ljazztrumpet

Oh Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ! Lord and Savior! And..and..and..spirits..save me! Take me to the light! Oh my God! I see demons! I see demons a'coming!!

Also, Michael Jaco, Ex-Navy Seal..sending love in combat and was able to stop a suicide bomber with love..and save his platoon on several occasions..

Hahaha! Ok, I get it bro.. Joe BLAST! Nice! Actually, that's part of my point. It's easier to live from the heart and do all this 'love stuff' when things are going smooth and easier in your life. Check out this dude! ----------------------------------- This excerpt from the book Return from Tomorrow by George C. Ritchie is without question the most powerful testament to the resilience and strength of the human spirit I’ve ever encountered. Every time I hear it, it takes my breath away. Ritchie was a soldier in WWII who was part of a group assigned to a concentration camp near Wuppertal, Germany, after the war with Europe ended in May 1945. Ritchie’s team was charged with getting medical help to the newly liberated prisoners, many of them Jews from Holland, France and eastern Europe. He writes: Ritchie then relates how he came to know an inmate the American soldiers called Wild Bill Cody due to his long drooping handlebar mustache that resembled that of the old western hero. Wild Bill’s real name was “seven unpronounceable syllables in Polish.” Ritchie writes of him: Wild Bill’s story breaks my heart but lifts my spirits. I, too, have tried to love every person I come in contact with, to see the beauty in their soul. And while I’ve made incremental progress, I have miles to go if I hope to come anywhere near my goal. It is often unspeakable tragedy that drives people to extremes. Most choose the easy route of hate, self-pity and rage. Precious few choose the opposite end of the spectrum, as Wild Bill did. Yet that is where the human spirit can find endless supplies of strength and forgiveness, for it is there, at the highest level of the human experience, that we find unconditional love. That is when we are closest to God, when our will is aligned with Divine Will. That is where Wild Bill chose to live, and the example of his courage and love burns as brightly today as it did in those hellish days that brought out the best in the bravest and most noble among us.

I'm a professional jazz musician and I can tell you my music is directly tied into my spiritual practice.. I can directly tell things about where I am in my spiritual consciousness (I am focused on raising my love consciousness and it's relation to physical and emotional healing) by how I am improvising. By what's coming out of the bell of my horn..and by how I'm interacting with the other musicians I'm playing with. When I go and give high school jazz clinics, I always use the analogy of jazz improvisation being the same as learning any other language. I find my own communication, whether through my spoken/written word or through improvisation, is very much related to the love in my heart. One of the wisest and most loving beings I know recently told me that the key for me for everything in my life is to live from my heart. She lived with me for several years and is getting ready to come back into my life (hint-she's not a person!) This is quite an incredible story that I'm in the middle of...When she comes back, I'll probably tell the story here and post some pics... Anyway, I refer to this because it's caused me to put my love consciousness practice into 'super-high gear' and every day one of my indicators to 'where I am' in this is through my improvisation.. I know it's not just me because I've gotten + feedback from the cats I work with the last month especially... About the sleep thing..The point is that, when you are really living from the heart and serving others in a healthy way, you need little sleep or food. I've experienced this on a small scale..but have known a few people who live this way to a high degree...it's very inspiring to me..and, when I'm around them, their energy kind of 'rubs off' on me.. and I'm not one to usually believe in all that 'energy transfer clap-trap'! I'm just going by my real life experiences that happen to me every day..that's all I care about, practical, real-life, tangible results.. I'm trying to communicate it in words as best I can. Hopefully, as I gain more wisdom, I'll gain more clarity in communicating all this stuff!

Shite!! I guess I’m screwed! The most prolific spiritual healer I’m aware of slept, maybe, 1 hour in a 24hr period.. Sometimes, not at all. He basically said that if sleep were so great then a person who is wheel-chair bound would be able to go and get a good long sleep and wake up healed. He taught that the most important thing is to be continuously ‘tuned in’ to the unconditional love/divine energy/healing stream as much as possible until you were always connected with that love 24/7. I remember when traveling with medical doctors when they were giving free lectures on spiritual healing for people - We would be able to go and go without being tired...I would not be tired and need sleep when I usually would be. This didn't just happen to me, it did for a lot of us - When we were freely offering this service of helping others to heal themselves, this was a pretty common experience. We all remarked on the phenomenon except for the people who have been doing it for years and were used to it.

Sometimes, at some point in one lifetime or another, Life forces you to do some form of this! I remember reading that there are certain types of monks who use caffeine to help them with their long meditation sessions to not fall asleep. Some of those Buddhist monasteries may look very simple and austere from the outside, but meanwhile they have their own Starbucks hidden somewhere deep in the enclosure!

I am 90% sure it's Russian!

Ok allinone, that's cool. I can dig it. No problem. How about this? Can you list all the languages you don't speak?

Gospodi pomilui. You guys ever check out Ostrov? One of my all time favorites:

Actually allinone, I was curious about your language history. How many languages do you speak? What is your first language? Just helps me to interact better with people.

Praise Jesus!! Jesus is Lord!! Hallelujah!! Thank you Jesus!! Thank you Jesus!! Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Ah yes, the surrender to the 'I don't know' is a big one. 3rd step of the AA/NA style programs.. Very powerful...

Hey allinone, just curious if you care to share. What part of the world are you from? In my line of work, I get to meet people from all over the world, and knowing where someone is from can help me interact/communicate with them. I am from New York in the USA and my first (and only right now) word language is english.

Hey Buddy Bud Budster of the Jetsun clan...Thanks for your thoughtful reply and the clarity. Are they free to imagine that? Take someone who is raised in a very bad environment around hostile people - perhaps in a war zone. Do they have the same freedom to imagine as someone brought up with wiser/kinder parents in a much better environment? My point is, at this level, we are products of our conditioning. There is no true free will. Don't get me wrong dad..dad..daddy-O... Every second I definitely feel like I'm choosing but when I sit down to meditate about it, I see that I never made a choice. I am just responding to all my past conditioning. Just like everyone else. The advantage to this is that it becomes very hard to judge anyone, because you see everyone is doing the best they can at the time. Ok, back to thinking I have free will (which is really easy!). Yes, good stuff..I think it all comes down to practice. I like what you are saying about organized and labeled dogmas. Each of us is like a snowflake, so it will be unique to each of us. But there seems to be certain qualities that, when developed, cause more wisdom, love, and compassion to develop. I've talked about, in other threads, certain practices that raise one's love consciousness. This, I find, puts us in a state where we are able to be more mindful. Where we are in a more receptive and 'stronger' state so we can put unbreakable mindful commitment more into practice. Where we are more apt to choose activities that cause us to appreciate the now. And, say, cultivating more love for everyone is such a practice. The few very effective spiritual healers talked about this. The wonderful practice of 'energetic hugging' that some of you on this board do is one I am really digging. It's taking things to a new level for me - especially getting used to doing it with other male energy is quite revealing for me and rewarding. Very nice Bud.. I think I do feel love and compassion is something I can 'build up'. Of course the very nature of love and compassion is not to store it (to save it for a rainy day..ha!;-) but my own current perception is that I am building it up within myself through practice. Ok the buddiest buddy Bud...stay groovy my man

I was taking Bud's reference to mean seeking the kingdom of heaven within.. Realizing non-separation and all that 'clap-trap'

Dude..you need some Coltrane!! But, seriously, really..TRANE... YES!!

In my own experiences and observations I feel that no psychologically healthy, sane person is going to willfully choose to find 'the real of the moment'. It simply is too difficult to continue to choose this. Life has to, and does, force people sooner or later to find the kingdom of heaven within. An analogy I like to think of is the difference between lifting weights by yourself, or with another friend. When you are lifting with your friend, you're always going to be able to get a couple of extra reps out. You have someone physically spotting you and mentally encouraging you that you can do this. There are just certain things the physical body/mind won't undertake on it's own. You may think you are going to failure when lifting by yourself but when you are with your friend, you see you were capable of even more than you could of done by yourself. Granted, this weightlifting practice is something you choose to do because you want to push yourself. With Life forcing you, it's way more uncomfortable! The most prolific spiritual healer I am aware of knew about this and spoke of it. He understood why people wouldn't give up certain 'egoic securities' - even if it meant healing. Of course he still did his best to encourage them to, but he knew the deal. Whenever I talk about this, I am always hoping someone will chime in and say that there is a better way. That it doesn't have to be like this. But I've yet to get another satisfactory, practical, working answer to this situation.

Hey, nice man! Thanks..makes a lot of sense to me...

It's a great point. I find, in a lot of cases of people on a spiritual path, there can be a tendency for spiritual bypassing. A person doesn't want to accept certain feelings/impulses because they feel these aren't 'spiritual' feelings. They can tend to judge them as bad/wrong, which usually makes things worse. Loving all of ourselves..all of the feelings/impulses that come up.. is a way to 'burn to ash' the 'shadow feelings' that come up within us. And practicing this on others as much as possible can make this a more natural way of being. If we are attempting to love, and not judge, other people and seeing that everyone is doing the best they can with what they know at the time, this can make it easier to do the same with ourselves. I think many of us have these shadow feelings, to one degree or another, just from being born into this world and being raised by people. I figured I would comment on this thread because I was just having a discussion via email with a friend where I wrote about this. I'll paste part of the email below. "The very fact that two people decide to have a child (or have it accidentally and decide to keep it because of distorted religious beliefs) indicates a level of ignorance. Just the fact that they want to bring a life into a world where there is so much suffering going on. Even very good-hearted, non-cruel people still have this ignorance. Granted, when these parents get older they usually acquire more wisdom…but I think it’s too much to expect people who have children to have a lot of wisdom as far as raising their child/children. Also, as much as I disagree with it, we are in a paradigm where we learn through suffering. If anyone should suffer, it should be children - with the idea that their lives can only get better. Let’s face it, for most of us, childhood is the worst time of our lives. We are disempowered and subjected to ignorant people. If we are really lucky, then our parents/guardians may be good hearted though, and we can have a better time of it. If we are super lucky, we may be adopted. People who adopt I find are unusually kind and good-hearted people with more wisdom…They are trying to not bring a life into a place of suffering, but trying to alleviate suffering for a life that’s already here."

Right that makes sense of course... Yes, I do feel affinity usually plays a part as well.. Even the most powerful and prolific healer I am aware of had people he said he couldn't help.. They were just too completely closed off at the time.

I don't know C T. Are they truly spiritual healers? I mean we have energy healers, psychic surgeons, mental healers, qigong healers, etc.. And we have many people claiming to be spiritual healers when, in reality, they aren't really powerful at all. True, they may have good intentions, but they still need to raise their love consciousness, imo, to be more effective as a spiritual healer.

Wait - do have to write another post and then click the notify switch? Goddamnit! If only I were enlightened I could just do this spiritually/mentally with my awesome enlightenment powers!!

The few truly great spiritual healers, that were able to effect mass physical and emotional healings, never made claims of enlightenment. In fact they had to work really hard to get people to look away from them and not elevate them in any way. They had to teach, and demonstrate, hardcore humility. And, also, work extremely hard to try and convince people that they had the power within themselves to do what they were doing. Most people constantly wanted to elevate them and rely on them for help, all the time they always insist that the power is within us.. The healings are demonstrations to show us what is possible and so there is actual proof that there is something real going on and not just intellectual b.s. that they are spouting. Of course no one today just spouts intellectual b.s. without backing it up with healings and the like Hey, but at least on this group I found a place where a lot of people actually get it and I can speak freely about these things without worrying I'm going to offend anyone..or most anyone

There are those of us who are still able to get caught up in worldly matters, who aren’t forced to seek the kingdom of Heaven within. It’s not the time for these people in their lives, or, perhaps, in their current lifetime, to have to seek the kingdom within. They have much better things to do than to attend some banquet. Then there are those of us that Life has forced to seek the kingdom within. We are the spiritual seekers, the addicts, the poor (if not literally, then metaphorically). We are the ones who are motivated to come to the banquet, and ‘the Master’ knows this and invites us to ’the banquet’. This banquet is where we may find the kingdom of Heaven within. We accept the invitation because we see that everything else that we have used to distract ourselves from such a daunting journey no longer works. So we really have no choice but to come to the banquet. We either attend or suffer - and that’s really no choice at all!

Thanks man:-) Yeah, I didn’t think you meant it like that, but it made me recall a time in my life when I had ‘pedestal thinking’ - believing in enlightenment, gurus, and all that 'clip-clop'. Also I recall the experiences I’ve had in spiritual healing within a christian belief paradigm. I always noticed that the christians who were really able to effect powerful healings were the ones who really believed JC’s teachings ‘Greater things than me shall you do.’ But the majority of people were thinking more of JC as ‘The Savior’ to be prayed to for help, etc. Well, I can't speak for JC but... Well..you know what? What's he gonna do? I will speak for Jesus! He would definitely approve of your approach!