
Of an emotional reaction to a past experience
That we may not even recollect.
(Some of these "reference" incidents become so deeply buried,
They have to be dug out by a therapist.)
We're playing from a scratchy collection of unlabelled old records.
The nostalgia may be a bit of fun,
But it sure as hell ain't conducive to insight or growth.
They use it to evoke a feeling they need right now,
That isn't immediately available
Within the situation they're currently acting out.
With varying degrees of accuracy,
We can all remember how something once felt.
That's handy;
It helps us learn and re-member from past experience.
But it is a faculty that is often abused....
When we're looking for a feeling that will help us deal with the present,
Our mind will often tootle off into the past
And drag back a past incident with an emotional charge
That is vaguely similar to what we're looking for now.
This happens (usually) automatically, and very fast.
We rarely examine the past incident to check if it's at all relevant;
We just grab the emotion and start swinging it around.
It never occurs to us --
That the past incident (even if recalled) has no relevance whatsoever to the present
Other than a tenuous emotional connection.
When we're "upset",
We're kneejerking
On the basis of an unconnected and dubiously accurate memory
Of an emotional reaction to a past experience
That we may not even recollect.
(Some of these "reference" incidents become so deeply buried,
They have to be dug out by a therapist.)
We're playing from a scratchy collection of unlabelled old records.
The nostalgia may be a bit of fun,
But it sure as hell ain't conducive to insight or growth.
BECOMING PRESENT-ABLE
Are you having trouble coming to the present?
Here's one way --
Notice something.
(Anything, it doesn't matter what.
It's the Noticing that matters,
Not what it noticed.)
With your awareness turned on......
Look at something;
Smell something;
Touch something;
Taste something.
That moment of pure being-with
Before your mind kicked in with a voice-over commentary --
That moment when your mind wasn't there --
That was it.
That was your present.
Don't now go back looking for it,
It has gone.
Notice, instead, what you've got now.
If it's voice-over, notice that.
And notice again,
And notice again,
And notice again....
Start stringing together moments of noticing.
Practice
Until it becomes a habit,
Replacing the present habit of being absent-minded.
Here's one way --
Notice something.
(Anything, it doesn't matter what.
It's the Noticing that matters,
Not what it noticed.)
With your awareness turned on......
Look at something;
Smell something;
Touch something;
Taste something.
That moment of pure being-with
Before your mind kicked in with a voice-over commentary --
That moment when your mind wasn't there --
That was it.
That was your present.
Don't now go back looking for it,
It has gone.
Notice, instead, what you've got now.
If it's voice-over, notice that.
And notice again,
And notice again,
And notice again....
Start stringing together moments of noticing.
Practice
Until it becomes a habit,
Replacing the present habit of being absent-minded.
HAVE YOU EVER MET............?
If it's in your face.........
Have you ever met the source of this reflection?
If it's in your face,
It's your case.
Have you ever met the source of this reflection?
If it's in your face,
It's your case.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
CONSENSUS REALITY
Alarm bells go off when I hear phrases like:-
Everyone agrees................
We all know...................
It's obvious to everyone that..........
Flat-earth generalising is lazy non-thinking --
A facade of words.
Dis-spell them.
(PS. My favourite is exemplified by "The burgers are better at............."
Nobody will tell me "Better than what?"
Everyone agrees................
We all know...................
It's obvious to everyone that..........
Flat-earth generalising is lazy non-thinking --
A facade of words.
Dis-spell them.
(PS. My favourite is exemplified by "The burgers are better at............."
Nobody will tell me "Better than what?"
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
THE ONLY DISEASE
It has been said that
The only crime is theft.
Perhaps the only disease is
Theft from our selves --
The withhold, constriction and repression of our natural aliveness and well-being.
Is cancer an unconscious repression
Of a higher state of conscious being?
Is AIDS an unconscious repression
Of a need for intimacy and compassion?
Is diabetes an unconscious repression
Of our need for inner sweetness and softness?
Is breast cancer an unconscious repression
Of our need for nurturing?
Add your own questions
(and read Louise Hay's "You Can Heal Your Life")
It may just save you a fortune in doctors' bills.
The only crime is theft.
Perhaps the only disease is
Theft from our selves --
The withhold, constriction and repression of our natural aliveness and well-being.
Is cancer an unconscious repression
Of a higher state of conscious being?
Is AIDS an unconscious repression
Of a need for intimacy and compassion?
Is diabetes an unconscious repression
Of our need for inner sweetness and softness?
Is breast cancer an unconscious repression
Of our need for nurturing?
Add your own questions
(and read Louise Hay's "You Can Heal Your Life")
It may just save you a fortune in doctors' bills.
I WAS ASTOUNDED TO LEARN....
I read somewhere a few years ago
That the incidence of all cancers amongst diagnosed schizophrenics
Is 25% the incidence in the general population.
Now if that's true, it's one helluva a discrepancy.
True or not, it got me thinking,
[No, not to avoid cancer by working up my schizophrenic potential]
But what if........
Psychiatric therapies, medicines and drugs slow up or block
What is a profoundly creative transforming process?
If that were so such therapies, while curing us,
May be crippling us
In our growth into consciousness.
I'm sure this isn't the whole story,
But it's worth standing in the question --
Can the cure kill?
If so,
If were faced with a choice,
Would I prefer to be cured, or healed?
I know my answer.
What's your preference?
That the incidence of all cancers amongst diagnosed schizophrenics
Is 25% the incidence in the general population.
Now if that's true, it's one helluva a discrepancy.
True or not, it got me thinking,
[No, not to avoid cancer by working up my schizophrenic potential]
But what if........
Psychiatric therapies, medicines and drugs slow up or block
What is a profoundly creative transforming process?
If that were so such therapies, while curing us,
May be crippling us
In our growth into consciousness.
I'm sure this isn't the whole story,
But it's worth standing in the question --
Can the cure kill?
If so,
If were faced with a choice,
Would I prefer to be cured, or healed?
I know my answer.
What's your preference?
I AM.......
I am an unfolding experiment in unique experience
To see how it turns out.
So, too are you.
Both of us are an integral part of
A greater, all-embracing, unfolding experiment
Called "Life".......
There is no purpose beyond the experience
Of seeing how it is turning out.
Since this experiment is always turning out,
It cannot fail;
It's success is inherent in this moment.
To see how it turns out.
So, too are you.
Both of us are an integral part of
A greater, all-embracing, unfolding experiment
Called "Life".......
There is no purpose beyond the experience
Of seeing how it is turning out.
Since this experiment is always turning out,
It cannot fail;
It's success is inherent in this moment.
SUPPORTING ANOTHER
What divides us all are contrapositions like "Either............or..........."
And "This, not that."
Healing is whole-ing "and...........and"
"Both this AND That""A fuller awareness is capable
Of appreciating and accepting
All the potential ways
In which someone's well-being can be supported,
Without getting into judging and comparing
Or taking competitive or defensive postures
About the validity or effectiveness of any of them"
I've written this because I need to hear it
Again and again.
IN THE PRESENCE OF.......
Certain qualities of Energy can be infectious.
Some people seem to seethe and boil
And spread discomfort throughout a room
Even without moving or uttering a sound.
Conversely,
An individual who has undergone direct transformation
Can, by his/her mere presence,
Initiate a re-balancing in those around.
Some people seem to seethe and boil
And spread discomfort throughout a room
Even without moving or uttering a sound.
Conversely,
An individual who has undergone direct transformation
Can, by his/her mere presence,
Initiate a re-balancing in those around.
DISEASE AND HUMAN ENERGY
Certain dis-eases will melt before an expanding consciousness;
Some will not.
If we get sick,
Cure might not always be on the menu:
Healing, however, is always available.
A conscious approach to existing ill-ness
Can only benefit from an experience
Of how energies are balanced,
And how they get out of balance.
But there are energies moving around and through us
That we may not be aware of.....
Everything, concrete and abstract, is energy --
Thought (as distinct from "thoughts") in motion.
Carrier waves of energy
Bathe us all the time
Whether we're tuned in to them or not.
We're familiar with abstract energies like thought and feeling,
But they morph, interact and get organised into other forms of energy
That affect us
And, therefore, we would do well to be aware of.......
Ideas, concepts, opinions, beliefs, ideals and dreams are all energetic forms.
There are also other fields of energy that we swim in
And that flow through us --
Like social consciousness,
And collective human energies
Like cultural mores, religious, ethical and moral imperatives;
Cosmic energies, galactic energies, solar energies, lunar energies
Soul-ar-memory and cellular-memory energies......
These energies directly and indirectly affect us and our behaviour:
Energies that we don't know about,
And don't know that we don't know.
I'm not suggesting for a moment that this realisation should spook you,
Or drag you into some new obsession;
They are intrinsically neither benevolent nor malevolent
They only become a health hazard if we resist them.
There's nothing to be done
But become, and now remain, aware of their existence.
Whilever we are not aware of them
We are bouncing around inside them
And feeling, maybe, out of sorts and quite uncomfortable,
And never quite knowing why.
To be unaware
Is to be at the whim of the un-known.
Often, what we're observing in and around us
Is the secondary results of energy on the move
(Like a wave of relief, or a spate of violence)
And we plug into those overt events and phenomena
That are the positive symptoms of energy allowed,
Or the negative symptoms of energy misdirected.
But we ignore the energy itself.
Dis-regarding or resisting the core energy
Can result in intense emotional discomfort
That, unattended, may lead to
Physical and mental dis-ease.
While human interaction is happening,
I am training myself to look at the same time,
Beyond the foreground human content of a situation,
To look into the "what-else" of what's going on,
To feel into the dynamics of the greater energy that is empowering it
And the individual or collective reaction to it.
I'm learning to pull focus back and forth
Between the foreground and the background,
The content and the context,
Learning to allow the secondary and tertiary reactions to pass on through,
And to surf instead the swells of energy underlying them
As creatively as I can.
The result?
Amidst all the pain, the shakes, the emotional upheavals and the uncertainty
Resulting from my recent surgery,
I have never felt at the same time
So alive, so energised
And deliriously happy that I can still feel this way.
Some will not.
If we get sick,
Cure might not always be on the menu:
Healing, however, is always available.
A conscious approach to existing ill-ness
Can only benefit from an experience
Of how energies are balanced,
And how they get out of balance.
But there are energies moving around and through us
That we may not be aware of.....
Everything, concrete and abstract, is energy --
Thought (as distinct from "thoughts") in motion.
Carrier waves of energy
Bathe us all the time
Whether we're tuned in to them or not.
We're familiar with abstract energies like thought and feeling,
But they morph, interact and get organised into other forms of energy
That affect us
And, therefore, we would do well to be aware of.......
Ideas, concepts, opinions, beliefs, ideals and dreams are all energetic forms.
There are also other fields of energy that we swim in
And that flow through us --
Like social consciousness,
And collective human energies
Like cultural mores, religious, ethical and moral imperatives;
Cosmic energies, galactic energies, solar energies, lunar energies
Soul-ar-memory and cellular-memory energies......
These energies directly and indirectly affect us and our behaviour:
Energies that we don't know about,
And don't know that we don't know.
I'm not suggesting for a moment that this realisation should spook you,
Or drag you into some new obsession;
They are intrinsically neither benevolent nor malevolent
They only become a health hazard if we resist them.
There's nothing to be done
But become, and now remain, aware of their existence.
Whilever we are not aware of them
We are bouncing around inside them
And feeling, maybe, out of sorts and quite uncomfortable,
And never quite knowing why.
To be unaware
Is to be at the whim of the un-known.
Often, what we're observing in and around us
Is the secondary results of energy on the move
(Like a wave of relief, or a spate of violence)
And we plug into those overt events and phenomena
That are the positive symptoms of energy allowed,
Or the negative symptoms of energy misdirected.
But we ignore the energy itself.
Dis-regarding or resisting the core energy
Can result in intense emotional discomfort
That, unattended, may lead to
Physical and mental dis-ease.
While human interaction is happening,
I am training myself to look at the same time,
Beyond the foreground human content of a situation,
To look into the "what-else" of what's going on,
To feel into the dynamics of the greater energy that is empowering it
And the individual or collective reaction to it.
I'm learning to pull focus back and forth
Between the foreground and the background,
The content and the context,
Learning to allow the secondary and tertiary reactions to pass on through,
And to surf instead the swells of energy underlying them
As creatively as I can.
The result?
Amidst all the pain, the shakes, the emotional upheavals and the uncertainty
Resulting from my recent surgery,
I have never felt at the same time
So alive, so energised
And deliriously happy that I can still feel this way.
LIVING ANEW IN THE OLD WORLD
A potentially transforming experience
Needs to be carefully nurtured through
The ruck of daily living in world of lower-level experiences.
How do we extend temporary Perturbation
Into permanent Transforming?
How does a transforming being manage
In the old world?
The old pigeonholes will not longer contain
The new seeing, hearing, sensing, feeling and knowing
That is surging forth.
Well, it is the urge to focus and contain this new energy
That is the problem.
Any narrowing of energy will cause additional stress and pain,
Which, in turn, constricts the flow even more!
We get on a tightening spiral.
Let go.
Let happen.
Allow through.
Get out of your own way.
Take your hands off the controls;
"You" does not know how to do this,
But the process does.
The whole of existence works
If only we'll just go along with it!!
The love that we are,
And the love we want to express
Is
Open and utterly un-conditional.
Let it go
Wherever it will.
Allow it to radiate in all directions
As a presence.
This is not something to do,
This is everything to Be.
Allow it to transform everything it touches
Unconditionally,
While you just get on with your chores,
Awarefully.
Needs to be carefully nurtured through
The ruck of daily living in world of lower-level experiences.
How do we extend temporary Perturbation
Into permanent Transforming?
How does a transforming being manage
In the old world?
The old pigeonholes will not longer contain
The new seeing, hearing, sensing, feeling and knowing
That is surging forth.
Well, it is the urge to focus and contain this new energy
That is the problem.
Any narrowing of energy will cause additional stress and pain,
Which, in turn, constricts the flow even more!
We get on a tightening spiral.
Let go.
Let happen.
Allow through.
Get out of your own way.
Take your hands off the controls;
"You" does not know how to do this,
But the process does.
The whole of existence works
If only we'll just go along with it!!
The love that we are,
And the love we want to express
Is
Open and utterly un-conditional.
Let it go
Wherever it will.
Allow it to radiate in all directions
As a presence.
This is not something to do,
This is everything to Be.
Allow it to transform everything it touches
Unconditionally,
While you just get on with your chores,
Awarefully.
CIRCUMSPECTION
It just occurred to me that "political correctness" may be a perverted kind of Circumspect-ness,
A quality of behaviour that was much-lauded by "grown-ups" in my early days.
"Careful", "prim", "proper", "tactful", "polite" are synonyms that have all just popped up as I wrote the preceding sentence.
Laudable, healthy qualities?
Maybe -
I guess, like most qualities, it depends on their underlying motivation.
Ive just spent a couple of hours (about 1hour 55 minutes too long)
In the company of an obsessively "circumspect" person
Who addictively demands that everyone else display the same level of reticence
To say what's really going on in there.
I itched to ask --
A quality of behaviour that was much-lauded by "grown-ups" in my early days.
"Careful", "prim", "proper", "tactful", "polite" are synonyms that have all just popped up as I wrote the preceding sentence.
Laudable, healthy qualities?
Maybe -
I guess, like most qualities, it depends on their underlying motivation.
Ive just spent a couple of hours (about 1hour 55 minutes too long)
In the company of an obsessively "circumspect" person
Who addictively demands that everyone else display the same level of reticence
To say what's really going on in there.
I itched to ask --
What is your anger?
And add the comment --
For Chrissake spit it out before you choke to death on it.
But that would not have been circumspect of me,
Would it?
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
STRESS & TRANSPARENCY
Stress is a reaction to circumstances,
An inner and outer,
Physical, mental and emotional
Web of tensions we feel
When the circumstances and events of our life
Do not match up
With the way we additively demand that they should be;
When there's something about the energy of What-Is
And The Way-That-It-Is
That we're resisting.
Circumstances do not cause stress;
We cause stress.
Stress is something we do to ourself.
Other things just trigger it.
The things we struggle with are a pretty good indication
Of the level of consciousness that we're in at the time.
(We do move around a bit, you know)
When we're under stress
We mistakenly blame the energy of the What-Is
For creating the stress.
We make the problem worse.
The problem isn't the energy,
It's our resistance to it.
But we're so used to resistance and stress,
And so hooked on the temporary aliveness it generates,
(Stress is guarana for the psyche)
We assume
"Some stress is necessary. How could I live without it?
Happily.
If you've had enough of stress,
And are serious about getting off it,
Here's the bottom line --
What-Is, Is.
That energy isn't going to shift for you, me or anyone else who gets in its way.
When we resist it, What-Is exhausts us and bowls us over:
If, on the other hand, we become transparent to it,
What-Is will energise us and pass on through.
We can change our response to the energy
By becoming more fluid, more flexible and more transparent to it.
The more we can allow --
Let go of attachment --
Let go of the effort to control --
Let go of our addictions to the way we're so sure it "should" be --
Stress will abate
To reveal Equanimity.
Expanding your awareness
Lessens the capacity of people and events to trigger
A stress reaction in you.
You get stressed when you give away your power
To respond appropriately;
When you insist that things and people should be
Other than the way they seem to be to you right now.
The last word --
The difference between Control and Power is
Control restricts.
Power allows.
Now watch you mind go crazy..............
An inner and outer,
Physical, mental and emotional
Web of tensions we feel
When the circumstances and events of our life
Do not match up
With the way we additively demand that they should be;
When there's something about the energy of What-Is
And The Way-That-It-Is
That we're resisting.
Circumstances do not cause stress;
We cause stress.
Stress is something we do to ourself.
Other things just trigger it.
The things we struggle with are a pretty good indication
Of the level of consciousness that we're in at the time.
(We do move around a bit, you know)
When we're under stress
We mistakenly blame the energy of the What-Is
For creating the stress.
We make the problem worse.
The problem isn't the energy,
It's our resistance to it.
But we're so used to resistance and stress,
And so hooked on the temporary aliveness it generates,
(Stress is guarana for the psyche)
We assume
"Some stress is necessary. How could I live without it?
Happily.
If you've had enough of stress,
And are serious about getting off it,
Here's the bottom line --
What-Is, Is.
That energy isn't going to shift for you, me or anyone else who gets in its way.
When we resist it, What-Is exhausts us and bowls us over:
If, on the other hand, we become transparent to it,
What-Is will energise us and pass on through.
We can change our response to the energy
By becoming more fluid, more flexible and more transparent to it.
The more we can allow --
Let go of attachment --
Let go of the effort to control --
Let go of our addictions to the way we're so sure it "should" be --
Stress will abate
To reveal Equanimity.
Expanding your awareness
Lessens the capacity of people and events to trigger
A stress reaction in you.
You get stressed when you give away your power
To respond appropriately;
When you insist that things and people should be
Other than the way they seem to be to you right now.
The last word --
The difference between Control and Power is
Control restricts.
Power allows.
Now watch you mind go crazy..............
Monday, June 07, 2010
CENTRED AND BALANCED...
When you are balanced -- centred,
Energy passes transparently through you
Without you getting snagged on the quality of the energy (feelings & emotions).
When you are off-centre -- un-balanced,
You get snagged on a feeling about something
That is peripheral to your Self.
The feeling then becomes a mood,
Shrouding your whole day
And filtering the thoughts that get through to you.
You become preoccupied with the peripheral stuff,
Perverting the pure energy
And creating a condition that will last until you un-hook
And re-gain your balance-point.
Energy passes transparently through you
Without you getting snagged on the quality of the energy (feelings & emotions).
When you are off-centre -- un-balanced,
You get snagged on a feeling about something
That is peripheral to your Self.
The feeling then becomes a mood,
Shrouding your whole day
And filtering the thoughts that get through to you.
You become preoccupied with the peripheral stuff,
Perverting the pure energy
And creating a condition that will last until you un-hook
And re-gain your balance-point.
DISEASE
Symptoms of physical and emotional dis-ease
Can be invitations
To re-locate,
And re-centre
The activating energy
At some other level of your being.
Whenever possible
Treat your stuff an up-grade.
Release it into a wider and deeper context.
If you don't have one ready, make one up.
(eg. try "Healing-ness")
Otherwise,
At low levels of conditioning,
Every un-released dis-ease
Turns in on itself,
Consuming You in the process.
Can be invitations
To re-locate,
And re-centre
The activating energy
At some other level of your being.
Whenever possible
Treat your stuff an up-grade.
Release it into a wider and deeper context.
If you don't have one ready, make one up.
(eg. try "Healing-ness")
Otherwise,
At low levels of conditioning,
Every un-released dis-ease
Turns in on itself,
Consuming You in the process.
TUNE IN
Each of us is a living, breathing, walking, talking
Receiver and transducer of thought waves.
Living a Fulfilling life depends
On how many dimensions
And how many frequencies
We choose to tune into
And re-broadcast.
Some people live across a very wide range of available experiences,
Receiving and transmitting over a broad bandwidth:
Others live within a very narrow range --
Some at the top end,
Some at the bottom,
And most clustered somewhere around an "acceptable" mid-range.
Anything that impinges from outside of their comfort zone
Is seen as either a calamity or a miracle.
Any possibility that exists outside the same comfort zone.
Is "known" by those within its walls to be impossible.
Wherever each person is on the scale,
And however broad or narrow is the range they embrace,
Their lives are full of it.
Quantity of experience is never the issue;
It's about the Quality.
The more dimensions
And the wider the range of frequencies
We choose to encompass,
The more magnificent will be the range of phenomena
That become a natural part of our daily experience.
The more we tune into,
The more we receive and transmute.
There is no limit to this,
Until you say "Enough".
Receiver and transducer of thought waves.
Living a Fulfilling life depends
On how many dimensions
And how many frequencies
We choose to tune into
And re-broadcast.
Some people live across a very wide range of available experiences,
Receiving and transmitting over a broad bandwidth:
Others live within a very narrow range --
Some at the top end,
Some at the bottom,
And most clustered somewhere around an "acceptable" mid-range.
Anything that impinges from outside of their comfort zone
Is seen as either a calamity or a miracle.
Any possibility that exists outside the same comfort zone.
Is "known" by those within its walls to be impossible.
Wherever each person is on the scale,
And however broad or narrow is the range they embrace,
Their lives are full of it.
Quantity of experience is never the issue;
It's about the Quality.
The more dimensions
And the wider the range of frequencies
We choose to encompass,
The more magnificent will be the range of phenomena
That become a natural part of our daily experience.
The more we tune into,
The more we receive and transmute.
There is no limit to this,
Until you say "Enough".
EXISTENCE IS EASY
Unless you say otherwise,
Existence is easy.
Without you ever having to think about it,
Your heart keeps beating,
Your lungs keep breathing,
You food keeps digesting and nourishing you.....
Existence is easy for you.
But you are not easy with existence.
Why?
Somewhere along the way
You got separated from the easy-ness of it
And started to struggle
To Accomplish
What used to come naturally.
Then you adopted the thought
"It should be different from the way that it is."
You tried to change existence
Instead of getting yourself back into alignment with it.
Why do you decide to suffer like that?
And you did decide that.
You still do.
Why?
You don't do it for no reason.
No, that's your mind copping out to avoid the truth.
What's supposed to be the juice for you
In suffering?
What?...........
Sit with that
Until you get it.
Then, and only then,
You'll get how pointless it is.
And why life feels so point-less
And why you feel so point-less in it.
Then
You'll get the point.
All by yourself.
And existence will be easy once more.
Existence is easy.
Without you ever having to think about it,
Your heart keeps beating,
Your lungs keep breathing,
You food keeps digesting and nourishing you.....
Existence is easy for you.
But you are not easy with existence.
Why?
Somewhere along the way
You got separated from the easy-ness of it
And started to struggle
To Accomplish
What used to come naturally.
Then you adopted the thought
"It should be different from the way that it is."
You tried to change existence
Instead of getting yourself back into alignment with it.
Why do you decide to suffer like that?
And you did decide that.
You still do.
Why?
You don't do it for no reason.
No, that's your mind copping out to avoid the truth.
What's supposed to be the juice for you
In suffering?
What?...........
Sit with that
Until you get it.
Then, and only then,
You'll get how pointless it is.
And why life feels so point-less
And why you feel so point-less in it.
Then
You'll get the point.
All by yourself.
And existence will be easy once more.
SELF- LESSNESS
Arrange an introduction
And a getting-to-know you
Between your self
And The Self.
Spend time together with..........
The Self.
And fold in other selves
As they approach nearby.
In-vite them to join in.....
You may be amazed
How much we all have in common.
And a getting-to-know you
Between your self
And The Self.
Spend time together with..........
The Self.
And fold in other selves
As they approach nearby.
In-vite them to join in.....
You may be amazed
How much we all have in common.
THE POWER OF YOUR ATTENTION
You empower
Whatever you give your attention to.
The quality of your attention
Determines the quality of the power it will exert in your life
And the kind of hold it will have over you.
Whatever you allow to be
Will let you be.
If something is bugging you,
Don't try to ignore it;
Let it be.
Let it be.
And empower something else instead.
Whatever you give your attention to.
The quality of your attention
Determines the quality of the power it will exert in your life
And the kind of hold it will have over you.
Whatever you allow to be
Will let you be.
If something is bugging you,
Don't try to ignore it;
Let it be.
Let it be.
And empower something else instead.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
LOOKING FOR "MY" SOUL MATE -- A letter to women on Mating Sites
It's no secret that I subscribed 5 months ago to a matchmaking service.
I won't be renewing.
In 85% of the "compatible introductions" I get,
The seeker asks
"What do you think of Soul Mates?"
On first view I thought "That's a good question,"
And it got me thinking about the concept...
But by the 147th time I'm thinking
"There's some dysfunctional poverty going on here."
And it got me thinking about the concept...
But by the 147th time I'm thinking
"There's some dysfunctional poverty going on here."
And since the reply has to be in 3 short sentences
I get the uncomfortable feeling
It's either a loaded question,
Or a statement, disguised as a question
(Like "What do you think of child pornography?")
Either way, this is the answer the mating site doesn't have room for........
Dear Seeker,
What is it with this pandemic hunger for a soul mate?
What is it you're looking for
That you want me to go responsible for providing to you?
Is it someone who is a "perfect fit" for you?
I'd like to know, before I get involved
In something that may not be healthy for either of us.
Open your eyes, woman, you're surrounded by soul mates!
Soul mates are people who slide into your life at just the right time
And remind you of your divine joy,
Talk you over any barbed wire fence you get stuck on,
And if necessary,
Slap you awake.
But no. You've bought the juvenile idea that
Love is in Limited Supply
And ideally you should narrow yourself down to someone "special",
Someone who'll tick every single one of your Needs boxes
Forever 'til death do you part.
And you'll have to fulfill every one of his needs, too --
For Ever.
Do you really want to go responsible for all my needs?
Or at age 67 would you expect that by now
I'd have learned to stand on my own two feet?
Same here.
If you're looking for a perfect mesh,
Someone who won't ever grind your gears,
I do wish you Good Luck.
Like everything else in this life,
If you believe that, out of umpteen billion people on this planet
There is one perfect Soul Mate just for you,
Then you make it so:
That is your reality.
I hope you find him.
A problem, though, with this belief in a Soul Mate is that
If Mr. Right doesn't show up within your available time frame,
You may settle for Mr. Nearly-Right.
But you won't give him ALL of your love --
You'll keep some in reserve, just in case Mr. Absolutely Right shows up late.
(Guys, you do the same, too).
For me,
That kind of "Soul Mate" is a romantic fiction,
A beautiful fantasy,
A nice (foolishly simple) idea.
Sweetly naive.
And romance is a lovely game to play;
I'm a sucker for it.
But........
It is a game.
As a way of living,
Romantic Love carries within it the seeds of its own destruction.
That doesn't mean that the death of a relationship based solely on romance is inevitable,
Just likely.
Look at the divorce stats.
Are there Soul Mates? Yes!!
I'm surrounded by kindred spirits --
People with whom I share flashes of recognition.
And as a Lifeline counsellor, I (anonymously) garnered several more during the course of every shift.
The further I go on this journey,
The more plentiful soul mates become.
I shamelessly set out each day to collect them.
Some of them I don't even know their names, nor they mine,
And I'll probably never encounter them again.
Others are my best friends.
But there are not many soul mates of any kind
That I'd choose to live with,
And even less that I want to bonk.
(And I've no doubt the feeling would be mutual).
So, dear lady,
I have a few questions about Soul Mates
And the notion of Special Love --
The two get confused, don't they?......
1) What do you really mean when you use the term "Soul Mates" -- your capitals, not mine? Under your legitimate yearning for connection, is there an expectant hope of exclusivity?
2) Where would the whole Disney/Mills & Boon industry be without your active support of them?
3) When do you plan to grow up and realise.....?
I am already your soul mate.
Now, I suspect that, as you read this,
The notion of welcoming me as your soul mate may be rapidly becoming less and less appealing to you;
However, please consider this perception I've gleaned
From countless heartbroken and heartbreaking calls on Lifeline
From women and men --
Love is inclusive, not exclusive.
Jealousy is an insane, irrational emotion
Jealousy is an insane, irrational emotion
That arises from a thought of
"Without you, I am not enough and sufficient unto myself."
If I could emotionally stand on my own two feet,
It wouldn't matter much
What you do or don't do.
That does not mean I don't care about you;
It just means I don't need you in order to survive,
But I'd love to have you by me for entertainment and comfort.
That does not mean I don't care about you;
It just means I don't need you in order to survive,
But I'd love to have you by me for entertainment and comfort.
(It's hard to imagine a life lived in that kind of freedom, isn't it?)
You asked me what I think about Soul Mates:
Here it is --
The idea called "Soul Mates" is fine, if you believe in it.
If, however, my loving you
Is going to cost me
The freedom to love any or all of my other soul mates,
(I said "love", not "sleep with", or even fantasise about "sleeping with")
Then I may well wake up one day resenting you.
And if you are truly honest with yourself,
You'll see that possibility for yourself, too.
I don't want to ever resent you,
Or be resented by you.
As unromantic is this may sound,
I do not intend to sacrifice anyone or anything important in my life
In order to be with you,
Nor do I expect that of you.
If you and I get together in any way, shape or form,
Let us each add to the richness of what sustains us already.
I don't want any relationship
To take over and exclude all else --
That's for parasites,
And I've had my fill of those suckers.
I want this relationship to enrich what I now have,
And I want the same for you.
Have we got a deal?
RIGHTEOUS UNCERTAINTY
The level of righteous energy exerted
On a person or situation
Is inversely proportional
To the Uncertainty and Grief that underpins it?
On a person or situation
Is inversely proportional
To the Uncertainty and Grief that underpins it?
QUIET PLEASE!!
The way of yoga is quieting the mind
The way of tantra is finding the quiet
Behind the mind
And feeling into that.
One is a way of discipline;
One is a way of surrender.
Both work
Choose the flavour that suits your style.
I've tried both.
First yoga - I found it controlling and hard work;
Then tantra - I find that explorative and fun.
Being devoutly curious and a bit of a drifter
Who likes getting "creatively lost",
I've chosen the latter.
But that's just me.
The way of tantra is finding the quiet
Behind the mind
And feeling into that.
One is a way of discipline;
One is a way of surrender.
Both work
Choose the flavour that suits your style.
I've tried both.
First yoga - I found it controlling and hard work;
Then tantra - I find that explorative and fun.
Being devoutly curious and a bit of a drifter
Who likes getting "creatively lost",
I've chosen the latter.
But that's just me.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
CHRONIC STRESS
A pretty good indication
That there's something you need to stop doing,
And something else you could start being.
That there's something you need to stop doing,
And something else you could start being.
NATURE
Nature reflects that which we are.
Let nature be your constant teacher and guide,
Again and again
Bringing you back to your self.
Let nature be your constant teacher and guide,
Again and again
Bringing you back to your self.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
LET GO -- THE LEAP INTO LIFE
At the point of letting-go deeply
Paralysis may occur.
It's not unusual for our ego,
Ever eager to protect its dominance over us,
To call up counter-attack forces
In the tussle between our inner and outer lives,
And our higher and lower perceptions and aspirations.
It's at this point of forsaking
The way we've always "done" life
That the mind's resistance to transformation
May invoke personality or physical health issues.
You may feel like you're going crazy,
Or illness may rear its ugly head.
As serious as they are, though,
These may not be the core problem:
They may be dizzying, warping and weaving distractions
To put you off the main game.
Don't ignore any dis-ease;
Treat it appropriately
At every level you're aware of,
But be aware also that
Discomfort and pain may be symptomatic
Of something more profound also going on.
Be aware that it is in the nature of Mind to do ANYTHING
To ensure the survival of itself,
And anything it identifies itself with.
Be in no doubt about that.
There's a parasitic aspect to Ego
That makes You, as host, expendable.
Your mind and its constructs,
Judiciously used
Are neccessary and, up to a point, useful,
But they're not your best friends.
They never were.
Looking at the wider picture,
Whats at stake here is a fundamental, energetic life-force
Inviting us to wake up,
And drawing us all into a deeper involvement
With life on a larger scale than we presently think possible.
This awakening force, though, expands us
Into spaces of apparent chaos, formlessness and nothingness.
We may find our minds dizzily spinning out,
Oscillating disconcertingly
Between
Which to do?
Well, my answer is "Both".
For what it's worth to you,
Here's how I do it.......
First, I let go into the chaos.
I choose, again and again if need be
To trust that every road I've ever followed has led me to here now;
This now is what I came for.
And
I grab every arising opportunity
To engage in any appropriate outward activity,
No mater how large or small, important or trivial
That helps me express my be-ing.
For example,
One of the ways I define myself is as "someone who makes a difference".
A satisfying activity, for me, can range from spending time with someone who's suffering or lost,
To picking up and binning a piece of garbage.......
Any conscious activity that expresses my need to "make a difference"
Works a treat,
If that's why I'm doing it.
So, how do you define your self?
State it. Write it down and stick it to your 'fridge.
Life will deliver opportunities to express your choice
Right to your door.
Deliberately honour every chance you can see to real-ise your self in action.
Keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities to do something in such a way that says
"This is me, doing what I choose to be."
It will help keep you grounded.
And it does wonders for your self-esteem. too.
I've found it's possible to feel blissfully secure
While falling into the unknown.
But that's just so much hot air.
You won't know that
Until you dive in and experience for yourself.
At first your mind will recoil;
Then, at another level of awareness, you'll realise
"No, this is OK. I'm OK. Let's wait and see what happens."
The trick (if there is one) is -
Leap first.
I didn't find out who I really am and what I'm really capable of
Until I let go of everyone and everything I'd been hanging onto for support.
When there's no-one else, you find out, in real experience,
What you are
And who your best friend is......
One and the same.
At a time when no particular doing grabs your enthusiasm any more,
Jump in anyway
(the choice is simpler then, isn't it?)
After the leap,
A way to creatively engage with the tunnel,
And creatively express your self
Will present itself to you.
If it doesn't, ask someone (how about the first person you meet?)
What you can do for them.
Crazy?
Well, you've tried the sensible stuff already.
How far has that got you?
Talk, too, to someone who's been through what you're going through
(there are lots of us out here)
And we'll all tell you the same thing.......
No matter how long the tunnel seems,
It is a tunnel
And, even if you can't see that far yet,
It's open at the other end.
Keep coming.
I once travelled by rail along the Brennario Pass,
Through the Alps between Italy and Austria.
As the way became steeper, the track plunged into a tunnel.
After what seemed an eternity, we emerged into a brilliant vista that was surprisingly more spectacular than anything I'd ever experienced before,
Until we were plunged into a second tunnel,
And then a third, and a fourth....
But on each emergence,
The view got more and more magnificent.
Such is my experience of the Journey of Transformation.......
Tunnels and vistas -- alternating.
Before every Leap,
Logic and reason intervene,
Trying to consider first all the angles.
That's a pointless pursuit;
Mind cannot imagine anywhere it has never been.
This tunnel of transformation
Traverses your - as yet - Unknown and Unknowable Self.
You're out of range of your mind.
Transformation and healing have to begin with a leap of Absolute Trust, or there's no leap at all;
There are no half-measures available on the way to transformation;
You cannot be partly pregnant.
What prompts me to leap?
Sometimes the very fears that would discourage me;
I get to a point where
They simply cannot be denied or reasoned away any longer,
So I consent to being pushed.
While you're traversing the tunnels,
Some doubts may come up for you.
I pass these on so that, if they nag at you, you'll know
You're not alone
And that they are the attempted distractions
Of a mind about to be put in its place...........
Paralysis may occur.
It's not unusual for our ego,
Ever eager to protect its dominance over us,
To call up counter-attack forces
In the tussle between our inner and outer lives,
And our higher and lower perceptions and aspirations.
It's at this point of forsaking
The way we've always "done" life
That the mind's resistance to transformation
May invoke personality or physical health issues.
You may feel like you're going crazy,
Or illness may rear its ugly head.
As serious as they are, though,
These may not be the core problem:
They may be dizzying, warping and weaving distractions
To put you off the main game.
Don't ignore any dis-ease;
Treat it appropriately
At every level you're aware of,
But be aware also that
Discomfort and pain may be symptomatic
Of something more profound also going on.
Be aware that it is in the nature of Mind to do ANYTHING
To ensure the survival of itself,
And anything it identifies itself with.
Be in no doubt about that.
There's a parasitic aspect to Ego
That makes You, as host, expendable.
Your mind and its constructs,
Judiciously used
Are neccessary and, up to a point, useful,
But they're not your best friends.
They never were.
Looking at the wider picture,
Whats at stake here is a fundamental, energetic life-force
Inviting us to wake up,
And drawing us all into a deeper involvement
With life on a larger scale than we presently think possible.
This awakening force, though, expands us
Into spaces of apparent chaos, formlessness and nothingness.
We may find our minds dizzily spinning out,
Oscillating disconcertingly
Between
- A deep desire to DO something that will ground us enough to abate these awful feelings and sensations; And
- A formless void where there is nothing that can be done but let go of the handrails and leap.....
Which to do?
Well, my answer is "Both".
For what it's worth to you,
Here's how I do it.......
First, I let go into the chaos.
I choose, again and again if need be
To trust that every road I've ever followed has led me to here now;
This now is what I came for.
And
I grab every arising opportunity
To engage in any appropriate outward activity,
No mater how large or small, important or trivial
That helps me express my be-ing.
For example,
One of the ways I define myself is as "someone who makes a difference".
A satisfying activity, for me, can range from spending time with someone who's suffering or lost,
To picking up and binning a piece of garbage.......
Any conscious activity that expresses my need to "make a difference"
Works a treat,
If that's why I'm doing it.
So, how do you define your self?
State it. Write it down and stick it to your 'fridge.
Life will deliver opportunities to express your choice
Right to your door.
Deliberately honour every chance you can see to real-ise your self in action.
Keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities to do something in such a way that says
"This is me, doing what I choose to be."
It will help keep you grounded.
And it does wonders for your self-esteem. too.
I've found it's possible to feel blissfully secure
While falling into the unknown.
But that's just so much hot air.
You won't know that
Until you dive in and experience for yourself.
At first your mind will recoil;
Then, at another level of awareness, you'll realise
"No, this is OK. I'm OK. Let's wait and see what happens."
The trick (if there is one) is -
Leap first.
I didn't find out who I really am and what I'm really capable of
Until I let go of everyone and everything I'd been hanging onto for support.
When there's no-one else, you find out, in real experience,
What you are
And who your best friend is......
One and the same.
At a time when no particular doing grabs your enthusiasm any more,
Jump in anyway
(the choice is simpler then, isn't it?)
After the leap,
A way to creatively engage with the tunnel,
And creatively express your self
Will present itself to you.
If it doesn't, ask someone (how about the first person you meet?)
What you can do for them.
Crazy?
Well, you've tried the sensible stuff already.
How far has that got you?
Talk, too, to someone who's been through what you're going through
(there are lots of us out here)
And we'll all tell you the same thing.......
No matter how long the tunnel seems,
It is a tunnel
And, even if you can't see that far yet,
It's open at the other end.
Keep coming.
I once travelled by rail along the Brennario Pass,
Through the Alps between Italy and Austria.
As the way became steeper, the track plunged into a tunnel.
After what seemed an eternity, we emerged into a brilliant vista that was surprisingly more spectacular than anything I'd ever experienced before,
Until we were plunged into a second tunnel,
And then a third, and a fourth....
But on each emergence,
The view got more and more magnificent.
Such is my experience of the Journey of Transformation.......
Tunnels and vistas -- alternating.
Before every Leap,
Logic and reason intervene,
Trying to consider first all the angles.
That's a pointless pursuit;
Mind cannot imagine anywhere it has never been.
This tunnel of transformation
Traverses your - as yet - Unknown and Unknowable Self.
You're out of range of your mind.
Transformation and healing have to begin with a leap of Absolute Trust, or there's no leap at all;
There are no half-measures available on the way to transformation;
You cannot be partly pregnant.
What prompts me to leap?
Sometimes the very fears that would discourage me;
I get to a point where
They simply cannot be denied or reasoned away any longer,
So I consent to being pushed.
While you're traversing the tunnels,
Some doubts may come up for you.
I pass these on so that, if they nag at you, you'll know
You're not alone
And that they are the attempted distractions
Of a mind about to be put in its place...........
SOME (POSSIBLY SURPRISING) OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRANSFORMATION AND HEALING.....
- Crisis (any one will do)
- Illness (ditto)
- Physical, mental or emotional dis-ease
- Thoughts like "Am I going crazy?" "Am I sick?" "What is becoming of me?" "I was doing so well: what went wrong?"
- Separating feelings like failure, fear, distrust, uncertainty, loss, confusion, hurt, grief, boredom, anger, irritation, disgust, stupidity, fury, being victimised.........
Opportunities for transformation and healing often come disguised as the very opposite of what we expect them to look like. We may feel we are creating, or are the victim of, the very thing we most fear (including fear itself).
At what point do we shift
From seeing our condition as a road to hell,
To seeing it instead as a process of transcending?
I cannot tell you.
When faced with an optical illusion,
Some people will get the "click" quickly,
And others may stare at it for hours on end,
And some will give up looking altogether......
You'll get it when you get it,
And it will be sometime before you die;
That's the best I can promise you.
In the meantime you can help yourself
By staying open to every possibility.
Drop any idea of what "it" should look like
When "it" happens;
Expectations will always prevent you from "getting it".
As Colin Hayes said often --
"Take what you get when you get it,
And don't take what you don't get when you don't get it.
Got it?
Drop all your preconceptions,
No matter how well founded you think they are....
Transformation is virgin territory.
It's going to come as YOUR first-hand, first-time, unique experience,
Not a copy of someone else's.
There are no guarantees of a happy ending
And the process may throw up de-powering physical, emotional and mental challenges
That first require your creative attention.
Your question can always be --
How can I engage with this now
And use it
To empower me?
Standing in such an enquiry
Encourages you to form a new quality of living presence
That will help you transcend
The limitations of your present condition.
There is no end point to transformation and healing;
No goal to be achieved.
"I'm here!" is a joyful progress report,
Not a cry from the summit.
Enjoy the view.... and .....
There is always more.
Let your moment-by-moment experience
Be a totally alive present,
And a birthing of the next moment
And a dying of the previous.
Such aliveness, and receiving and letting-go
Will determine whether you are waking up
Or going to sleep.
Whilever you are fully in the experience you're having
And waking up
You will radiate love, aliveness and innocent wisdom --
You cannot hide that.
The same process is happening for many on this plane at this time --
You are not alone,
And you are all-one.
For each of us the story differs,
But the transforming process is the same --
One process - many participants - many ways.
Existence is transforming even as we speak, passing you by
Until you choose to join in.
When you finally release into this realisation
You will begin to sense
Both the inexorable onwardness that is carrying you along
And the vast complexity that binds us all,
At varying levels of existence, experience and awareness
Into the one process we call Living.
HANDLING THE UNKNOWN
It can be a bit like going to live in a new country --
Get out and around,
Get familiar with the layout,
Learn the language,
Say "Hi" to the folks,
Get to know the new rules, the customs, and "the way it's done here",
And be appropriate to them.
Expect some stress,
Our minds usually tolerate only so much
Before resisting the unfamiliar.
First, make it OK to be shifted and tossed around
By the currents and eddies of change.
Drop every urge to fight the flow.
It's just culture shock
Make it OK to open slowly
And explore everything gradually.
There's no need to rush.
Surrender to each new experience,
And gradually get into harmony with it.
(Unison is not required)
Wherever you find yourself,
Sense the energy of each new emotional, physical, spiritual and mental locale;
Strike a fresh sense of balance.
Allow times of uncertainty, fear, sadness or loss if they crop up --
Such feelings are common and natural responses to radical change.
Allow new energies to flow over and through you unimpeded.
Allow old boundaries to dissolve.
Allow the fullest possible flush of new freedom
To sweep you up.
Now is the only available time
To be stretched and re-shaped
By the powerful forces of what is
As yet un-known.
The adventurer needs only three items in his travel kit --
- Willingness to venture
- Openness to experience
- Personal integrity.
A word of warning, though.....
Once the new journey has begun
There is no way to return to the old world.
Evolution will not go backwards:
We cannot return to mother's womb --
There isn't room there any more.
Once begun, the process must continue,
Of allowing, assimilating and re-balancing
To integrate
With a new way of Be-ing.
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