Every body has their share of ups and downs.
The differences between your life and mine
Are less of chance
Than choice.
My problems are worse than yours!
In a Victim mentality
We sit around like hospital patients
Comparing dis-eases and disasters;
We feed off them,
We get identity from them.
Now that is sick!
Saturday, October 09, 2010
THE PRACTICES OF MYSTICISM -v- SPIRITUALITY
The practices of Mysticism are great pastimes,
And have a lot to recommend them
Over stealing cars or conquering countries,
But they are still like taking a shower wearing a raincoat.
All spirituality comes down to this
(And you can get this whether you're wearing a monks' robes or work clobber) ---
To realise what comes and goes
And let it come and go, unhindered......
And watch
Until we recognise what is
Already and always here.
What is that?
We don't know what it is,
But we do know THAT it is.
Be with that
And come from that.
And have a lot to recommend them
Over stealing cars or conquering countries,
But they are still like taking a shower wearing a raincoat.
All spirituality comes down to this
(And you can get this whether you're wearing a monks' robes or work clobber) ---
To realise what comes and goes
And let it come and go, unhindered......
And watch
Until we recognise what is
Already and always here.
What is that?
We don't know what it is,
But we do know THAT it is.
Be with that
And come from that.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
SELF-IMAGE
"I" is the centre of the universe
Around which the rest of the world revolves
Once every 24 hours.
Ego declares:
"I" is God in "my" world.
And you are God in yours, too.
Well, we both are god -- more than we realise,
Because our concept of godness
Is limited by ego which thinks of "god"
As some kind of Super-dad on steroids.
What we think of God and of ourselves
Is as much like the real thing
As reading some journalist's review
Of a real, 24-course Chinese banquet.
But what we privately think of our selves (plural intended)
Is really important.
There are some things that may be hidden from your friends,
But cannot be hidden from
The more awareful bits of creation.
Our own deep, unconscious self-appraisal
Seeps and radiates out into our magnetic field
Attracting experiences, opportunities and relationships
That mirror back to us
What "I" thinks of "Me".
The reason we don't readily make that connection
Is that, having separated our selves from our Self,
Having developed a false-self
And put that in charge of running our business
While we skived off into self-imposed exile,
We often have little idea of what's really going on
And of what we are really thinking and feeling.
We barely listen to what we say, to ourselves or to others,
We mis-read the effect we're having,
And we pull up at the end of each day in a bit of a mess.
But we put a lot of that down to "good luck" or "shit happens".
We get stuck on a wheel of repeating (mis)fortunes.
[Why does this keep happening to me?]
As we grow to own, accept and love more of what we are,
And become more aware of the thoughts and feelings that flow on through
We get a growing sense of choice
About what we want to experience,
And a healthy respect for a creative Awareness
That knows just how to put together
What we've put out for.
If we're not getting what we want,
I see two possible reasons:
a) What we say we want, and what we're actually putting out for via our aura may be very much at odds with each other: and
b) There may be some unfinished business or preparatory lessons we need to learn before we qualify for what we want.
Either way, we're being invited to look in available mirrors
And check our self-image.
What mirrors?
The people in front of us. Who else?
And not through what they tell us to our face,
But through what we see in them.
Whatever we see in the person in front of us right now,
Is our own self-image being reflected back to us.
The more genuine our self-honesty,
The closer we get to experiencing
An ultimate truth about how creating works from Self-Image ----
Around which the rest of the world revolves
Once every 24 hours.
Ego declares:
"I" is God in "my" world.
And you are God in yours, too.
Well, we both are god -- more than we realise,
Because our concept of godness
Is limited by ego which thinks of "god"
As some kind of Super-dad on steroids.
What we think of God and of ourselves
Is as much like the real thing
As reading some journalist's review
Of a real, 24-course Chinese banquet.
But what we privately think of our selves (plural intended)
Is really important.
There are some things that may be hidden from your friends,
But cannot be hidden from
The more awareful bits of creation.
Our own deep, unconscious self-appraisal
Seeps and radiates out into our magnetic field
Attracting experiences, opportunities and relationships
That mirror back to us
What "I" thinks of "Me".
The reason we don't readily make that connection
Is that, having separated our selves from our Self,
Having developed a false-self
And put that in charge of running our business
While we skived off into self-imposed exile,
We often have little idea of what's really going on
And of what we are really thinking and feeling.
We barely listen to what we say, to ourselves or to others,
We mis-read the effect we're having,
And we pull up at the end of each day in a bit of a mess.
But we put a lot of that down to "good luck" or "shit happens".
We get stuck on a wheel of repeating (mis)fortunes.
[Why does this keep happening to me?]
As we grow to own, accept and love more of what we are,
And become more aware of the thoughts and feelings that flow on through
We get a growing sense of choice
About what we want to experience,
And a healthy respect for a creative Awareness
That knows just how to put together
What we've put out for.
If we're not getting what we want,
I see two possible reasons:
a) What we say we want, and what we're actually putting out for via our aura may be very much at odds with each other: and
b) There may be some unfinished business or preparatory lessons we need to learn before we qualify for what we want.
Either way, we're being invited to look in available mirrors
And check our self-image.
What mirrors?
The people in front of us. Who else?
And not through what they tell us to our face,
But through what we see in them.
Whatever we see in the person in front of us right now,
Is our own self-image being reflected back to us.
The more genuine our self-honesty,
The closer we get to experiencing
An ultimate truth about how creating works from Self-Image ----
We think it -- it happens.
That's how it is. And it is that fast.
And that powerful!
Victim or victor,
Every last one of us is that powerful.
We are god
Saddled with a self-image,
Just for the hell of it..
The initiating thoughts we get about ourselves
Are limited
Because they're pre-filtered by how we feel about ourselves.
What we think about ourselves comes "true" --
We feel that back into real, confirming experience.
Whatever we think and feel about ourselves,
Is confirmed. Always.
We get to be right -- our ego sees to that.
It's utterly futile to sit with a lousy self-image,
Waiting for circumstances to change our minds for us;
That isn't going to happen!!!
If we want to permanently change our experience of anything
We first have to transform how we FEEL about ourselves.
Positive Thinking has nothing to do with it;
This kind of transformation happens out of mind.
You cannot reason your way out of anything
That was not reasoned into in the first place.
Our self-image was felt into existence,
It feeds off self-generated feelings,
And will need to be felt
Into something more useful.
LOSS
What the heart yearns to relinquish
As unnecessary limitation
The ego mourns and rebels against
As theft and loss.
Loss is space..........
With a negative judgment attached.
It is a sign of insanity
To keep doing what we've always done,
Hoping for a different result.
When you're faced with a crisis,
Consider taking the opportunity
To try something you've not done here before ---
Listen to your heart.
Let go.
Despite what the head-lines say
Loss will not kill you.
Look at it this way ----
It creates room for growth....
As unnecessary limitation
The ego mourns and rebels against
As theft and loss.
Loss is space..........
With a negative judgment attached.
It is a sign of insanity
To keep doing what we've always done,
Hoping for a different result.
When you're faced with a crisis,
Consider taking the opportunity
To try something you've not done here before ---
Listen to your heart.
Let go.
Despite what the head-lines say
Loss will not kill you.
Look at it this way ----
It creates room for growth....
SPACE
Have you suddenly found yourself
With space?
Maybe you've lost someone or something
That were are large part of your life.
Maybe you're missing someone,
Or something that someone used to bring you....
Don't be in too much of a hurry to fill the gaps.
You might take the opportunity
To do something we don't normally do --
Experience the spaces.
You may feel uncomfortable in those places for a while;
That's good.
Stay with them
Until your discomfort turns to equanimity;
Equanimity will eventually turn into appreciation,
Appreciation will morph into enjoyment.
Then, out of joy,
You can look to share the space
With someone or something else.
With space?
Maybe you've lost someone or something
That were are large part of your life.
Maybe you're missing someone,
Or something that someone used to bring you....
Don't be in too much of a hurry to fill the gaps.
You might take the opportunity
To do something we don't normally do --
Experience the spaces.
You may feel uncomfortable in those places for a while;
That's good.
Stay with them
Until your discomfort turns to equanimity;
Equanimity will eventually turn into appreciation,
Appreciation will morph into enjoyment.
Then, out of joy,
You can look to share the space
With someone or something else.
ANSWERS
To J........
I don't have the Answer for you
(And neither does anyone else)
For two reasons.......
Firstly, I only have answers that either worked for me yesterday or are working for me today. I offer them freely and willingly to you. If you find any of them relevant, interesting, tasty or nourishing to you, take them and run with them, please.
Secondly, you don't really need answers anyway; you already have your answers in the form of your present experience. All you need do now is remember what the questions were. Then, when you've made the connection, make up some new questions that will lead you where you want to go.
Which leads me to the $64,000 question -- What do you want? Right now? Today? Tomorrow? Next week? In a year's time?......
Hint: Make sure you know what you DO want; it won't work if you aim for an absence of what you don't want.
I don't have the Answer for you
(And neither does anyone else)
For two reasons.......
Firstly, I only have answers that either worked for me yesterday or are working for me today. I offer them freely and willingly to you. If you find any of them relevant, interesting, tasty or nourishing to you, take them and run with them, please.
Secondly, you don't really need answers anyway; you already have your answers in the form of your present experience. All you need do now is remember what the questions were. Then, when you've made the connection, make up some new questions that will lead you where you want to go.
Which leads me to the $64,000 question -- What do you want? Right now? Today? Tomorrow? Next week? In a year's time?......
Hint: Make sure you know what you DO want; it won't work if you aim for an absence of what you don't want.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
PRAYER
"Consistently talking to oneself
Without receiving an audible answer,
But thinking you have,
Is classed as "insane"
In all circumstances except religion."
David Nicholls
Monday, October 04, 2010
SACRIFICE
We don't have to sacrifice anything to be in a state of godness;
Godness is how we arrived here.
Don't confuse "godness" with "holiness" --
"Godness" is the state in which we declare "I am...."
And become everything we add after that
So that we can experience it.
We all do it,
Mostly without being aware of it,
Every moment of every day.
"Holiness", by contrast, is an ego trip;
A heightened state of delusion
That results when we take detachment and "rightness" to an absurd extreme
And manage to elude being discovered
To be barking mad.
"Holiness" is also an appellation given to another
In fake humility
By people who won't own their own supreme godness.
Our first mistake as babies
Was to think we had to give up something in order to be happy.
And some of us are still doing it decades later!
But maybe that's because we've never seriously challenged that assumption
That Happiness is something that needs to be somehow acquired or obtained:
It never was,
And still isn't.
There are just some things that we came as,
That we've forgotten we still are at some level of our being,
And always have been.
"Happy" is one of those indelible states of being
We may turn our back on, and lose track of,
But will never be further away from us
Than an "A-Hah!" of re-cognition.
Here's a dangerous idea --
Sacrifice is not necessary to Godness.
Watch whatever now rushes to address the danger of that idea,
Rather than address the question --
"What if this were true?"
What if Sacrifice was a con-job perpetrated on us
By "holy" creeps who wanted us to stay "less-than"?
I look back on my life and realise
I have (so far) never met anybody who claimed to be sacrificing something
Who also seemed to be ecstatically happy about it;
Quite the contrary......
"Stoic" would be the highest and lightest they've managed to rise..
And those who do appear to me to be happily being-without something
For the good of something- or someone-else,
All swear they're not sacrificing anything.
"Sacrifice" is neither in their vocabulary or their attitude..
I believe them.
I've come to a conclusion
That Happiness and Sacrifice never go together,
And that whether or not we're sacrificing
Must depend on our point of view.
Victims sacrifice out of a scarcity consciousness;
Non-victims share out of abundance.
Sacrifice is a refuge of the "holy";
Godness is the birthright of the Responsible.
Come to think of it --
Whenever I have considered myself to be "sacrificing",
Under a thin veneer of nobility, I've always secretly resented
Both the need to sacrifice
And the ungrateful buggers I've sacrificed myself for.
We're at a crossroads:
Holiness or Godness?
We don't have to give up anything to be happy.
And we have to allow ourselves to embrace everything
To be God.
Godness is how we arrived here.
Don't confuse "godness" with "holiness" --
"Godness" is the state in which we declare "I am...."
And become everything we add after that
So that we can experience it.
We all do it,
Mostly without being aware of it,
Every moment of every day.
"Holiness", by contrast, is an ego trip;
A heightened state of delusion
That results when we take detachment and "rightness" to an absurd extreme
And manage to elude being discovered
To be barking mad.
"Holiness" is also an appellation given to another
In fake humility
By people who won't own their own supreme godness.
Our first mistake as babies
Was to think we had to give up something in order to be happy.
And some of us are still doing it decades later!
But maybe that's because we've never seriously challenged that assumption
That Happiness is something that needs to be somehow acquired or obtained:
It never was,
And still isn't.
There are just some things that we came as,
That we've forgotten we still are at some level of our being,
And always have been.
"Happy" is one of those indelible states of being
We may turn our back on, and lose track of,
But will never be further away from us
Than an "A-Hah!" of re-cognition.
Here's a dangerous idea --
Sacrifice is not necessary to Godness.
Watch whatever now rushes to address the danger of that idea,
Rather than address the question --
"What if this were true?"
What if Sacrifice was a con-job perpetrated on us
By "holy" creeps who wanted us to stay "less-than"?
I look back on my life and realise
I have (so far) never met anybody who claimed to be sacrificing something
Who also seemed to be ecstatically happy about it;
Quite the contrary......
"Stoic" would be the highest and lightest they've managed to rise..
And those who do appear to me to be happily being-without something
For the good of something- or someone-else,
All swear they're not sacrificing anything.
"Sacrifice" is neither in their vocabulary or their attitude..
I believe them.
I've come to a conclusion
That Happiness and Sacrifice never go together,
And that whether or not we're sacrificing
Must depend on our point of view.
Victims sacrifice out of a scarcity consciousness;
Non-victims share out of abundance.
Sacrifice is a refuge of the "holy";
Godness is the birthright of the Responsible.
Come to think of it --
Whenever I have considered myself to be "sacrificing",
Under a thin veneer of nobility, I've always secretly resented
Both the need to sacrifice
And the ungrateful buggers I've sacrificed myself for.
We're at a crossroads:
Holiness or Godness?
We don't have to give up anything to be happy.
And we have to allow ourselves to embrace everything
To be God.
HOME
Come on home,
Where we just notice and accept the totality of it,
Find ways to creatively engage with it,
And live it in successive moments of Now.
Here is where everlasting, eternal happiness
Begins to dawn
And we are home again
At last.
Where we just notice and accept the totality of it,
Find ways to creatively engage with it,
And live it in successive moments of Now.
Here is where everlasting, eternal happiness
Begins to dawn
And we are home again
At last.
WILL
The Will of God
Is to be realised,
As and through all of it.
There is no "won't" to this will.
But in man
God allows "won'ts"
Just to make the "will" interesting.
Despite himself,
The Will of Man
Is also to BE
Realising
I am
Right here, right now.
Is to be realised,
As and through all of it.
There is no "won't" to this will.
But in man
God allows "won'ts"
Just to make the "will" interesting.
Despite himself,
The Will of Man
Is also to BE
Realising
I am
Right here, right now.
JUDGMENT
Good or bad,
Right or wrong,
Better or worse than...
Every Judgment re-creates an idealised fiction
That is probably unrealistic,
Even if only because it's based on the percieved performance
Of something or someone "else".
Judgments and self-criticisms
Arise from a non-existent absolute
Against which we measure our selves
And categorise others.
The Inner Critic/Judge is the two-faced Janus
We contracted to stand sentry at the gate of our soul,
To keep us "safe" ..............
And imprisoned.
(We didn't bargain on that.)
Just watch,
Observe how the Judge works.
Watch it uncritically in others
And in your self.
Another entity denying or excusing him/her self,
This entity denying or excusing itself.
Notice the effect each sentence, each frown, each "tut-tut" has on you.
Underneath the self-righteousness,
Feel the contractions.
Man judges and pardons,
God allows,
And just watches - unjudgmentally - to see what happens next.
Outside of mere man-mind, I suspect,
There is no judging God,
No avenging angels,
No Judgment Day.
Armageddon is what's happening within
While we waste every day sitting in criticism and judgment.
Stop doing it!
Who do we think we're "correcting"?
Who are we trying to punish?
If you find that you're too late -
You've just judged someone,
Don't judge your self for it.
It's just a habit.
Let it go.
The more often you let it go,
The sooner it will let you go.
Gain the wisdom --
Judging and being judged
Are each inherent in the other;
Not at some later judgment date,
But in this instant.
Resurrection is what happens
When we lift the burdens of judgment, guilt and punishment
And allow the healing of At-one-ment.
Right or wrong,
Better or worse than...
Every Judgment re-creates an idealised fiction
That is probably unrealistic,
Even if only because it's based on the percieved performance
Of something or someone "else".
Judgments and self-criticisms
Arise from a non-existent absolute
Against which we measure our selves
And categorise others.
The Inner Critic/Judge is the two-faced Janus
We contracted to stand sentry at the gate of our soul,
To keep us "safe" ..............
And imprisoned.
(We didn't bargain on that.)
Just watch,
Observe how the Judge works.
Watch it uncritically in others
And in your self.
Another entity denying or excusing him/her self,
This entity denying or excusing itself.
Notice the effect each sentence, each frown, each "tut-tut" has on you.
Underneath the self-righteousness,
Feel the contractions.
Man judges and pardons,
God allows,
And just watches - unjudgmentally - to see what happens next.
Outside of mere man-mind, I suspect,
There is no judging God,
No avenging angels,
No Judgment Day.
Armageddon is what's happening within
While we waste every day sitting in criticism and judgment.
Stop doing it!
Who do we think we're "correcting"?
Who are we trying to punish?
If you find that you're too late -
You've just judged someone,
Don't judge your self for it.
It's just a habit.
Let it go.
The more often you let it go,
The sooner it will let you go.
Gain the wisdom --
Judging and being judged
Are each inherent in the other;
Not at some later judgment date,
But in this instant.
Resurrection is what happens
When we lift the burdens of judgment, guilt and punishment
And allow the healing of At-one-ment.
I AM........
May thy free will be done on Earth
As it is in Heaven.
I Am is the miracle I am looking for.
I am God/Thought
Lowered in frequency into Light,
Further lowered into gross matter, gross emotions, gross thinking --
Into all somethings,
Including Flesh/Man.
We are....
The children of That Which Is.
Any thought of "I am not",
Perpetuates an illusion of duality,
Of "Me" and "Not-me".
This ill-usion is where we live,
In a universe of duality.
This duality we're seeped in is both a reality and an illusion,
In much the same way as a dream is real, while we are in it;
But when we wake up.........
Do you have a thought "This is not me?"
OK. But who is having the thought of "Not-me"
"Me"? Of course, me.
"I Am" is over all.
To the degree that I own, love and master
The totality of what I am
Is the degree to which I create Heaven as it is on Earth.
The degree to which I see myself as something "Not",
Is the degree to which I separate from Godness-Gracious-Me
Suffer the duality that only mind can conjure,
And create Hell as it is on Earth.
Our life is our most deeply held thoughts
Mirrored and echoed back to us.
Every thought, every word is a prayer
Shooting forth to create what is
And what is to be in the next moment.
I am
My secret.
The longer I look outside of me
To find something to mirror back what I'd like to think I am,
The longer I perpetuate the illusion
That there is something that I am not.
God is reported to have said
"I am
What I am"
I, too, am what I am.
You are what you are.
What does that make us?
Hmm-mmm-mmm?
Sunday, October 03, 2010
MIRRORS
It's all done with mirrors.
"If I can see it, it's my stuff"
But not every one you experience reflects exactly where you are, as you are.
Some may mirror where you have been,
Some may mirror how far you have come,
Some may mirror stuff you aren't finished with yet,
And some may mirror your potential.
It requires discernment,
Of Insight rather than intellect,
And Humility of spirit.
And sometimes it requires patience.
If you do not immediately recognise what's reflected back to you,
Simply put it in the "Pending" tray
And pay attention to what happens next;
Life will deliver an experience that will offer you an "A-hah!"
In the meantime,
Try being grateful for all the mirrors around you.
"All I see is me."
"If I can see it, it's my stuff"
But not every one you experience reflects exactly where you are, as you are.
Some may mirror where you have been,
Some may mirror how far you have come,
Some may mirror stuff you aren't finished with yet,
And some may mirror your potential.
It requires discernment,
Of Insight rather than intellect,
And Humility of spirit.
And sometimes it requires patience.
If you do not immediately recognise what's reflected back to you,
Simply put it in the "Pending" tray
And pay attention to what happens next;
Life will deliver an experience that will offer you an "A-hah!"
In the meantime,
Try being grateful for all the mirrors around you.
"All I see is me."
COMFORTABLENESS
Being comfortable is simple;
It means relaxing enough to unconditionally accept What-Is
And experience it without suffering.
If the "What-Is" of now is suffering,
Then don't get bent out of shape about the suffering.
Just let the suffering, or whatever else, be as it is.
Maybe getting comfortable is not always easy,
But it couldn't get any simpler than
"Just this much, for now".
It means relaxing enough to unconditionally accept What-Is
And experience it without suffering.
If the "What-Is" of now is suffering,
Then don't get bent out of shape about the suffering.
Just let the suffering, or whatever else, be as it is.
Maybe getting comfortable is not always easy,
But it couldn't get any simpler than
"Just this much, for now".
SEX & LOVE
To the extent that we're afraid of sex,
We suppress love.
When we suppress anything,
We suppress love.
When we suppress love,
Something opposite arises.
We suppress love.
When we suppress anything,
We suppress love.
When we suppress love,
Something opposite arises.
HEAVEN AND HELL
Qu.:- What if we died already, and this is it?
Heaven and Hell are both fabrications of the divided mind.
Is there heaven (or hell) after death?
I don't know.
But if there is, "I" will never know it
Because our consciousness will have ceased to be.
There will be no "I" to report back,
And no "Me" to report back to.
Death is, amongst other things, deliverance from Ego.
Is there heaven on Earth?
Yes. And Hell, too.
It depends
On which we each choose to create
As a Context for living.
Heaven and Hell are both fabrications of the divided mind.
Is there heaven (or hell) after death?
I don't know.
But if there is, "I" will never know it
Because our consciousness will have ceased to be.
There will be no "I" to report back,
And no "Me" to report back to.
Death is, amongst other things, deliverance from Ego.
Is there heaven on Earth?
Yes. And Hell, too.
It depends
On which we each choose to create
As a Context for living.
PITY
Pity is not a virtue;
It is one way god-botherers feel good about themselves.
Pity is selfish.
Pity reduces its object
To a state of lesserness, humiliation and suffocation;
And elevates its subject
To a plinth of disengaged "better-than..."
Another way could be,
Out of abundant empathy,
To share your compassion.
Do whatever it takes
To help another help him/herself.
Put the other in charge of his own rehabilitation.
Restore dignity.
Restore self-respect.
It is one way god-botherers feel good about themselves.
Pity is selfish.
Pity reduces its object
To a state of lesserness, humiliation and suffocation;
And elevates its subject
To a plinth of disengaged "better-than..."
Another way could be,
Out of abundant empathy,
To share your compassion.
Do whatever it takes
To help another help him/herself.
Put the other in charge of his own rehabilitation.
Restore dignity.
Restore self-respect.
Friday, October 01, 2010
GOD or GOD-NESS
....And Godness created Man
In its own like-ness.
Man in turn created "God"
In the image of his ego.
There it is....
The ultimate D.I.Y. slavery,
For whoever or whatever creates
Can destroy that which has been created.
When Man worships a god,
Man puts himself in the power of a man-made despot.
Look at all the madmen who've ever gone to war in God's name.
Godness, however, has never been created;
From before the dawn of time,
It has always been.
The idea called "God"
Makes slaves of us.
A God has to be worshipped
And obeyed.
In "God-ness" we are the created,
And the creators.
God-ness is not worshipped,
But it can be acknowledged
(or ignored; that's up to you.
Godness is...
What we are,
Waiting to be remembered
When we wake up to ourselves.
Godliness shines forth in integrity --
Nothing missing.
In its own like-ness.
Man in turn created "God"
In the image of his ego.
There it is....
The ultimate D.I.Y. slavery,
For whoever or whatever creates
Can destroy that which has been created.
When Man worships a god,
Man puts himself in the power of a man-made despot.
Look at all the madmen who've ever gone to war in God's name.
Godness, however, has never been created;
From before the dawn of time,
It has always been.
The idea called "God"
Makes slaves of us.
A God has to be worshipped
And obeyed.
In "God-ness" we are the created,
And the creators.
God-ness is not worshipped,
But it can be acknowledged
(or ignored; that's up to you.
Godness is...
What we are,
Waiting to be remembered
When we wake up to ourselves.
Godliness shines forth in integrity --
Nothing missing.
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