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.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
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.
HEALING OR CURE?
A Cure is a "fix",
Remediation.
The symptoms are treated
To the point where they are no longer apparent
And the patient is regarded as "cured".
But what about the dysfunctionality that gave rise to the disease?
That may continue to lurk
Unhealed.
Healing is "wholling" --
Making Whole.
Re-integrating that which got separated.
A Cure is change;
Healing is transformation.
I've just had bypass surgery.
Problem cured.
But healing the years of dis-ease-making habits
Like stress, anxiety, frustration, anger,
And the things I did to overcome them.....
That is something else altogether.
Without healing,
Cures are only apparent
And temporary
A condition can be cured without healing taking place,
Often leading to recurrence of the symptoms,
Or the emergence of more serious ones.
Similarly, Healing does not always lead to a cure.
Some dis-eases turn out to be irreversible,
But, even without a cure,
Healing can happen.
Nevertheless.
Remediation.
The symptoms are treated
To the point where they are no longer apparent
And the patient is regarded as "cured".
But what about the dysfunctionality that gave rise to the disease?
That may continue to lurk
Unhealed.
Healing is "wholling" --
Making Whole.
Re-integrating that which got separated.
A Cure is change;
Healing is transformation.
I've just had bypass surgery.
Problem cured.
But healing the years of dis-ease-making habits
Like stress, anxiety, frustration, anger,
And the things I did to overcome them.....
That is something else altogether.
Without healing,
Cures are only apparent
And temporary
A condition can be cured without healing taking place,
Often leading to recurrence of the symptoms,
Or the emergence of more serious ones.
Similarly, Healing does not always lead to a cure.
Some dis-eases turn out to be irreversible,
But, even without a cure,
Healing can happen.
Nevertheless.
Monday, May 31, 2010
EASTER NOW
When do you intend to cease suffering?
When will you quit this cross of your own making?
When is it time for your resurrection?
You say.
It's your call.
When will you quit this cross of your own making?
When is it time for your resurrection?
You say.
It's your call.
TRAPS & OBSTACLES
There's only one major obstacle to Happiness --
Our own ego's ideas, concepts, opinions and beliefs,
And it's promise --
"Adopt these and you'll be happy."
There's only one major Trap --
Thinking that thinking alone will get us over the obstacles.
Ego can't solve itself!
We need something larger than mere mind.
Fortunately,
We are larger than that,
And we're all-ready, all that we need.
Look within.
Ask for help if you need it,
But from someone who will direct you deeply
Into yourself.
The only valid answers to your questions
Lie within you.
You are Your Question and Your Answer -- both.
You are both Sinner and Saviour.
Our own ego's ideas, concepts, opinions and beliefs,
And it's promise --
"Adopt these and you'll be happy."
There's only one major Trap --
Thinking that thinking alone will get us over the obstacles.
Ego can't solve itself!
We need something larger than mere mind.
Fortunately,
We are larger than that,
And we're all-ready, all that we need.
Look within.
Ask for help if you need it,
But from someone who will direct you deeply
Into yourself.
The only valid answers to your questions
Lie within you.
You are Your Question and Your Answer -- both.
You are both Sinner and Saviour.
BE-AWARE
Regardless of what we do --
To engage or avoid,
Anything in our makeup that we're unwilling to accept,
Or look at,
Will cause us pain,
Sooner or later.
I once worked with a man who'd had a bad experience with doctors.
He refused point-blank to have anything more to do with them.
By the time I knew him, he was covered in boils.
He died a slow and horribly painful death from septicemia.
Well, that was his conscious choice.
Personally, I've been happy to endure a short, sharp pang of pain,
Have the boil lanced
And be done with it.
That's my choice.
What's yours?
To engage or avoid,
Anything in our makeup that we're unwilling to accept,
Or look at,
Will cause us pain,
Sooner or later.
I once worked with a man who'd had a bad experience with doctors.
He refused point-blank to have anything more to do with them.
By the time I knew him, he was covered in boils.
He died a slow and horribly painful death from septicemia.
Well, that was his conscious choice.
Personally, I've been happy to endure a short, sharp pang of pain,
Have the boil lanced
And be done with it.
That's my choice.
What's yours?
SUFFERING -- A QUESTION WORTH STANDING IN.....
- What is it here that's more important than being at one with myself?
LOGIC & REASON -v- TRUST & SURRENDER
Trust and Surrender
Are the womb of a growing Conscious Awareness.
Logic an Reason are amongst the essential nutrients
Needed to nourish the growing Self.
But without Trust and Surrender
To contain and sustain it
An embryo of New Awareness,
Fed on logic and reason alone,
Will be stillborn.
In the process of growing,
Trust and Surrender have to be reached into
Time and again.
Are the womb of a growing Conscious Awareness.
Logic an Reason are amongst the essential nutrients
Needed to nourish the growing Self.
But without Trust and Surrender
To contain and sustain it
An embryo of New Awareness,
Fed on logic and reason alone,
Will be stillborn.
In the process of growing,
Trust and Surrender have to be reached into
Time and again.
ANGER
I've been standing in a question --
"Why do I start boiling at the public behaviour and verbal vomiting of politicians?"
An answer popped last night .........
Anger is my dialogue with a looming pall of Despair.
When threatened, I get angry ... I knew that.
But it was a blinding flash of the bloody obvious to discover what it is that I feel threatened by
And what lay at the base of my depression and anxiety.
Why would I feel threatened by a feeling?
Because "I" thinks "I can't handle this."
A feeling does not need to be handled;
It can be experienced.
Safely.
We are, after all, bigger than the feelings we generate --
The fruit cannot swallow the tree.
"Why do I start boiling at the public behaviour and verbal vomiting of politicians?"
An answer popped last night .........
Anger is my dialogue with a looming pall of Despair.
When threatened, I get angry ... I knew that.
But it was a blinding flash of the bloody obvious to discover what it is that I feel threatened by
And what lay at the base of my depression and anxiety.
Why would I feel threatened by a feeling?
Because "I" thinks "I can't handle this."
A feeling does not need to be handled;
It can be experienced.
Safely.
We are, after all, bigger than the feelings we generate --
The fruit cannot swallow the tree.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
GETTING WARMER.....
When I was kid we used to play a game called "Hideys".
One of us closed our eyes and counted aloud to 20 while the other hid an object.
As the seeker blundered around looking for what was hidden,
The hider would call "Warmer" or "Colder" according to whether we were getting closer to, or further away from, the hidden object.
Maybe God plays the same game......
As we get closer to a fundamental shift in consciousness,
Fear begins to creep in.
It used to be a turn-off,
But I think I got that wrong.
It was God's way of saying
"Getting warmer!"
One of us closed our eyes and counted aloud to 20 while the other hid an object.
As the seeker blundered around looking for what was hidden,
The hider would call "Warmer" or "Colder" according to whether we were getting closer to, or further away from, the hidden object.
Maybe God plays the same game......
As we get closer to a fundamental shift in consciousness,
Fear begins to creep in.
It used to be a turn-off,
But I think I got that wrong.
It was God's way of saying
"Getting warmer!"
SURRENDER
Surrender (choosing to creatively engage with What-Is)
Is vital.
I first sought enlightenment to make my life better,
Or at least more tolerable than it was.
Things were "bad", and getting "worse".
The idea of using Enlightenment as a way out
Seems rather insensitive and selfish of me now that I look back on it --
And stupidly ignorant.
My enlightenment began
When I got the joke,
And the joke was Me,
And the joke was on me --
Enlightenment isn't about "changing" or "improving",
But about getting calm and creative with things as they are.
The discovery was, at first, crushing.
The road out looked like punishment by "more of the same".
It took a long time for me to get
That any worthwhile, effective exploration into self
Cannot be assaultive,
But must be held in a context
Of unconditional love, humility, and total acceptance.
A realisation of Perfection is not
An ideal to be achieved,
But is justly a name for What-is, Just As It Is.
I did the journey hard --
Hard on me and on everyone who cared about me.
I'd added the idea of "Getting Enlightened"
To a long "To-Do" list,
And to the huge pile of things I'd become attached to.
It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
Than for a logical, religious Westerner
To accept the need for trust, detachment and unconditional letting-go
Of all attachments and identifications -- ideas, concepts, beliefs, opinions and such....
While there is anything we are attached to emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or in any other way,
We are doing the splits,
And the Wholeness we look for will elude us.
Our present condition is a not a disease to be cured
Or a failure to be fixed
With tools of "enlightenment".
That's ego speaking.
Our present condition is an experience to be had
So that the wisdom gained from it can flow back to the Source
From whence we came,
From whence comes the energy vitalising this experience --
The Source that you and I truly are.
Is vital.
I first sought enlightenment to make my life better,
Or at least more tolerable than it was.
Things were "bad", and getting "worse".
The idea of using Enlightenment as a way out
Seems rather insensitive and selfish of me now that I look back on it --
And stupidly ignorant.
My enlightenment began
When I got the joke,
And the joke was Me,
And the joke was on me --
Enlightenment isn't about "changing" or "improving",
But about getting calm and creative with things as they are.
The discovery was, at first, crushing.
The road out looked like punishment by "more of the same".
It took a long time for me to get
That any worthwhile, effective exploration into self
Cannot be assaultive,
But must be held in a context
Of unconditional love, humility, and total acceptance.
A realisation of Perfection is not
An ideal to be achieved,
But is justly a name for What-is, Just As It Is.
I did the journey hard --
Hard on me and on everyone who cared about me.
I'd added the idea of "Getting Enlightened"
To a long "To-Do" list,
And to the huge pile of things I'd become attached to.
It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
Than for a logical, religious Westerner
To accept the need for trust, detachment and unconditional letting-go
Of all attachments and identifications -- ideas, concepts, beliefs, opinions and such....
While there is anything we are attached to emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or in any other way,
We are doing the splits,
And the Wholeness we look for will elude us.
Our present condition is a not a disease to be cured
Or a failure to be fixed
With tools of "enlightenment".
That's ego speaking.
Our present condition is an experience to be had
So that the wisdom gained from it can flow back to the Source
From whence we came,
From whence comes the energy vitalising this experience --
The Source that you and I truly are.
TRUST
Trust is an energy organiser.
At a time of crisis
When no rational, logical thinking
Will sustain an illusion of stability, security or control,
Trust provides a firm footing for your Self.
Trust is a knowing from deep within your self
(Distinguishing it from "faith", which is invested in someone or something external)
That Existence knows what it's doing,
(It has been doing it successfully for a VERY long time)
That life is designed to work,
That there are no mistakes,
No failures
And that survival is assured.
The only issue is, and always has been,
The quality of that survival.
That's where Trust allows us to get creative.
At a time of crisis
When no rational, logical thinking
Will sustain an illusion of stability, security or control,
Trust provides a firm footing for your Self.
Trust is a knowing from deep within your self
(Distinguishing it from "faith", which is invested in someone or something external)
That Existence knows what it's doing,
(It has been doing it successfully for a VERY long time)
That life is designed to work,
That there are no mistakes,
No failures
And that survival is assured.
The only issue is, and always has been,
The quality of that survival.
That's where Trust allows us to get creative.
KEEPING OUR BALANCE
Before awakening we were so sure,
So certain of what thought we knew,
Especially in the stormiest of seas.
We dealt with life
By emotionally battling every day
Like Jackie Chan on steroids.
In awakening, we become unsure, uncertain, vulnerable.
While the boat continues to be rocked and tossed,
How do we adjust to the push-pull buffeting
Of the world around us?
With impeccable self-honesty,
Genuine trust,
And open-hearted surrender.
Behind such scary vulnerability
You will find the effortless invincibility you've been looking for.
So certain of what thought we knew,
Especially in the stormiest of seas.
We dealt with life
By emotionally battling every day
Like Jackie Chan on steroids.
In awakening, we become unsure, uncertain, vulnerable.
While the boat continues to be rocked and tossed,
How do we adjust to the push-pull buffeting
Of the world around us?
With impeccable self-honesty,
Genuine trust,
And open-hearted surrender.
Behind such scary vulnerability
You will find the effortless invincibility you've been looking for.
A NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH "NOW"
It has been said --
"A fish does not know water until it is out of it."
We did not know Peace and Balance until we fell out of them.
Since then, we have lived in varying degrees of dis-comfort and im-balance.
Unable to really re-member what profound Peace and Balance felt like,
We have still used some idea about them as a reference point;
We have viewed imbalance as an aberration,
And have tried to re-balance ourselves
Against the imaginary ideal of "wellness".
No wonder we keep stumbling.
If what you're doing isn't helping you stay firmly on your feet,
Here's another way to look at it --
Instead of assuming a sense of disturbance, discomfort, dis-equilibrium or pain
As something to be cured,
See them instead
As gifts.
Instead of recoiling from the condition we're in,
It is possible for us to creatively use it
As a real, living, breathing reference point
From which to reflect upon our here-and-now place
On sliding scales
Of balance and imbalance,
(On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you feel?)
Fluidity and rigidity,
(On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you feel?)
Expansion and contraction,
(One a scale of 1 to 10....)
Openness and closedness,
Judgement and unconditionality.
In other words,
Instead of standing where you think you should be,
And viewing your experience negatively from There,
Stand instead where you are
And look at the situation,
And where you are within it,
From Here/Now.
From this new, real and actual viewing platform
There is no more good or bad,
No more right or wrong,
No more should or should-not --
No polarising,
No agreement or rejection;
There is just the eternal and abundant gift of What-Is,
Inviting us to look
From this point of view,
And re-balance
Here where we stand.
In this new engagement with Now,
Everything can be integrated with the complex harmony of Existence.
Just as a new pattern in an evolving tapestry
Develops and enriches the tapestry.
In this new engagement with Now,
We find openness, lovingness, supportingness,
And a growing sense of adventure, freedom and gratitude.
But it isn't going to happen by accident.
In turmoil we have to deliberately Choose
To switch from Recoil to Engage.
"A fish does not know water until it is out of it."
We did not know Peace and Balance until we fell out of them.
Since then, we have lived in varying degrees of dis-comfort and im-balance.
Unable to really re-member what profound Peace and Balance felt like,
We have still used some idea about them as a reference point;
We have viewed imbalance as an aberration,
And have tried to re-balance ourselves
Against the imaginary ideal of "wellness".
No wonder we keep stumbling.
If what you're doing isn't helping you stay firmly on your feet,
Here's another way to look at it --
Instead of assuming a sense of disturbance, discomfort, dis-equilibrium or pain
As something to be cured,
See them instead
As gifts.
Instead of recoiling from the condition we're in,
It is possible for us to creatively use it
As a real, living, breathing reference point
From which to reflect upon our here-and-now place
On sliding scales
Of balance and imbalance,
(On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you feel?)
Fluidity and rigidity,
(On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you feel?)
Expansion and contraction,
(One a scale of 1 to 10....)
Openness and closedness,
Judgement and unconditionality.
In other words,
Instead of standing where you think you should be,
And viewing your experience negatively from There,
Stand instead where you are
And look at the situation,
And where you are within it,
From Here/Now.
From this new, real and actual viewing platform
There is no more good or bad,
No more right or wrong,
No more should or should-not --
No polarising,
No agreement or rejection;
There is just the eternal and abundant gift of What-Is,
Inviting us to look
From this point of view,
And re-balance
Here where we stand.
In this new engagement with Now,
Everything can be integrated with the complex harmony of Existence.
Just as a new pattern in an evolving tapestry
Develops and enriches the tapestry.
In this new engagement with Now,
We find openness, lovingness, supportingness,
And a growing sense of adventure, freedom and gratitude.
But it isn't going to happen by accident.
In turmoil we have to deliberately Choose
To switch from Recoil to Engage.
INTIMACY
Into-Me-See.....
Private words expressed publicly.
Intimacy is Communication that evolves into Communion.
The former interaction of personalities,
Through radiation and absorption,
Becomes a blending of Presences.
Wow!
If you want it --
Give it away.
If you can't seem to get it --
Ask
How intimate are you with your self?
Private words expressed publicly.
Intimacy is Communication that evolves into Communion.
The former interaction of personalities,
Through radiation and absorption,
Becomes a blending of Presences.
Wow!
If you want it --
Give it away.
If you can't seem to get it --
Ask
How intimate are you with your self?
THE NEW "ME"
A renewed sense of self is more fluid,
More transparent,
In-differently accommodating differing environments,
Differing perceptions,
And differing people.
Defences are lowered,
Boundaries are stretched beyond limit,
Elastic and permeable.
More transparent,
In-differently accommodating differing environments,
Differing perceptions,
And differing people.
Defences are lowered,
Boundaries are stretched beyond limit,
Elastic and permeable.
ECSTASY -- STANDING APART.
Transformation either happens, or it doesn't happen.
It's a gift of grace.
It cannot be manufactured --
It cannot be coerced or made to happen.
Nor will it be forced upon you.
(Saul, on the road to Emmaeus, didn't get anything he wasn't looking for.)
All we can do is prepare to receive it
By opening up
And allowing ourselves to be transparent
To experience.
Any experience in particular?
Yes.The one in your face,
And the ones going on underneath
That you won't look at.
Yes, those ones.
This one -- the one that keeps cropping up time and time again;
This one -- the one we try to push away as unimportant or undesirable;
This one -- the one we won't have a bar of;
This one -- the one we want, but not like THAT!
This one -- the one we'll avoid by going for any distraction instead;
This one -- the one that our addictions allow us to say "No" to --
The one that precedes the urge to escape, the cigarette, the second cup of coffee, the chocolate bar, the second and subsequent drinks, the tablets, the snorting line, the must-have emotion, the must-have belief............
The fear that precedes the snatch for a security blanket,
The disappointment that precedes the shot for sensation,
The anger and grief that precede the grab for power and control.......
The real need that precedes the craving for a substitute.....
Yes, that one;
That's the experience that life stops for
Until we have it.
Transformation happens when our guard is down,
When the incessant yammering of our self-talk falls briefly silent
While we're fully present in an experience.
In such moments of grace
We may begin to intuit, under the experience,
A deeper energy level that's offering to move us along.
That deeper energy may take the form
Of a simple inner urge to finally complete with this experience.
If we've assessed the recurring experience to be undesirable,
We may have become what I call "Divinely pissed off".
"Enough at last!" we cry. "Let me have it!"
We're sick from being caught up in the discomfort and misery that "I" has attached to this experience.
There is more available to living than what "I" is experiencing right now.
Always.
But "my's" resistance keeps us glued
To our limited perception.
By dropping our resistance to this now,
We can have it, and be done with it.
Forever.
In this moment of surrender,
You may become aware of another aspect of your presence,
A witnesser --
That which stands apart and watches,
Un-involved,
In ex-stasis, (ecstasy)
While your "I" is having the experience.
Get to know this ex-static aspect of You --
Ecstasy will begin to infiltrate the reality of your awareness
More often.
It's a gift of grace.
It cannot be manufactured --
It cannot be coerced or made to happen.
Nor will it be forced upon you.
(Saul, on the road to Emmaeus, didn't get anything he wasn't looking for.)
All we can do is prepare to receive it
By opening up
And allowing ourselves to be transparent
To experience.
Any experience in particular?
Yes.The one in your face,
And the ones going on underneath
That you won't look at.
Yes, those ones.
This one -- the one that keeps cropping up time and time again;
This one -- the one we try to push away as unimportant or undesirable;
This one -- the one we won't have a bar of;
This one -- the one we want, but not like THAT!
This one -- the one we'll avoid by going for any distraction instead;
This one -- the one that our addictions allow us to say "No" to --
The one that precedes the urge to escape, the cigarette, the second cup of coffee, the chocolate bar, the second and subsequent drinks, the tablets, the snorting line, the must-have emotion, the must-have belief............
The fear that precedes the snatch for a security blanket,
The disappointment that precedes the shot for sensation,
The anger and grief that precede the grab for power and control.......
The real need that precedes the craving for a substitute.....
Yes, that one;
That's the experience that life stops for
Until we have it.
Transformation happens when our guard is down,
When the incessant yammering of our self-talk falls briefly silent
While we're fully present in an experience.
In such moments of grace
We may begin to intuit, under the experience,
A deeper energy level that's offering to move us along.
That deeper energy may take the form
Of a simple inner urge to finally complete with this experience.
If we've assessed the recurring experience to be undesirable,
We may have become what I call "Divinely pissed off".
"Enough at last!" we cry. "Let me have it!"
We're sick from being caught up in the discomfort and misery that "I" has attached to this experience.
There is more available to living than what "I" is experiencing right now.
Always.
But "my's" resistance keeps us glued
To our limited perception.
By dropping our resistance to this now,
We can have it, and be done with it.
Forever.
In this moment of surrender,
You may become aware of another aspect of your presence,
A witnesser --
That which stands apart and watches,
Un-involved,
In ex-stasis, (ecstasy)
While your "I" is having the experience.
Get to know this ex-static aspect of You --
Ecstasy will begin to infiltrate the reality of your awareness
More often.
IF YOU'RE HAPPY, LET YOUR FACE KNOW.
Why can't we be honest to our selves about how we feel?
Are we lying?
Or is it that we have a limited perception of what's available?
66% of a letter I received from a friend this week was a bitch -- about the lack of parking in North Adelaide, the failure of a doctor's receptionist to give correct information, and comment about a cleaning lady she calls "Miss Woeful". (Am I the only person to see irony in that?). I commented that "You seem to be having a bad day", to which she retorted with characteristically bristling energy "Not at all -- I'm happy-happy!"
Two possibilities occurred to me:-
Who does it to you?
Come in spinner!
Are we lying?
Or is it that we have a limited perception of what's available?
66% of a letter I received from a friend this week was a bitch -- about the lack of parking in North Adelaide, the failure of a doctor's receptionist to give correct information, and comment about a cleaning lady she calls "Miss Woeful". (Am I the only person to see irony in that?). I commented that "You seem to be having a bad day", to which she retorted with characteristically bristling energy "Not at all -- I'm happy-happy!"
Two possibilities occurred to me:-
- She IS happy, being unhappy. Maybe there's supposed to be juice in carping and unhappiness. In any case, she's out of her comfort zone unless she's unhappy; or....
- What she's actually saying is that "In a very narrow mini-spectrum within the whole Happiness Scale, I'm at the "happy" end of the range of feelings I allow myself to experience." She is relatively happy. My empathetic feedback evoked a retaliation to defend what she automatically perceived as an attack on the narrowness of what she's willing to experience. That wasn't my intention at all, but she doesn't know that. And my telling her isn't going to change her mind.
Don't you and I do the same thing?
Sometimes?
Aren't we afraid that, it we are willing to be wildly, ecstatically happy -- and show it -- we have to risk going through the polar opposite of that? It's true. We do have to take that risk. Our mistake is to think it may be fatal. Without an interplay of opposites, life soon gets monotone-ous. It's OK to be unhappy; you get to appreciate "happy" all the more!
Then again, there's an issue with the Purpose of Deliberate Unhappiness and Self-Limitation. If we outwardly show how truly happy and unlimited we are, who gets let off the hook? Who, in the past, have we tried to control by contracting and withdrawing our happiness?
Who does it to you?
Come in spinner!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
UNDERSTANDING FEELING
Do you want me to understand how you feel?
Sorry -- I cannot;
It's not possible because
I haven't lived your life.
Anyway --
Sympathy is not what we need:
(We need sympathy
Like Dracula needs the blood bank)
We need Empathy,
And you already have mine.
Thank you -- I don't want your sympathy:
Thank you -- I don't need a saviour.
Give me instead your empathy.
Please sit by me for a while and be my friend.
Give me space,
And help me have my feelings.
When I'm through,
We'll have a good laugh
At the wondrous silliness
Of being human.
And I'll sit with you
And give you all the space in the world.
I'll support you to have your experience.
Have we got a deal?
Sorry -- I cannot;
It's not possible because
I haven't lived your life.
Anyway --
Sympathy is not what we need:
(We need sympathy
Like Dracula needs the blood bank)
We need Empathy,
And you already have mine.
Do you want to understand how I feel?
You cannot.
Understanding is an activity of the tiny mind;
Feeling is a function of the expanding heart.
A feeling cannot be understood,
It can only be felt.
The Mind has no feeling;
Your mind cannot walk in my shoes;
It can only think it does.
It can only think it does.
My mind cannot walk in yours.
Thank you -- I don't want your sympathy:
Thank you -- I don't need a saviour.
Give me instead your empathy.
Please sit by me for a while and be my friend.
Give me space,
And help me have my feelings.
When I'm through,
We'll have a good laugh
At the wondrous silliness
Of being human.
And I'll sit with you
And give you all the space in the world.
I'll support you to have your experience.
Have we got a deal?
SEPARATION
Separation is a superstition;
While we believe in it,
We act as if it's real.
When we were born
We did not get separated from warmth, nourishment, support or love --
We simply emerged into a larger womb
To grow, to learn
And to stand on our own two feet,
Interdependent.
There is no separating
You from your self,
You from your being,
Or you from your godness.
Like "Black cats are bad luck",
"Separation" is just a superstition.
If you believe it, it's real.
But when you get that it's just a superstition,
You've taken your first step
Into Integrity.
While we believe in it,
We act as if it's real.
When we were born
We did not get separated from warmth, nourishment, support or love --
We simply emerged into a larger womb
To grow, to learn
And to stand on our own two feet,
Interdependent.
There is no separating
You from your self,
You from your being,
Or you from your godness.
Like "Black cats are bad luck",
"Separation" is just a superstition.
If you believe it, it's real.
But when you get that it's just a superstition,
You've taken your first step
Into Integrity.
THE GREAT "COMMANDMENTS"
Honour your mother and father.
Love the lord godness of all being.
Love your neighbour as your self.
What if.........
These gems of understatement
Were not originally dished out
As guilt-inducing, punishable standing orders,
But offered as optional signposts to a higher level of perception
And more effective ways of being and living?
What if they were not exhortations to obey,
But a revelation
And an acknowledgment of a state of affairs
That already is?????
You cannot love God and reject any part of yourself,
Or anyone or anything else.
If you think you can,
That's not God you're looking at.
We already honour our parents -- by becoming them.
We already love our neighbours exactly as we love the facets of ourself that they mirror back to us.
When we love God, who are we loving,
If not all things and all people that God is?
(Including ourselves).
Friday, May 28, 2010
TRANSFORMING OUR PAST
The dead Past is passed;
It cannot be changed.
But it can be transformed.......
We begin to transform our past when we accept blameless, grateful responsibility for it
For no reason other than
It suits us better.
Blaming circumstances or others for our history
Is keeping us stuck
With the drive wheels spinning,
Blowing a lot of acrid smoke
And losing traction by the second.
Once we accept loving responsibility as being Probable Cause of --
And giving willing connivance to --
Our background and conditioning,
Along with the people and energies that have helped us shape what we've become......
Then,
And only then,
Can we totally love and be in Gratitude
For the whole of what we have created ourself to become thus far.
Without what has been,
We could not have become what we are,
And without what we are,
We cannot become what we aspire to be.
Only from the totality of what we now are,
And have been,
Can we be-come.............
It cannot be changed.
But it can be transformed.......
We begin to transform our past when we accept blameless, grateful responsibility for it
For no reason other than
It suits us better.
Blaming circumstances or others for our history
Is keeping us stuck
With the drive wheels spinning,
Blowing a lot of acrid smoke
And losing traction by the second.
Once we accept loving responsibility as being Probable Cause of --
And giving willing connivance to --
Our background and conditioning,
Along with the people and energies that have helped us shape what we've become......
Then,
And only then,
Can we totally love and be in Gratitude
For the whole of what we have created ourself to become thus far.
Without what has been,
We could not have become what we are,
And without what we are,
We cannot become what we aspire to be.
Only from the totality of what we now are,
And have been,
Can we be-come.............
WHAT EXISTENCE LOOKS LIKE
The whole of existence is in a constant state of flux,
Expanding and contracting,
Coming together and moving away.
We can resist that expansion and contraction until we're blue in the face --
It isn't going to make an ounce of difference.
The whole of Existence is in perpetual motion,
Universes, tides, relationships --
Expanding and contracting,
Coming together and moving away.
The act of expanding builds the energy to contract;
Coming together winds up the energy to move apart;
Each is inherent in the other.
This is what the universe looks like --
<................................> , ..............>........<.................. ,
Get used to it;
And let life do what it's going to do.
Let it flow through you.
Resistance is futile.
Consciousness itself is also subject to the same law;
It selectively narrows and expands
As we touch upon different levels of self.
We're supposed to move around.
The in/out movements need not be judged or evaluated,
Merely witnessed,
Allowed,
And integrated
To gain traction, uplift and freedom.
Expanding and contracting,
Coming together and moving away.
We can resist that expansion and contraction until we're blue in the face --
It isn't going to make an ounce of difference.
The whole of Existence is in perpetual motion,
Universes, tides, relationships --
Expanding and contracting,
Coming together and moving away.
The act of expanding builds the energy to contract;
Coming together winds up the energy to move apart;
Each is inherent in the other.
This is what the universe looks like --
<................................> , ..............>........<.................. ,
Get used to it;
And let life do what it's going to do.
Let it flow through you.
Resistance is futile.
Consciousness itself is also subject to the same law;
It selectively narrows and expands
As we touch upon different levels of self.
We're supposed to move around.
The in/out movements need not be judged or evaluated,
Merely witnessed,
Allowed,
And integrated
To gain traction, uplift and freedom.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
A NOTE TO S.N.A.G.'s
A rising level of consciousness poses a problem --
"How can I now evoke and empower action,
Without resorting to the old motivating forces of jealousy and competition,
And the male macho ego ethos of "faster, stronger, smarter or better"?
These dinosaurs were never either attractive or productive,
And they lose every ounce of validity
When openness, receptivity and a preoccupation with the Now moment
Take over.
Here's a suggested start --
Quit competing;
Start creating.
Surrender.
Be aware of what is there to be done
And give your whole self over to that.
If you're lucky enough to have a woman in your life
Who owns her feminine power,
Has quit the Auxiliary
And has let go of her resentment around eons of masculine stupidity,
Listen to her --
She'll know best where the mountains need to be moved to.
"How can I now evoke and empower action,
Without resorting to the old motivating forces of jealousy and competition,
And the male macho ego ethos of "faster, stronger, smarter or better"?
These dinosaurs were never either attractive or productive,
And they lose every ounce of validity
When openness, receptivity and a preoccupation with the Now moment
Take over.
Here's a suggested start --
Quit competing;
Start creating.
Surrender.
Be aware of what is there to be done
And give your whole self over to that.
If you're lucky enough to have a woman in your life
Who owns her feminine power,
Has quit the Auxiliary
And has let go of her resentment around eons of masculine stupidity,
Listen to her --
She'll know best where the mountains need to be moved to.
CHANGE & TRANSFORMATION
Change is just a matter of doing things differently.
Transformation is just a matter of seeing things differently.
When things change, nothing transforms.
Everything stays basically the same.
When things transform, nothing changes,
But everything is somehow different.
Transformation is just a matter of seeing things differently.
When things change, nothing transforms.
Everything stays basically the same.
When things transform, nothing changes,
But everything is somehow different.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
MEMORIES
You expect life to be linear, logical and efficiently organised?
Whatever gave you that idea?
Sometimes she is;
Sometimes she isn't,
And she will not be forced into submission.
Is life fluid, intuitive, momentary and chaotically patterned?
You betcha --
Except sometimes.
The present is never the same as the past.
But Memory brings into present consciousness
Some experience from the past that has real and living relevance
To this new moment.
It's up to you to work out just what that relevance is.
It probably won't be obvious to you
But don't worry -- there are no "wrong" answers.
Whatever gave you that idea?
Sometimes she is;
Sometimes she isn't,
And she will not be forced into submission.
Is life fluid, intuitive, momentary and chaotically patterned?
You betcha --
Except sometimes.
The present is never the same as the past.
But Memory brings into present consciousness
Some experience from the past that has real and living relevance
To this new moment.
It's up to you to work out just what that relevance is.
It probably won't be obvious to you
But don't worry -- there are no "wrong" answers.
EXERCISE
When exercise becomes less of an assault on the body,
Less of a struggle to get, alter or stay "in shape",
When exercise becomes a more fluid means of balancing our energies,
We become less self-punishing,
And more graceful.
Your body says "Thank you."
Less of a struggle to get, alter or stay "in shape",
When exercise becomes a more fluid means of balancing our energies,
We become less self-punishing,
And more graceful.
Your body says "Thank you."
FOOD ENERGY
Have you never noticed
How some meals make you feel heavy,
And some leave you feeling light?
If you drew a line-scale from Light to Heavy,
Which foods would you put towards the "light" end,
And which foods would you put down the "heavy" end of the spectrum?
There is more than one sense in which "we become what we eat."
Food is energy,
And energy vibrates.
Different foods vibrate at different frequencies.
Asian cuisines, in particular, have known this for eons,
And strive to achieve a balance of all frequencies over the courses of a banquet.
The foods we eat contribute
To our perceptions of the energy available.
Become aware of how you feel
And use food to help you balance out
At times when you feel out of whack.
We speak of "comfort food", when most of those sugary, starchy substitutes for nourishment
Often add to our long-term discomfort, and -- eventually -- dis-ease.
Having diabetes has taught me the difference
Between Comfort and Balance.
Lighter foods (like salads and vegetables) tend to put me in touch with lighter, finer energies.
Heavier meals tend to quieten things down and ground me.
So now I have a choice --
To be enslaved to a diet,
Or attuned to Balance.
Both will work,
But one is more fun and more interesting than the other.
How some meals make you feel heavy,
And some leave you feeling light?
If you drew a line-scale from Light to Heavy,
Which foods would you put towards the "light" end,
And which foods would you put down the "heavy" end of the spectrum?
There is more than one sense in which "we become what we eat."
Food is energy,
And energy vibrates.
Different foods vibrate at different frequencies.
Asian cuisines, in particular, have known this for eons,
And strive to achieve a balance of all frequencies over the courses of a banquet.
The foods we eat contribute
To our perceptions of the energy available.
Become aware of how you feel
And use food to help you balance out
At times when you feel out of whack.
We speak of "comfort food", when most of those sugary, starchy substitutes for nourishment
Often add to our long-term discomfort, and -- eventually -- dis-ease.
Having diabetes has taught me the difference
Between Comfort and Balance.
Lighter foods (like salads and vegetables) tend to put me in touch with lighter, finer energies.
Heavier meals tend to quieten things down and ground me.
So now I have a choice --
To be enslaved to a diet,
Or attuned to Balance.
Both will work,
But one is more fun and more interesting than the other.
I NEVER THOUGHT IT WAS POSSIBLE.....!
Well.........
What does that tell you?
If this which was formerly im-possible,
Is now a reality,
What else may be possible?
Anything that presently looks to be impossible?
Funny how I never thought before
Of looking for Possibility
Behind the Impossible.
How much have I missed out on?
Until now.
What does that tell you?
If this which was formerly im-possible,
Is now a reality,
What else may be possible?
Anything that presently looks to be impossible?
Funny how I never thought before
Of looking for Possibility
Behind the Impossible.
How much have I missed out on?
Until now.
BEYOND MERE MIND
"We become
Or, at the very least
Powerfully participate in
What we think we're thinking."
BUT.....
What if we're not doing the thinking --
What if the thinking is doing us?
Over the years
We've built up patterns of habitual thoughts,
Thoughts that "think us",
And a prevailing mood of habitual feelings,
Feelings that "feels us".
We long ago ceased to think much, if at all, about our prevailing thoughts,
Or feel about our prevailing feelings --
We've uncritically allowed them to dominate our experience of living,
And to rule our behaviour.
We have assumed them as the normal, general climate in which we live.
"This is our lot" is our mantra,
But there is no acceptance in it:
We bitch and rail against our fate,
Unquestioningly convinced
That the thoughts and feelings we've steeped in up until now
Are the only reality available to us,
And that anyone who doesn't think and feel as we do
Is either deluded or lucky.
This barbwire cocoon we've wrapped ourselves in
Sorts and sifts the soup of thoughts and feelings we swim in,
Censoring the perceptions that are available to us
And making bloody sure that nothing filters through to us that doesn't fit
The Programme --
Our idea of The Way It Is.
This condition is a legacy of the unkind mind --
One of the challenges of what it means to be human.
There is nothing wrong.
The narrow spectrum (compared to all that's available)
Of thoughts and feelings we entertain
Are hand-picked by our pre-existing conditioning
Of self-proving thoughts and feeling patterns --
All of them "tried and true".
So we think.
We perceive only that which our existing thoughts and moods allow us to perceive.
We have almost 20/20 D.I.Y.blindness,
And yet we are so sure about the rightness and clarity of our "vision".
Consider this....
Our mind cannot know anything;
It can only think
And one of the things it thinks
Is that it thinks it knows,
Fooling us into a false sense of wisdom.
We'll never, ever know everything
Until we give up all that we think we know
And know nothing.
Therein lies an escape hatch,
A choice to be made --
Whether to continue to passively allow the Mind to use us for its continuing survival,
Or
Whether to take up the talisman of Awareness,
And use the situation for our Transformation.
Breaking out of any circular rut of un-thought thought and un-felt feeling can be difficult.
It is a function of the Mind
To resist any influence that threatens the ramshackle shanty
Of its existing patterns.
Transformation is not, and never will be on your Mind's to-do list!
It doesn't even go into the Mind's too-hard basket
Or "Maybe" file.
Transformation -- the dreaded "T"- word -- is not reason-able......
And is therefore Verbötten!!
Transformation lies beyond mind,
In the silences between the words,
In the gaps between the road-train of thoughts.
No thinking,
No doing,
No more catharting (the process of "doing" feeling),
No more meditating (the process of "doing" not-doing),
Nothing more to do,
Everything to be and have -- be-haviour.
Realisation dawns when nothing is going on.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
THE COSMIC JOKE
Awakening deeply
Is an awesome journey
Where nothing happens
And nothing changes.
After decades of trying to make something happen.........
To my mind
It felt like dying,
Until I saw the joke
And laughed out loud.
Then it happened..........
Nothing and Everything
Is an awesome journey
Where nothing happens
And nothing changes.
After decades of trying to make something happen.........
To my mind
It felt like dying,
Until I saw the joke
And laughed out loud.
Then it happened..........
Nothing and Everything
Friday, May 14, 2010
MID-LIFE CRISIS
The point at which you realise
The things that once motivated and nurtured you
Have long since ceased to work
And are slowly killing you off.
The point at which you realise
That Survival is not, and never was the name of the game;
And that life is not about "getting better"
But about getting happy
With the way it is,
And the way you are.
The things that once motivated and nurtured you
Have long since ceased to work
And are slowly killing you off.
The point at which you realise
That Survival is not, and never was the name of the game;
And that life is not about "getting better"
But about getting happy
With the way it is,
And the way you are.
ANXIETY
Anxiety debilitates.
It temporarily facilitates performance,
Which might explain why controllers use it as a tool of motivation,
And why we get hooked on its "highs",
But eventually
The underlying
Debilitation prevails.
It temporarily facilitates performance,
Which might explain why controllers use it as a tool of motivation,
And why we get hooked on its "highs",
But eventually
The underlying
Debilitation prevails.
THE DOWNSIDES OF ENLIGHTENMENT
It has always fascinated me how
The same people who worshiped the ground that Jesus walked on
Turned
And crucified him.
Where were those he healed?
Where were those he enlightened?
Where did they all get to after Palm Sunday?
Did they go into hiding?
What happened between Monday morning and Thursday night?
How come they suddenly stocked up on stones and spittle?
To hurl at their "saviour"?
I have found in this respect that...
Victims want to make someone else responsible for their expectations.
Think of your best friend
And know this.....
If you ever violate that person's expectations of you,
Watch your arse!
An enlightened person is no more immune from the duality of others than everyone else.
An enlightened person knows, however,
That he/she evokes both peacefulness and aggression
In those who draw near,
And is not surprised by it when it happenes.
An enlightened person knows that when an unaware perception changes,
The person responsible might turn feral in the blink of an eye,
At least covertly.
An enlightened person knows and accepts the risks
And puts him/her self out there anyway.
Most of us, like the Three "Wise" Monkeys,
Play it safe;
We keep our cards close to the chest.
We try not to rock the boat,
We try not to upset people,
We try not to make waves --
A lot of "trying-not" that gags our grandeur.
And stifles our Truth.
An enlightened person cannot hide his light.
He puts it, and his realised Self out there.
To the extent that we are open and receptive to new possibility,
We generally feel good about themselves
In the presence of an enlightened one.
And...
To the extent that we resist Openness and Surrender
We feel inwardly uncomfortable, deeply threatened,
And maybe even covertly or overtly hostile
To someone who tweaks our lariat.
We're trying to protect something
That we think we'll die without.
What could that be?
I wonder.
Enlightenment is an affront to the ego.
(And ego can smell danger to itself a mile off!)
Ego will put up a good show --
It will go along to get along with the crowd,
It will publicly applaud and affirm,
It will wave palm fronds and sing Hosannahs,
It will give effusive Agreement,
(But zero Acceptance)
Until nightfall.
Then it will crucify
The carrier
Of the Message it feels threatened by.
I know this about ego
Because I have one.
But it doesn't have me,
Except sometimes.
How about you?
The same people who worshiped the ground that Jesus walked on
Turned
And crucified him.
Where were those he healed?
Where were those he enlightened?
Where did they all get to after Palm Sunday?
Did they go into hiding?
What happened between Monday morning and Thursday night?
How come they suddenly stocked up on stones and spittle?
To hurl at their "saviour"?
I have found in this respect that...
Victims want to make someone else responsible for their expectations.
Think of your best friend
And know this.....
If you ever violate that person's expectations of you,
Watch your arse!
An enlightened person is no more immune from the duality of others than everyone else.
An enlightened person knows, however,
That he/she evokes both peacefulness and aggression
In those who draw near,
And is not surprised by it when it happenes.
An enlightened person knows that when an unaware perception changes,
The person responsible might turn feral in the blink of an eye,
At least covertly.
An enlightened person knows and accepts the risks
And puts him/her self out there anyway.
Most of us, like the Three "Wise" Monkeys,
Play it safe;
We keep our cards close to the chest.
We try not to rock the boat,
We try not to upset people,
We try not to make waves --
A lot of "trying-not" that gags our grandeur.
And stifles our Truth.
An enlightened person cannot hide his light.
He puts it, and his realised Self out there.
To the extent that we are open and receptive to new possibility,
We generally feel good about themselves
In the presence of an enlightened one.
And...
To the extent that we resist Openness and Surrender
We feel inwardly uncomfortable, deeply threatened,
And maybe even covertly or overtly hostile
To someone who tweaks our lariat.
We're trying to protect something
That we think we'll die without.
What could that be?
I wonder.
Enlightenment is an affront to the ego.
(And ego can smell danger to itself a mile off!)
Ego will put up a good show --
It will go along to get along with the crowd,
It will publicly applaud and affirm,
It will wave palm fronds and sing Hosannahs,
It will give effusive Agreement,
(But zero Acceptance)
Until nightfall.
Then it will crucify
The carrier
Of the Message it feels threatened by.
I know this about ego
Because I have one.
But it doesn't have me,
Except sometimes.
How about you?
Thursday, May 13, 2010
I - DENTIFIES
Identifying fills a deep human need for connection:
It gives us a sense of belonging,
Whether it be to an idea, a belief, an opinion, a value, a way of being, another person ---
And we kid ourselves that these belongings are ours.
Well that's fine, as far as it goes.
BUT....
Identification with any one or any thing blinds us
To the fact that our identifications also have us very firmly in their grip,
And to the possibilities of other levels of experience.
It gives us a sense of belonging,
Whether it be to an idea, a belief, an opinion, a value, a way of being, another person ---
And we kid ourselves that these belongings are ours.
Well that's fine, as far as it goes.
BUT....
Identification with any one or any thing blinds us
To the fact that our identifications also have us very firmly in their grip,
And to the possibilities of other levels of experience.
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