MY FAVOURITE VIBRATOR

All life is Vibration, oscillating from negative to positive and back again.

Life is the movement of pure thought (not thoughts), vibrating in balanced cycles from zero to positive, to zero, through negative, and back to zero............
Death is a flat-line. .. Zero....Nothing happening.

Life is both positive and negative, oscillating back and forth in a ceaseless dance of creation.
If we could just get this, half our resistance and suffering would be finished!


SIMPLE VIBRATION

 A simple vibration is represented by a sine wave. The only pure simple vibration is one generated by an electronic tone generator, such as those you hear when audio or TV engineers  are testing their equipment. The nearest naturally-produced pure tone is a bamboo flute.

All Vibration has two characteristics that are worth noting here:-

1. Amplitude
2. Frequency

Amplitude is the distance of the peaks and the troughs from the median zero-point. It is often referred to as the Volume or Intensity of the signal.

The Frequency is the pace at which the vibration is occurring. It is measured either as the distance from the tip of one peak/trough to the next, or as the number of cycles (from zero to positive, to zero, to negative, and back to positive) that happen in one second.

The human perception apparati are fairly clunky, covering only a very narrow spectrum of vibrations around the median zero-line. We simply cannot pick up very high or very low vibrations -- not without artificial assistance. But we can use them, as we do with toys like ultrasounds, x-rays, cinema sub-woofers, radios.

There are things going on around and through us that we don't have the wherewithal to "see", but that doesn't mean either that we're not affected by them, or that we can't do something with them.

We speak of the "quality"of life. In this case, "quality" is a kind of code-word for the general level of frequency at which it is vibrating.. At one end of a sliding scale, high-frequency patterns of thought and feeling produce a reality that is conducive to more spiritual perceptions and pursuits..The laws that govern this end of reality tend to be more esoteric and absolute. Existence feels fast and light, and the experience of an awakening of awareness at this end of the scale is sometimes called "enlightenment". This is the arena and focus of a meditative and contemplative life.

At the lower end of the frequency scale, heavier and denser thought and feeling produce another kind of reality. At this baser level of consciousness we are weighed down by separations, negative beliefs, behaviours, expectations and preoccupations with concerns about security, control and the exercise of power. This is the realm of suffering and Social Consciousness.

Social Consciousness is the sum total of individual  low-level consciousnesses, and is most noticeable when we fly or drive out of the countryside into large cities. You can feel it as you move into it. Social Consciousness drapes itself like a pall over and around the people who create it. Those who live in the city hardly notice it, until they leave the city and move out of it for a while. Why do you think so many people seek ways to "escape" the city every long weekend and holiday?. Don't we feel lighter when we go for a drive to the beach, or the hills?. And heavier as we return to sub-urbia.

High-frequency consciousness is highly directional, and goes where it is pointed. When expressed as light, it tends to be at the blue-white (ultra-violet) end of the colour scale. Low-frequency energy is omni-directional, and spreads all over the place. In light form it is at the infra-red end of the spectrum.

COMPLEX VIBRATION

The same principles apply to complex vibrations. A complex vibration is a bunch of simple vibrations all happening at the same time. For example, a sound is usually made up of one or more dominant vibrations that are overlaid with lesser harmonic vibrations. Harmonics are pure tones that aren't on the same wavelength as the main tone. The harmonics -- or "off tones"  are a product of how the note is produced. A vibrating string, such as a guitar, produces very different overtones to a vibrating reed, like a clarinet. The over-tones give a sound its richness of character. Simple sounds like a flute have relatively few harmonics; complex sounds like a symphony orchestra or the human voice are rich in harmonics. Melodic tones, like a single vibrating string are predominantly basic tones, coloured by characterising over-tones. Harsh sounds like the screech of a cockatoo are heavy with harmonics, and light on core melodic tones..

All vibrations will set off sympathetic vibrations in the environment immediately surrounding the original vibration. This is how the sounding boards of musical instruments like violins, guitars and pianos work. These secondary vibrations reflect the basic character of the original signal, but also impart some character derived from the medium that is vibrating in sympathy. Any form of life/vibration finds and sets up sympathetic vibration in the world around it.

Conversely, every environment has its own "resonating frequency"; that is, a dominant frequency at which it will respond to a particular energy source, vibrate in sympathy with, and amplify it. Actors and singers know this phenomenon, and use it to their advantage. They will find the resonating frequency of an auditorium, and align their voices with their environment in order to amplify the effect of what they are doing. Powerful tenors with perfect pitch (like Enrico Caruso) could detect the resonating frequency of a wine glass and shatter it by simply singing that note into it. The environment is always responding to the vibrations you emit, a phenomenon that could assist you, if you are aware of this law of vibration and get "in tune" with it.

All frequencies in perfect balance have a particular sound. Audio engineers call it "White Noise", and generate it artificially to use as a reference for adjusting the acoustics of sound systems and auditoria. White noise sounds like the noise you get when you hold a seashell to your ear --- "Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-------"


This is the sound of life in balance. when a baby gets upset (out of balance), we instinctively repeat the sound of all sounds ----

Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh...........................

A HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO SUFFERING

Once upon a time.....
A man set out to hike along a section of the Heysen Trail in the Adelaide Hills. Just after 9am on his first day out, he felt a pain in his left foot. Despite his high-sided hiking boots and lambswool bushwalking socks -- the best and most expensive that Ray's Outdoors had on offer, a stone had somehow found its way inside and lodged just under his left ankle. The more he walked, the more the stone irritated him.


By 10 am, he was getting  little discouraged. He rang his loving family on his brand new GPS satellite phone. "I have this pain in my left foot, and it's getting worse," he said. His wife and children were most sympathetic, but knowing how long he had dreamed of, planned and trained for this hike, they urged him on with words of encouragement and hope. "This is what you want. This is your dream. You can do it! We're here for you". He kept going, his spirits a little lifted.


But the pain did not abate for long. The skin started to chafe and blister under his socks. Around noon he limped into a doctor's office in Lyndoch. He described his symptoms to the nurse, who rang his GP back in  Dulwich. They reviewed his medical history looking for some clue from his past that might explain his present pain. There had been times when he had experienced acute pain but, since the man had never done anything like this before, there was nothing much in his history that gave a clue to his present predicament. The man thanked the doctor, got some painkillers from the chemist, and limped on his way. 


He decided to do some Research. He found a shady spot in the park opposite Kauffman Avenue, pulled out his trusty Blueberrry ThinkPad and Googled "shoes", "hiking", "pain", and even "rocks". He found lots of information about everything, but nothing that eased his pain.


In desperation he hobbled over to  a church and located the pastor. He confided his tale of woe and despair, and begged the holy man for a reason Why he should be suffering so. The priest gave him 20 minutes of his knowledge of the scriptures, and what the seminary had taught him about the sanctity of Human Suffering. Together they prayed for the man's deliverance from his agony, and the two parted -- the priest satisfied that he had set yet another soul on the Right Path, and the hiker still in pain.


The man had just reached the edge of town when he met a fellow hiker walking in the opposite direction. The other hiker noticed how badly the man was limping. "What happened to you?" he enquired  kindly. "I am in such pain," the man sighed. "I have this stone in my boot and the pain just won't go away. Now my ankle is blistered and bleeding and, as you can see, I can hardly take another step!"


"Come over here," said the stranger. "Here, sit on this stump. Take your boot and sock off." "Oh, my God, no!" protested the hiker. "These are protecting me and my feet." "Nah, you'll be alright for a minute or two," reassured the stranger. "Let's get them off and we'll get rid of the stone that's crippling you."


The hurting hiker was hesitant.  How could it be that simple?


He removed his protective boots and his comforting socks, and released the offending stone. The pain ceased.


Now, I know that your pain is far more complex than a stone in your shoe. It could not possibly be that simple.

Could it?


If you think this story is ridiculously absurd, take up crisis counselling for a while.

When I was quite young I heard a recording of the great American actor, Walter Brennan, doing a hillbilly song called "Life Gets Teejus, Don't It?" One verse goes like this ----

Houn'dawg howlin'  all forlorn

Laziest dawg that ever wuz born.

He's a-howlin'ços he's settin'on a thorn,

And he's too durn lazy t'git off it.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF EXPERIENCE?

The purpose of entertaining the thoughts I think about,
the emotions I feel,
and the behaviour that I do
is.......

• to become aware of my relationship to what I think, feel and do.
• to define the space and shape of my response to the circumstances of my incarnation
• to try out differing levels of engagement and disengagement with the givens of being human; and
• to experiment in it with the self I have created.

The purpose of all my experience

Is to surrender to the Experience itself --

To see how it turns out.

And then........

The purpose of all my experience

Is to evolve and complete

Myself and the experience

Into one continuous Now.

RELATIONSHIP, EXPERIENCE & GRIEF

For Judy

All we ever know about any other person is our experience of that person, ie. as we see them to be through our perceptual filters, lenses and viewpoints. We do not, and can not KNOW any other person as he/she actually is. Good God! we hardly know ourselves, let alone anyone else! 

And our experience of another is our experience, no-one else's. It is unique and personal. If you are in a room of 500 other people, there will be 501 unique experiences of "you" in that room.

Our unique experience of another lives over here in our space, not the other's, or anyone else's for that matter. The immediate presence of another person may bring our experience of that person bubbling to the surface, but that experience still comes from, and belongs, where it has always been and where, as long as we continue to breathe, it will always belong -- with “Me”.

As our Relationship with another person grows in depth and complexity, it is our experience that is growing and becoming more complex, not necessarily the other person. The other person was already deep and complex before we arrived; it is our perceptions that are expanding, and it is that feeling of expansion that we tag with labels like "Chemistry", "Friendship", "Affection" and "Love". 

That brings me now to an area of exploration that is sometimes relevant for people who are going through, or anticipating the imminent experience of Grief. .......

The quality, depth and complexity of our experiences of another person remain intact whether the other is across the room, across the world, or has even passed away in death. Our experience lives and breathes with each of us. When a loved one has passed on, we may have lost  any further opportunity for immediate contact, and that loss will trigger a whole bunch of feelings and other stored-up griefs. But  alongside of that,  there is something we have NOT lost. We still have the only reality we ever did have of that person – our experience -- and we can take that out and play with it any time we wish.

Finally, because our first-hand experience of another is not reliant on second- or third-hand beliefs, concepts, opinions or expectations, it cannot be taken away from us. It is ours, for as long as we remain conscious.

While we live, the other lives – in the only place they ever did live outside of their own experience – they live on in our experience and (uniquely) in the experience of everyone else who  knew him/her. If five people turn up to my funeral there will be five Barries living on in the room!. The recognition of this reality is why, in some cultures, the funeral traditions are a vehicle for both giving vent to Anguish for the Corporeal Loss, and Celebration for the Ongoing Resurrection of the person's Spirit in the hearts and minds of those who remain.

Experience is the only reality. 

Our relationship with our experience is reflected in the relationships we have with others.
Our experience of those who have passed on is a reflection of the relationship we had with them when they were bodily alive.
Now, here is some miraculous news! Because our only reality of another was, and is our experience of him/her......

any unfinished business with this person

can be completed, 

Even although the other person may no longer be physically available --

even if they have deceased.

We can heal anything that remains unhealed between us

In the sanctity of our here/now Living Experience of that person.

Completion is available, without seances, mediums or any other paranormal paraphernalia. All you need is your willingness. If you feel you need other crutches to give yourself permission to access and work with your experience, go ahead. But the danger is that you may credit and give your power away to the assisting media for the connection, when they're really not necessary. 

You are the only healer you need.

That is a miracle, is it not?

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

A RIDDLE

.Q. :- What is it that you will not get until after you already have it?

.A.:-  Enough

Well, you have it. You have enough. Let's go and have a cuppa.

I'm not kidding. That part is taken care of. The bucket is full. Every Now moment is abundantly brimming. Not a shred more can be packed into it. The Past was also full-to-bursting at the time. So perhaps the condition of  Not-Enough, Emptiness or Lack, may be a dis-ease solely of the imagined future.

Here and now there is nothing missing. Fears of Lack are constructs of an Imperfect Mind fixated on a delusion -- of a future "without".

How much is enough for you?
For every person I have ever asked this question, the answer is always different. For each individual person, moreover, the answer will sometimes vary from moment to moment. One thing, though, that there seems to be a lot of agreement about is this -- there is rarely "enough". There will either be too little of something, or too much of something else. And whenever there is too little or too much of anything in one place, things get out of balance.

Someone who has enough is content.

Now, enough of what?

Name it. Love? Money? Happiness? Relationship? Health? Success? etc, etc. etc......

But is Enough-ness a matter of fact? Or merely one of perception? Is there a measurable, definable amount of love, money, happiness, relationship, health, success, etc, etc. etc...... that we can all agree is "enough"? Of course not! The perception of "enough-ness" is so personal, cultural, rubbery and elusive that it defies description.

Your level of Enough-ness, just like mine, is a matter of personal choice. We have Enough whenever we say so, and not a moment before.

Not-enough = Dissatisfaction: Enough = Contentment.

And to him who has enough, more will be given.
From him who has not-enough, more will be taken.
And remember, that the "enough" of which I speak is the Perception of Enough-ness, not some arbitrary level of possession. Enough-ness is a Perception, and our perceptions are always, always, always our absolute  and personal responsibility. Enough-ness has nothing whatever to do with what we have, or don't have: it's not even something we feel or think about. Enough-ness is What-Is. The only question is whether or not we are tuned in to it.

Look at it from this possibility for a moment or three ---
You already have what you came here for.... for now.

If you feel something is missing, maybe you're like the kid whose mother brought him into the lolly shop for a Freddo Frog, and now he wants the whole shop! Life, the ultimate parent, sometimes says "No", without explanation. Programmes like "Airline" are so entertaining because we get to see other people acting out at high decibels the way we do when somebody says "No"to each of us.

Consider this .... In every area of your life, you already have abundant enough-ness; how you are now responding to this notion is precisely how you respond to anyone who has the gall to say "No" to you. If you're inwardly acting like a spoiled brat, learn the lesson. Enough is going to elude you all your life until you do.

Is there something you imagine that you want that you do not yet have? Good. What are you prepared to give up in order to make room for it? And what are you prepared to become in order to keep it? No, stop for a moment. Those are very serious questions that deserve more than a glib answer off the top of your head. What are you prepared to forgo to get what you say you want?

A great operatic singer once performed for a charity function attended by very well-heeled, blue-rinse ladies encrusted in gems, jewels and botox -- perfect advertisements for their husbands' successes. Over drinks and savouries afterwards, one very spoiled and overweight dame came gushing up to the singer and effused "Oh, I would SO love to sing like you do!" The very perceptive diva looked at her for a moment, then said quietly and kindly to her "No, you don't. If that were what you wanted, you would have sacrificed the life you have to undergo the disciplines and necessities of the life that I live."

We already have it the way that we set it up. But ego always wants More, Better and Different -- states that are often mislabeled as "Not-Enough". If you truly want it to be some other way, then it is up to you to un-do what you have constructed and rebuild from the ground up. You already have enough -and - anything else you want is available. But consider the possibility that there is something you already have and are hanging onto that is blocking further delivery. And one of those things might be the perception of "not-enough".

Jesus the Christ is credited with having said once to a rich young ruler on this very subject, "It's a damn sight easier for a camel to squeeze through the Eye of a Needle than it is for a bloke with excess baggage to get to Enough."

If you want to know what "Enough" feels like ---

Downscale your demands;

Lighten up.

JUST JOKING.....

"Joking" is a camouflage we drape around a seriously intentional opinion.

Around the parliamentary chamber of our mind every minister and backbencher says what he or she means, and means what he or she says. But if they don't want to take responsibility for the words that come out of their mouths, they will throw a cover of  "I was only joking"  over it. It is pure political spin to avoid being accountable.

I'm not joking......

I love jokes of all kinds, from fart gags (pun intended) and sight gags to bitingly clever satire. God knows we can all use a good laugh about now.

Just joke responsibly. What you say is what you mean. Which part of you means it? That's up to you to find out.

DESIRE

I have just noticed something........

A few moments ago I witnessed a minor event (on TV actually) that triggered a tug of Desire. Being more than somewhat addictive, that twinge of desire very quickly escalated through the level of Preference, and was nudging the level of Need. when I caught the process and dropped it before it picked up an emotional wallop and launched into Addiction.

But for the first time I noticed something else. In the millisecond after the stimulus and before the Desire popped up, there was a gap I haven't seen before -- a gap containing something else. I went back and looked into it. In action replay, yes, there was something -- two things actually.....

a) A mini-moment of Recognition, an instant of "Yes". What I had just seen triggered a feeling I already knew, recognised it and affirmed it. It was just a flash, though, before it was wiped out by.....

b) A kneejerk thought of "Missing", quickly followed by a pang of Sadness.(I know that feeling; I often mistake it for love.)

So the full sequence was:

1. The trigger
2. Recognition
3. Affirmation -- "Yes"
4. A thought of Missing
5. A feeling of Sadness
6. Desire
7. Preference
8. Addiction (Preference with an emotional punch)

As I go through this sequence now, I can feel the frequency of each experience in the sequence lowering from high-level affirmation to low-level despair. And the whole descent can happen so fast that we never see it..

But getting back to my slow-mo replay, something else happened also. When I reversed out of Neediness back to that Yes of Recognition, the grab of Preference and Need dissolved and Desire settled into Gratitude for something I now knew I already have.

We know that any Desire for an experience -- like a peach -- has an internal kernel of something very valuable that the desired experience is supposed to give us. This internal kernel is something we already know, otherwise we could not imagine or recall it. But, since we know it, it is still available to us -- either directly from within our internal sense memory, or indirectly through any number of other possible experiences and circumstances, not just the one we're focusing our Desire onto. It is this narrowing of Desire onto a PARTICULAR must-have experience that both heightens the intensity of the Desire, and lessens our chances of getting either it or the kernel of what we're really after..

Could it also be that, when we see something that we know and like, out of sheer habit we admit a thought about Not-Having, and a feeling of Regret that spurs us into Desire, Preference and, finally, Addiction? Could it also be that we can reverse that process and up-level our experience by simply recognising that, if we know it, we have it. No need to desire it. No need to even prefer it. Take the short-cut; simply recall. Receive what you've already got.

Ah, but then we wouldn't suffer, and how hard it is to give up our suffering! So much of our identity is tied up in it.

What do I want? What I already have? Or do I want to suffer a little bit longer? I have a choice.

That's what I've just seen. I'm going to road-test it for a while, and see what happens..

Anybody else?

THE SEDUCTION OF LIMITATION

Human beings possess an inner space and universe that is balanced by the immensity and power of the space and universe around us.

Look out into the night sky. Feel into the immensity of it all. Then open the aperture of your perceptions and look inward. Like Dr.Who's tardis, the inner space belies its modest outer appearance. In fact, the space inside is no less immense than the space out there.

Why would we want to say "No" to that?

We get hooked on the Intensity of Limitation and the Drama of Separation. We become junkies for it.

Faced with the fact of limitless space and energy, we fall back in dismay and opt for restrictions of the cruelest kind.

We limit ourselves to cautious highs and shallow lows. then we seek artificial ways of intensifying what remains within the self-imposed narrow spectrum of what is acceptable.
Both spiritual ascetics and emotional victims fall prey to the same seduction of Limitation. Ascetics form their cocoon at the higher end of the vibrational frequency scale, Victims cower at the lower end. But they are all cocoons just the same. The sin is the same -- a refusal of Magnificence.

Then, having created a "safer" space, we get inured and addicted to it.

You think not? Try challenging someone who wants to be right about his/her limitations, and watch how vigorously they fight to defend what's causing their pain and suffering. Trying to separate a Victim from his/her limitations is like pulling teeth without anaesthetic.

We pay a terrible price for our voluntary exile from The Full Monty. We miss the lurid grandeur of towering mountains and resplendent valleys. We miss the pastel subtleties and nuances of inner knowing. We'll suppress, express, dump or otherwise deny a feeling, anything rather than have it. We will resist any possibility outside of the narrow comfort range we have set for ourselves

By staying safely tucked away inside our self-set limits, we imagine we are in control.

And we miss the greatest discovery of all.

THE ABSOLUTION OF LIFE

What is life?

Any attempt to define the indefinable and limit the limitless is going to be futile

What is life about?
Personal power? Happiness? Honesty? Success? Enlightenment?
Sure. There's a lot of those things around.
It's also about Impotence. Suffering. Ignorance. Failure and Lostness. There's a lot of that around, too.
I've found my life to be about a bit of everything --
This and That
And neither This nor That....
All of This and That and more.....
And none of it really. There is something else.....

Life is what happens while you're living the unsolvable mystery,
Embracing the un-knowable,
Playing with agendas, timetables, plans, goals and expectations
In a medium that has none of the above.

Life could be a living, radiant, flowing  present-ness, but it cannot be confined to that either.

So I make this declaration for myself --

My life is a surrender to not-knowing how it's going to turn out next, and a commitment to embrace as much as I can in the moment, and to journey wherever the flow may take me.

So be it.

Now you make your declaration, for yourself --

What is Life about?

SURRENDER

Outside of one limited condition
There are no "correct" answers.
Inside every condition
There are no absolute, universal truths.

Outside of ego, there is nothing worth fighting for.
Until I have learned right to the deepest core of my being
How to stop opposing and fighting entirely,
There will be no salvation.

It feels like I have a long way to go,
But I know. too. that the switcheroo is this close.
I have to find patience:
The switch is an act of grace, and will not be rushed.
For now, I'm surrendering to my resistances.

If you want something -- create it.
If you've got something that you don't want -- get that you created it
And welcome it home.
What you want is in there somewhere.

THE PARADOX OF POWER

We take the power trip
To discover how power-less we are:
When we surrender to our powerlessness
We discover Power and the nature of it.
It has been available all the while,
Hiding inside Surrender.

Let Go. How powerful we are!

CONTROL & SURPRISE

As much as we might like to think so, Control is not at the core of human experience. Surely there have been enough catastrophic events -- natural and man-made -- for us to have realised long ago that, when the chips are really down, we are utterly powerless.

But old habits die hard. We have tried everything under the sun to manipulate, dominate and control people and circumstances so that things will go the way we want. Where we have felt powerless to directly influence things, we tried bribery. Since time immemorial our ancestors have been trying rituals of appeasement to get on the right side of  the "gods" who supposedly did have their hands on the joystick. Even our Western and some Eastern ideas of God are petitioned and prayed to in the assumptions that a) they have control; and b) they care. It is my jaundiced view that neither are true.

There is a world-wide industry of technologies to exercise physical, emotional, mental and cosmic control over the world we live in. Then a tsunami hits, we look skywards and bleat "Why?"  What do we expect? A booming voice proclaiming "Just trying to make a point!"?

The way of control has turned out NOT to be the way to a deeper realisation of our common humanity. At this plane of existence, we have no more control over life than a surfer has over the ocean. We never did have, nor will we ever have in the future. We can ride the waves of fortune and happenstance, and even have exhilarating fun while we're doing it, but ultimately the ocean has the last word. Always.

One purpose of this trip is to get that we don't have control and relinquish our need for it, so that we can move on to experience the most exquisite of all joys -- Surprise. And the sooner we get off the Control pottie, the better.

Control is the Promise and the Way of Logic -- the playground of the ego-mind. -- the Not-Me that "I" thinks is Me. Control is OK for incremental change, for winning something and for the illusion of Success.. But the exercise of Power and Control (even to create a "better" world) always leads to more conflict, repression, resentment and opposition. The journey of Power is a journey into the experience of Powerlessness.

Control is the way of Change:
Surrendering is the way of Transformation.
(By surrendering, I mean engaging creatively with What-Is, just as it is.)
In control we try to renovate and extend Me;
In surrender we step away from Me, and trust we'll fall beyond logic and reason into a new kind of reality.

But what now will sustain us? All the old sources and props are disappearing.  -- our religious convictions, our beliefs, our values and principles, careers, ambitions, achievements, enlightenments, relationships -- even our bodies, minds and hearts are slowly deserting us.

What now will sustain us?

Am I breathing now?
Am I fed now?
Is there anything missing in this very moment?
Ah! So now is not a problem. Why  then are we concerned? What are we afraid of? There is more -- but this a More that feels like Less.

What is this "something else" that we sense is always there, underlying the darks nights of life's deeper trials,
Through the grief of loss and the assault of infirmity?
It waits patiently, just out of sight.
Seductively humming a harmony so ancient and powerful
We will surrender everything to behold its glory.

That doesn't make it any less scary, though.

THERE IS MORE....

A baby has to learn to strengthen, control and co-ordinate its body before it can fully express itself in the wider world. In a similar way, the first phase of our growth into consciousness seems to be a strengthening of one's awareness of "I', "me" and "my-ness", and expanding that into an Ego.  But it's only meant to be a phase.....there is more.......

Setting  goals for Personal Success and Strategies for  Winning at Life seemed to work for a while, but at the price of something far more precious. But that wasn't obvious, until the life I constructed collapsed like a house of cards, not just once, but 3 times!.(I'm a slow learner!) Out of that wreckage emerged new dreams of becoming a better person. of  accessing enlightened power, and of living forever in the Here and Now. But the motive was still Me. I wanted to be child-like, but stayed childish. Stirring somewhere deep inside me was still the old, familiar rumbling ...... there is more......

There comes a point where further growth toward transformation and realisation depends on a 180-degree switcheroo. The act of entering the challenge of living fully becomes a conscious letting-go:

• Of any need to control
• Of every obsession with self and self-invovlement.

Living becomes, instead, a surrender into Being -- a surrender where Be-ing becomes Be-coming.
Self Involvement becomes Self-Awareness.

And still there is more.........

Some of the reflections I see in the world around me show that the more powerful and masterful I become, the more acutely I feel  both the incomprehensibility and uncontrollable chaos of it, along with its beauty and wonder. As I venture out of the safety of my ego-shell, my world of human interaction is becoming
something of a busy freeway. Beyond my personal space, the wider world of human interaction seems to be more violent, more dis-eased and more isolating. I'm sure this is a skewed vision, perhaps from watching too many news bulletins. But it does seem an odd counterbalance at a time when man is becoming more enlightened, more in touch, and more immediately conscious
And when more and more ordinary people are finding selflessly un-spectacular ways to better the lives of those around them and make a difference

It's a challenge, isn't it, to find an even deeper self,
To shed more and more layers of fantasy about how enlightenment and progress ought to look and feel like,
To shed the very Ego that we created to get us to this point,
Until we can look honestly, and accept totally,
How it is,
And who we really are.

The final (?) phase
Is letting go of Self-Awareness
Completely
And becoming lost in just Be-ing.

That's when I'll know I am dying..

I AM .......WE BE--COME

I am the Experiencer
Of my experience.
And you are the Experiencer
Of your experience.

I am that which is blissed out
By whatever I am experiencing right now....
And you are that which is blissed out by your experience......
The two are one. You and I -- two aspects of the same One Awareness.

I am that part of me that knows
That this experience both you and I are having
Is what It came to have
Through both of us.

Creation is the Universe -- "I"-ing -- Eyeing......through all eyes at once

We are a Process, you and I,
A state of Be-ing, Be-coming...
Indivisible and indistinguishable from the greater collective process
Of human-being Becoming.

If we are not profoundly and deeply shaken out of our prior assumptions about what we are
We may remain forever travelling the same path,
Arguing the same arguments,
In a phony framework of what we think is happening,
And who we assume it is happening to.

We are now being challenged to a new, more universal awareness
In which all of our fears, limits, lacks and prejudices,
Concepts, beliefs and opinions
Are appreciated and accepted
For what they are
Without contraction.

In this challenge we are united with all conscious beings
In a collective human experience that is, at once, terrifying and miraculous.
We are swept up in the forces that drive the collective momentum of evolution in all its cycles --
Creative and destructive.
Then we truly come to know, to feel, and to embrace.

The collective forces of human evolution are transmuted and transformed
When they pass through the conscious experience
Of truly aware people.

Just as our bodies transmute lettuce and muesli into skin cells, muscle, blood and sinew.
So our being -- yours and mine -- is called to transmute the individual and collective suffering of mankind
Through the harmony of an open heart and the flowering of an awakening soul
Into heaven on earth, here and now.

FROM FEAR TO FAITH

The opposite of Fear

is Faith.

Faith is a choosing and a resolution all at once.

Faith is a total commitment -- a jump into the river, fear and all.

Faith has nothing whatever to do with either Belief or Disbelief.
Beliefs and Disbeliefs are rocks -- stepping stones in the river of life to help us bridge over what is unknown. But there comes a time when we MUST, in faith, jump into the unknown. There is no question about that. If we haven't got around to it before the day we die, dying will take care if it. Once we're in the river, the rocks of Belief and Disbelief, become sangs to get caught up on.

In faith, nothing can be held back or taken back. If we have moved totally, how can we go back? If you find that you can go back on something, you did not leap in faith. You are still connected to "back there".

Faith is absolute. We cannot be half-pregnant.
Faith is like being born again. When we surrender to it, we are totally in. Nobody can pull us back.

It is Fear which prevents us from leaping into faith. Fear underlies all our stuckness.
And Fear can propel us into faith. Fear can slam us into the wall so hard that it loses its grip on us.

Fear is a gateway to Transformation
Fear is an indecision:of energies: half of you wants to go, and half of you wants to stay. Half has heard the call of the Unknown; and half clings to the Familiar. We are caught in the middle of the pull of equally opposing forces. Because the familiar is known, there is less fear in it.
Where Fear is, however, lies the way to transformation.
Are you at a crisis of intersection? In which direction lies the greater fear?
Good. Go there.
What do you tell yourself you have to fear?

The half that fears -- the half that clings to the familiar, belongs to a dying past.
The half that is excited belongs to the living Now, ready to experience the uncharted. In anything new you become ecstatic. The so-called "fear of the unknown" is actually Excitement, with a negative label attached.

Fear divides me, producing irresolution and confusion. One leg pointing toward the unknown, the other stuck in the past. I cannot move in this position. As the opposing forces course back and forth through me, I shudder and shake, numb with indecision.
Irresolute and stuck.
Anxious and undecided.
Life keeps flowing on around me, and I remain
Marooned on an iceberg of cold terror.
Icebergs melt.

In fear, my life is contradictory. I do something with one hand, and immediately undo it with another..
Irresolute and scared.

At a Sufi monastery in Bokhara, I am told, each monk wears a two-sided sign.
On one side is written:-

I am negative.

Please, don't take me seriously

If I say something wrong, 

I am not really saying it to you.

Because I am negative,

I am filled with hatred, anger and depression.

And if I do something wrong

That is because of my negativity,

Not because you are wrong.

On the other side of the sign is written:-

I am positive, loving and affectionate.

Please don't take me seriously.

If I say you are beautiful,

I am not saying anything about you --

I am feeling high.

Whatever I am feeling, please don't take me seriously. I don't (except sometimes)

My first lesson in counselling was this -- if someone vomits, he is not throwing anything up on me;

He is simply expectorating something that is disturbing him.

We become master-full when we can say --

I am neither negative nor positive;

I am both negative and positive.

I am one. I am all of it.

I am whole

Until then, I am always contradicting myself. On one hand I am doing something good, and on the other hand there is a mole in my camp, doing something to undermine that in me which has gone on ahead. "I" feels divided and irresolute. One part of me wants to venture into the unknown, the rest wants to cling to old habits and ways of doing things. Part of me wants to become a butterfly; part wants to remain a caterpillar. I get stuck, like a learner driver unable to decide between the accelerator or the brake.pedals.

One thing I know: there is no room any longer for half-heartedness -- not that there ever was, really. But stuck with one foot on a departing bus and the other glued to the bus stop, I end up in the gutter. Hell is a place where people end up when they get stuck. Heaven is a place of freedom and responsibility -- still fearful and excited perhaps, but moving always into the unknown...
In faith
Not tethered to anything, either Back There or Up Ahead.......
Not clinging to anything ---
Not even clinging to love, to god, to enlightenment, to enjoyment, to meditation, to prayer ---
Clinging to anything is....clinging..... and we are stuck again!

Let go. Remain free and moving in faith and trust.
The further I move into the Unknown, the closer I get to my Self.

A river has no goal, no idea of destination or timetable.
It does not even know of the existence of the ocean,
The river simply moves, unconcerned.
It does not stop at each bend and ask directions where to go,
It does not become fearful when the way turns south instead of continuing west;
The river trusts the flow.
and reaches the all-encompassing ocean.
And the ocean does not yearn to be the goal of anything. It is content to be what it is in the scheme of things.

Having fallen into a river, I can attest............
You will get there faster if you let go;
And the more you strive to reach, the more you will get stuck on the rocks and snags
Because you are afraid of them,
And in your fear, you fail to notice
That the river goes around the rocks, not through them.

Between the rising headwater spring and the arrival at the ocean
There is one thing you can do about the river of life --
Love it. Enjoy the journey.

It is the fear of "missing" something that gripes us;
It is the fear of not-reaching that cripples and snags us;
It is the fear of going somewhere "wrong" that paralyses us.

Faith in the flow holds fear in its embrace

I'M RIGHT!!

Suddenly, I noticed myself caught on being right.  I stopped. Just withdrew the energy. The monologue died in its tracks.

First there were echoes of my self-justifications ebbing away. Then, nothing but a dense silence.

Then I heard another voice, a quieter one, urging the very opposite position to what I had been feeling so
right about. just a moment or two before. This voice was familiar, too. Then I remembered. Once or twice in the past I have been just as vehement about the opposite point of view.

"Does this make me a hypocrite?" I wondered.

"No -- human. When you're on a position, you also occupy the opposite position, but you conveniently forget or ignore that. Don't feel bad; we all do it. We don't have any choice about that. It's the Law of Opposites. Can you just let that be part of your experience of being human?"

I looked at that for a moment. Then, in some surprise I realised, "Yes, I can."

In that moment, both positions disappeared. Vanished. Gone. Involuntarily, I took a deep breath and let it go, and something let go of me. Supporting Something, and being right about it is so exhausting!

Nothing... happened. Isn't that amazing? Nothing is something that can actually happen to us.

I experienced something similar when my mother died. In one moment, there was something happening; in the next moment -- Nothing happened.

And it was an awesome benediction.  Space...... Peace......

Then it came time to pick up my stuff and resume the journey...........

But now, the burden is a little lighter.

HONESTY

I have a real thing about Honesty. Yes, I'm positional about it. Dishonesty, for me, is a deal breaker.

And so it appears to be for most of the ladies on dating sites.

Whose dishonesty, though, are we most afraid of ?
Whose dishonesty is causing us to distrust others?
Whose dishonesty is likely to cause us the most harm?

Hmmmm?

NONSENSE & POSSIBILITY

Possibility lives in just about every nook and cranny around us. One of the most prolific and untapped storehouses for Possibility that I've found lies behind fences signed "Beware -- Nonsense Inside".

One man's Nonsense is another man's Possibility. Possibility usually comes in disguise, and often looking like arrant crap.

If you are positional about Good Sense and Non-Sense, you may be missing a lot of potential. When you reject Nonsense, you reject Possibility. And when you reject Possibility, it will go somewhere else.

LEAP -- FROM CONTENT TO CONTEXT

QUESTIONS


Firstly, if it is OK with you, I'd like us to stand in some questions to create a space in which you and I can work together. OK?............

What is missing from your life at the moment?

Are you sure you haven't got it? Maybe you just left it lying somewhere.

No? OK, so you haven't got it. If you had a friend with this "Missing" problem, what are your thoughts on maybe-why your friend hasn't got it? [Spend some time with this question, and note down each and every "answer" that pops. Allow time for the surface stuff to get out of the way so that stuff buried deeper can get out into the light, too. Censor nothing. And remember, you're not talking about yourself; you are talking about a friend you know very well who is also missing something in his/her life]

Does your friend really want it? Don't be too quick to answer this one either; there are several layers to be penetrated. Some people want something with a part of their being, and resist it with another. Also, some people, out of habit, get so hooked on "wanting" that the wanting is more important than getting what is wanted.. So sit with this question of "wanting"for a while.

What kind of beliefs do you think your friend might have to have in order to want what he/she wants, and not get it? This is a doozy of a question, designed to unearth both the beliefs behind what is wanted, and the beliefs that lie behind any perception we have that we don't get what we want in life.

OK. Now let's come back to you and your "missing"...... Are you occupying a Position on what you want (ie. an opinion or a belief that you feel you have to be "right" about)? You're not getting what you want; what does that mean to you? What do you think the "not-getting it" tells you about this situation? What do do you think it says to you about you? Which of your principles is being violated? Make a statement of these Positions you are on.

Here's a simple example of what I mean  -- What's missing in my life? My wife is not interested in sex any more since the baby was born. What positions am I on? 1) I have a right to sex. 2) Sex is necessary for a good marriage. 3) She should get therapy.

Good. Now, since we live in a realm of Opposites, every position has an oppositon.  What is the OPPOSITE position of each of these positions you are on. Put that into words.

To continue with my example, the Op-positions might be something like -- 1) A wife has a right to refuse sex. 2) Sex is only a part of marriage. It's not essential. 3) There's nothing wrong with me. what about you?

Wonderful. Now...... Who in your life has in the past, or is now occupying the Opposite Positions for you?

Only you can answer these. In my example, I might answer -- 1) my mother with my father, my first girlfriend, my wife before we were married,  2) my pastor at Church, my mother  3)my wife, my pastor, my mother-in-law, my mother

Good. Stay with me here, we're getting close.......

If you get what you want, what Positions (ie, opinions or beliefs you want to be right about).... what Positions that you are holding to are going to be proved "right"? What is the Principle involved that is going to be proved Right? What Oppositions are going to be proved "wrong"?

If she gives in and gives me sex, I get to be right that I have a right to it and that it is good for a marriage. She, and everyone else who opposed me on this are therefore Wrong.  I might ease up on the belief that she needs therapy -- but only until she says ""No" the next time.


Here's how this game of Position/Opposition works. All this conflict occurs because we forget the Law of Opposites. Everything on this plane has its polar opposites. Everything I take a position on has its opposite in me, but I lie about that -- to myself and to others. When I am in denial about anything, that which I refuse to acknowledge will show up in my face, in events and in other people. Other people wear the costumes and masks that I refuse to take responsibility for, inviting me to own the reflection and open my self up to the disowned halves of myself. It's all done with projections and mirrors. Isn't that miraculous? And isn't that so kind of others to reflect myself back to me? Now that is love!

Good. Now you have a bit of a handle on how this Positions thing works, especially around the Game of "Missing". And "What's Missing in My Life" is a game. The Purpose of the game is:  1) to get you what you want;  2) to perpetuate the game until you do get it; and  3) eventually to discover that the game is not working and just how pointless is all the suffering the game imposes. When you get that ... game over.

OK. Just two more questions, and we're done with this preparation ----

• Am I willing to come from a possibility that "Missing"is just a game, and that the Game is stopping me from getting what I truly want?
• Am I willing to live my life in this possibility?

There are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions. The answers to look for are the ones that come in the form of experiences and realisations -- "Got-Its". 

CONTEXT


Around and through everything that is  there is a space, a space that holds it all together for each of us. This space can take on all manner of intangible qualities. The miraculous thing is that the quality of the space any one thing is held in depends entirely on the beholder. For example, let's say you and I are having a conversation together in the street when a black cat crosses our path. Now lets say you had a pet black cat that you loved as a child, but I was brought up under a superstition that black cats are very bad luck. You and I are going to perceive the same "black cat" in two very different ways because of the differing contexts we have around "black cats". Context determines HOW we will see and relate to an event, thing or person, and every repetition of that circumstance will invoke the same context, regardless of other circumstances.

This quality of space that I have labelled "Context" has many other names, like Condition, Unconditional Love, Wholeness, Nature, Creation, Good, God, the Life Force, The Word, to name but a few. However we choose to spell it, the space I am talking about is that energy, that directed nothingness, that state of being from which all thoughts, light particles, electrons and gross matter were created, and in which they are now held. Context is the cosmic glue that holds all the contents together. Context has the power to organise creation, and each of us has the power to influence how it works in our world. We have the power to colour that glue to be whatever hues we want it to be. Whether we know it or not, we are doing it all the time. In our waking moments, at least, we are never not-doing it. And we don't know that.. And we wonder why our lives turn out that dunnish grey you get when you mix every colour in the paint box together.

For want of words to describe the indescribable, let us call the stuff of our lives -- our body, mind, feelings, environment, thoughts, beliefs, opinions, longings, expectations, -- let's call all that the Content of our life. The space that permeates and surrounds the Content of our life can be likened to the space that permeates and surrounds a vase giving it a shape and definition we recognise as "vase-ness". We will call this space, Context.

Just as it is the the "not-vase" space that creates and defines the vase -- just as it is the "not-black" space on this screen that creates and defines the black letters and words -- so the Context of our lives creates and defines the Content...... I'll say that again --

The Context in which we choose to live our life creates and defines the Content of our life.  

At this point it starts to become clear, I hope, that efforts to change the Content of our lives are ultimately futile if we pay no regard to, or are completely ignorant of the Context. Without a consciously created Context, life feels like we are spitting in the wind. Contexts of every kind attract events, people and experiences that support and reinforce the context. All contexts are self-proving.

Without a consciously created Context, we get to live in a quasi-Context -- a default Condition. Victim-ness, for example, is Condition (a default context) -- and a very, very popular one. God knows why, because it attracts unto itself events and experiences that allow the Victim to experience all the powerlessness and frustrations that are the consequences of giving up responsibility for one's own well-being. Any Context that is not deliberately chosen is a Condition. But every Condition still acts like a Context, creating and defining experiences that align with it's (negative) characteristics.

The raw thought-energy from which our tangible, perceptible universe was created permeates everything that is. It holds all the atoms and molecules, neutrons and electrons, planets, suns, constellations and galaxies, moving them majestically in a cosmic dance, suspended in an infinite firmament. Without Context, nothing could exist.

Whether we live in Context or Condition, that space not only defines and creates what we experience, but is actually also its life-force. Neither Context nor Condition are separate from the Content; they are its essence -- it's life-giving energy. And the emotional quality of the Context or Condition governs the quality of the energy. A Context of, say, Delightedness carries a very different energy from a Condition of Anxiousness.

Context (Condition) is a state, not of doing, not of having, but of Be-ing.

Context (Condition) is not something you get (like a reward or punishment) nor is it something you catch (like the flu) -- it is something that you choose to Be. You come from it. When you decide to transform your life, you have to change the state of Be-ing that you emanate from.

So, who are you?

• You are the state of being (Context or Condition) that you create for yourself.
• You are not your physical and psychological makeup. You are the spiritual space that defines how your physical and psychological being is evolving..
• You are not what you think and feel. You are your relationship to what you are experiencing, thinking and feeling right now
• You are the effect of the Contexts and Conditions that you have created for yourself.

If you're getting a bit depressed about this, remember that anything you have created, you can also dis-create, and re-create as something more appropriate to the kind of life you want to have. Conditions can be dis-created by simply creating a conscious Context in its stead and jumping into that. It can be that simple. It may take some time for the circumstances to change, but if you have made the leap from Content to Context, transformation will happen.

Every good communicator knows instinctively that, when people come to hear or read him, each one comes in his/her own self-generated cocoon of thoughts, feelings and preoccupations, probably none of which have anything to do with what he wants to communicate. So, to be effective, he will FIRST create an appropriate Context, and then invite his audience to step into it. At the end of the communication, if he is truly wise, he will gently take each audient back to his/her individual condition, so that that may be transformed by what has just transpired between them. At the outset of this article I created a Context by asking you to engage actively with a series of questions that invited you to step into my space for a while. There are many other ways to create Contexts and, if you want to know more about it, may I humbly recommend my books "Communicating For a World That Works", and "Another Way"?

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

The simplest and most effective way I know to create a Context is to put it it the form of a Question -- a Question that invites experiences, rather than pat answers. For example, if you want to live in a Context of Enoughness, create a question like -- "What does it feel like, and what do I need to learn, to experience Enoughness?". There are no "yes"or "no"answers to such a question. There are no worthwhile rational answers to it. It invites challenges and experiences. That, after all is what life is all about.

All questions provoke answers that are limited by the size and quality of the space from which the question arises. Questions from the Mind (Content) get answers from the same Mind. There is no growth: in fact, there is a contraction that accompanies definition, separation and limitation. On the other hand, questions that arise from Context, provoke and inspire answers in total experience that come from the Universal Context of all absolutes, the same context that is the life-force of all creation. We can access that because it is what we are a part of.

Questions that come from Context are unlimited and expansive, and so are the "answers". Questions of Context open up new possibilities. The experiences they engender may be fraught with paradoxes and contradictions with which your mind will want to wrestle and demand rational answers. Pay no attention to your mind. Treat all paradoxes, contradictions and mysteries as invitations to let go of your hidebound assumptions of what is real and unreal, possible and impossible. We do not know what is possible!! Inside our tiny minds we have no idea of what is possible!! Possibility is the child of non-sense. The non-sensicalities of paradox and contradiction invite us to expand in ways that Mind simply cannot do. That's why minds cannot wrap themselves around Mystery, so they kill it by trying to "explain" it.

When a question arises in your awareness, look at  where it is coming from. Does it come from Mind-Content, or Context? 

How do you tell the difference? Questions from the mind demand an immediate and definitive answer, and tend to baulk at any delay for introspection and real experience. Minds want to "get it sorted" -- a.s.a.p. Minds hate unanswered questions. Minds are terrified of  "not-knowing". Minds LOVE something more to be right about.

Questions from Context are happy to stand in a space of "not-knowing", and to wait for life to deliver the lessons which will give rise to the Wisdom you are really looking for anyway. Questions from Context feel expansive, and they enrich your experience. Notions of "right " and "wrong" just don't enter into it.

Questions from Mind have one Right Answer -- The Answer -- and an infinite number of Wrong ones.. Questions from Context have no Right or Wrong answers. they expand your perception of life in every dimension at once.

Look, it is more than just possible that the most you are ever going to get from life is what you put out for. If you come from Mind's stuff or Content, then what you ask for is going to be limited. If you come from Context, then both what you put out for and what you get will be unlimited by any expectations.

You will get in experience the Power of Possibility.

NOW HERE THIS!

The faster we go, the behinder we get.

Fixed on some goal, we always run the risk of going faster and faster astray.

There's another level of reality available here ----

When we come to here/now, we immediately reach. There is nowhere (now/here) to get to, no space or time to be travelled. There is no path to be found. There are no corners to see around,  no horizon to be crossed.

Make "Now/Here"  your mantra.

When will we get enlightened? Now.
Where can we get salvation? Here
When is the day of Judgment? Now
Where is Heaven? Here/Now
Where is Hell? Here/Now

Always Here. Always Now. Where space and time are one.

So don't fret. If you miss this here/now,
Here is another,
and another,
and another
and.........

Forever.