manitou

What do we think we are? Usually we think we are separate from one another. We think we think independently, we think we live independently. But as the Whole One, we are not separate. That black warm void, the sense of "I-ness", that lives within you also lives within me. The very same entity. This is how to love your enemy as yourself - to realize that your 'enemy' is your self. Nothing there to hate at all, just a different perspective. So, again, "You are not what you think you are". So who are we? We are The One.

herding cats...

Damn that's a good poem, Suninmyeyes! We need a lot more like him. His ideas are within reach too, something everybody can do. Just stand up.

On another thread, a Master said: "Do the inner work, only speak from personal experience, ignore urges to quote teachers and books...." What does this mean?

It's as though when we an live in The Awareness, that our manifestations are no longer negative. Life becomes so very much easier. Problems cease to be problems, they become opportunities. The chemicalization has occurred. The desire to do the 'right' thing is part of us now - we know instinctively how to respond. If there is a question, to Do Nothing is the answer. This cannot be put into words, it must be realized from within. And to see that both sides of the coin are opportunities and either way it goes, it's just fine. It's all good. Thanks for your explanation. Very nice.

A shameless plug Captain Mar-Vel has added to his blog. Kind words for The Tao Bums. Thank you, Capt. Mar-Vel For your presence in our community; Your heart and soul Have quickly become An unveiled light Sitting atop the hill. The words in your blog And your posts Dig down to the bottom of my soul And resonate with truth. The resonance I do not hear With my ears or with my mind But with my heart. You ring True. True as the purest bell Greeting the dawn And calling others To their inner awareness. I've not met you face to face, I know not what you look like And yet, because our souls communicate In an intimate way I am proud to call you My brother and my Friend. Love, Manitou

Son of the Gods - I woke up this morning thinking about your post where you spoke of the 'opposite' in your rituals. When you first posted this, it didn't occur to me that maybe what you're talking about is the very same thing I do in ceremony. Only I call it Imprinting to the Opposite. And I assume that when you talk about ritual you are speaking of a healing ritual? Please correct me if I'm wrong. Imprinting to the Opposite is what I call it when you can get down to the origination of a tendency within another (the one you're facilitating the healing with) and turn around the dynamic. It always has to do with Love in some fashion, at the end. A malady in the body does not grow as a result of love; it manifests as a result of fear or hate. The reason for the manifestation must be determined for the healing to be effected and successful. Cancer and diseases that take a long time to develop are such a dramatic example of this - perhaps not in young children, but in adults. But cancer is the body eating itself. As though something has been 'eating at' the person for years and years. This is the physical manifestation of the inner dynamic over time. I believe this to be the sorcery of the Dao. Do you agree? Or maybe a better term would be to call it the 'Source-ery' of the Dao. I think a prerequisite for being able to do this is to know ourselves down to the core - the process of inner work that we are speaking of on this thread. As they say, the Truth shall set us free. If we have gotten down to the Source within ourselves, found the I Am (or the knowledge of who we really Are - that we are indeed 'God', we are the Manifester, the Thinker, the Creator) - then we become capable of using this very Source for healing purposes. Because we know ourselves down to the Source, we can See another down to their Source - at least we can see the template of how it's intended to be arranged within them, if their own behavior hadn't taken a turn away from Love. And it is through Love that this can be corrected, if the practitioner can See. I sometimes think of the Nazarene in regard to this. If half of what was written about him is true, what a shaman he must have been. And the inner work dynamic is verified by him when he told others to "Know Thyself". Don't you think we're talking about the same thing here? The fourth step of the steps of recovery for alcoholism or recovery from any substance abuse is to take a fearless and thorough moral inventory of ourselves. This takes courage; it isn't easy. It's to assume that we do indeed have character defects, a concept that the Ego doesn't like at all. And it begs us to trace down those character defects to their root, to find where they started, to understand them, to shine light on them, and to imprint them to the opposite. The imprinting to the opposite within the alcohol recovery system is one that is distasteful and humiliating; there have to be amends made to those we have harmed in the past. Face to face if possible, without regard for what we fear they may say or do in response. But what it does is it truly does imprint to the opposite. It gives us a new starting point from which to develop a more loving, more aware way of relating to the external stimulus in our lives. To be able to See the dynamic within another cannot be done unless we have seen the dynamic within ourselves. Removing the log from our own eye before we remove the speck from another, as someone once said. This is key - and this is where the Inner Work is crucial if one wants to dabble in the wu-wei of the Dao, or the Source-ery of healing ourselves and others. To get down to the Source. To find the pony at the bottom of the manure pile. It is there, always - regardless of how much manure it appears that someone has.

If that's truly the case, I would say it takes one to know one....

I went back and read the wonderful excerpt in the Castaneda thread which chris d linked in on post #20. Wow, did I fail that test! Being a Castaneda lover for years (and having chosen to pursue a warrior's path) I missed a serious opportunity to control myself in the fact of a petty tyrant (the man who had me penned in the parking spot). What a perfect opportunity for self control I missed by turning into an instant banshee. To paraphrase some of the content of the Castaneda paragraphs - I wasn't able to cut and paste it - (intended for one walking the path of the warrior), the five tools used by the warrior to lose self importance (the development of humility) are the following: Control, Discipline, Forbearance, Timing, Will. There is a sixth tool as well: the Petty Tyrant, who is a tormentor who shows up on our path. Apparently the man in the parking lot was a Petty Tyrant in my particular case at that moment. The better thing to do, were I to have kept the above formula in mind, would have been to learn from this situation, I guess to await patiently until the cops got there, to practice the art of Detachment and develop this point of character further. Castaneda further states: "The Warrior who stumbles on a petty tyrant is a lucky one - because then you don't have to go out and look for one." He further says "Nothing can temper the spirit of the warrior as much as a challenge of dealing with impossible people in positions of power. Only under those conditions can warriors acquire the sobriety and serenity to stand the pressure of the unknowable" In my case, the man was in a position of power because he was blocking the parking space. But although the test of sobriety and serenity was failed on my part, something else was gained. The seeing of the connection between the petty tyrant of several days ago, and the petty tyrant of my childhood. Was there really a net loss in this encounter? Although I did fail in one sense, I gained in inner knowledge and seeing the connecting thread between my behavior of today and the point of beginning of the behavior in yesterday. So I'm not considering this one a loss. Not this one - too much good came out of it. The awesome thing about how all this works is that when we manifest a condition on our end - a nasty encounter as the one described above - this means that the I AM within the other person has manifested the other half of the encounter as well. Within each of us resides the Tenant, the I Am, who is always tending toward the light, toward clarity, toward Union with itself. Why it needs to manifest to the physical is anyone's guess, I think. But it seems to need to. Taking the concept of Time out of the equation seems to level it all out. It's all happening Here and Now, not yesterday, today, or tomorrow. The synchronicity of that parking lot man manifesting whatever lesson his soul 'wanted' to bring to his attention was done at the same moment my soul manifested my lesson. It seems that it is one constant evolution in the Here and Now, although our linear brains see it as before and after. It's all being manifested Now, worldwide... I think we are all one zillion-eyed creature having a physical experience in this moment. How can we hate the Other when the Other is none other than ourselves?

I love the fact that you mention doing rituals. It is so vital to bring our awarenesses into the physical realm. I use rituals or ceremonies as well. It's as though a ritual will separate point A from point B, the question from the answer, the yesterday from today. It marks a transition to the person (being healed, or actually healing themself) that a change is imminent. And in fact it has already taken place. The snowballs at the oak tree was a ritual, bringing the awareness to the physical. I've not thought before about including the polar opposite in ceremony. It would pick up all the gaps in between, a start and a finish. I believe I will do the same 'in the hereafter', lol. Capt. Mar-Vell - how beautiful that you say to seek the higher Will. Yes, every moment of the day, with every decision that we make, as often as we can think about it. This was the surprise to me about my behavior yesterday in the parking lot. It was such an antithesis to what I normally do - and yet this too was the Higher Will, as evidenced by subsequent awarenesses. How odd this all is. I appreciate your heartfelt words - but no need for sympathy - I've been as giddy as a schoolgirl all day today ever since the snowball incident. Still remnants of anger, but also a strange lightness and 'devil-may-careness' that feels strangely wonderful. An odd incident, to be sure.

To do our own Will is key; and yet sometimes it seems that just the opposite seems to be true. The I Am resides within us, IS us. We are the Manifester. If we do our own Will, we are in alignment with the Tao - although we are certainly raised to do exactly opposite - to do the will of others around us - our parents, our teachers. As we develop into Self Realization, Self Awareness - our own Will does align with the Dao; our desires become the desires of the highest and best, sooner or later. We wade through this human being of an entity, this imperfect reflection of That Which Is True. What an incredible ride this is. How fortunate I feel to have people like you to communicate this with. Fellow journeyers on the Way.

Yes, it feels fabulous to release it. I went out into the snowstorm today with the dogs and threw snowballs at a tree, cussing at it at the same time. I was talking not only to my father, but to his father and his father. The horrible violence and repression that has been handed down through the years. It's amazing how many times this particular issue has arisen in me - this is not my first rodeo with this - but as the years go on, I keep peeling the onion and it just gets closer and closer to the core. And to be able to look back and see how this repression has colored so much of my life, as I previous mentioned. It's just unbelievable. And yet this discomfort has been the very reason I have turned to more ethereal avenues to live with it. And perhaps this is the way it's supposed to be. At times in my life I have turned to religion (back when) and later on to metaphysics. It is the discomfort that has pushed me upward and onward in my search for peace of heart. It's what I 'drank at' for all those years. Just peace of heart, being able to merge with some degree of comfort with the world around me. There is nothing to feel bad about, I agree. It is just raw anger, and it feels wonderful to feel it leaving. Not to say that there still isn't a good deal of it left. It's just that the particular bubble of anger that arose yesterday (no doubt touched off by the man not letting me leave my parking spot - keeping me 'hostage' much as my father used to do when he would make me sit on his lap after he beat me, making me tell him that I loved him) - I couldn't get away. And then deprive me of my Prozac, my coping mechanism - and POW! There it was. It's all so simple to see it now. There will be other triggers. I'm more prepared now. The anger feels so much better when you can see the source of it. Previously, I would just leave my husband and take off - or burn another bridge behind me. The behavior didn't start so much with the beatings, but the STIFLING of the anger about the beatings. That's where the pattern started. To be able to identify it now is a luxury; it was the confusion and the lack of vision as to what it was about that was the determining factor in my own behavior; and the need for alcohol, and the need for Prozac. Just to get by.

You and I are kindred spirits, I am. Ditto on the chronic self analyzer - out of necessity at first in my case, because I am recovering from alcoholism and the Steps are nothing but inner work. I too yin and yang between the cogitative self analysis and the need to bring things into the physical; changing focus from the inside to the outside. Agreed that we cannot know anything unless we know ourselves; we are all mirrors of each other and to see arrogance or greed in another is but to acknowledge that which is there in ourselves. I've come to realize that we have all developed comfort zones within our lives. Most likely first developed in our formative years; it's like a bathtub ring from which all life manifestation from that point on is done - perhaps don Juan Mateus would call it our assemblage point, the point from which we view the outside world and how we interpret it. the moccasins we walk in. Obviously, everyone's assemblage point or bathtub ring is different. My ego tells me I am a spiritual being; that I've come a long way; that I've been studying metaphysics for 40 years; that I've gone within myself to great depths since getting sober 32 years ago; that I am capable of Seeing and Being through the eyes of Love; that I am capable of being a cognitive part of the healing mechanism for other people, a practitioner. I can walk around in the I Am mindset for hours, days at a time; I can forget that I am a human being and see myself as a spiritual being, cutting everyone slack (as I Am said) and realizing that they are all doing the very best they can do, given their own bathtub ring. I thought I was doing just fine. Until yesterday. And what a coincidence that I had already started up this thread. (Let me preface this by saying that one more time I am weaning myself off 30 years of taking Prozac - that should provide a clue) I'd gone into Tractor Supply to get some dog food and when I returned to my car there had been a small fender bender in the parking aisle right behind where I was parked. A man had been slightly hit by someone coming out of a parking spot (he had a small dent at the front of the driver's door). He had called for the police to come document this occurrence. Needless to say, I was unable to back out of my parking spot, along with two other cars who were held hostage by this situation. The driver who had been hit refused to move his truck until the police got there. The rage came out of me so fast, I couldn't believe it. Granted, I'm a retired cop and one of my pet peeves is when folks think the world has to come to a stop so a cop can come document the occurrence for their insurance company. This was the situation exactly. I asked him to please move his truck so I could get out; he refused, said the cop had to get there first. The situation went from 0 to 60 in about 3 seconds, my rage was bottled up inside me and I was in his face immediately, hollering at him to move his damn truck about 10 feet away so others could continue with their lives. (Example: Him: "I'm from Pennsylvania, I don't want any trouble". Me: "You want trouble? I'll show you trouble!" You get the idea.) My own behavior was ridiculous, despite any justification. The man ultimately moved his truck. This was on my mind the rest of the day. My own behavior was astounding to me; where in the world did this rage come from? Why did I manifest this situation? (I Am, I know you understand that last question). How could I have not known that the rage was there? How could a rage this large remain hidden? Okay, now it's the next day. I woke up early this morning, laying in bed with a memory on my mind. I was grinding my teeth, my hands were in fists. The memory was of me, at the age of about 6, sitting on the lap of my father and doing my best not to cry; my father had just beaten me with his leather belt, as he often did, and he was saying "Don't cry or I'll really give you something to cry about". This was probably a weekly occurrence when I was a child. The answer as to where this anger came from, this rage that escaped yesterday from seemingly out in left field - was right in front of my eyes. It was from stifling this need to let out an emotion - let out the tears from the beatings - that I have continued struggling to do throughout my entire life. This yin yang of emotion has been a bathtub ring for me my entire life. It is a bathtub ring that has set the stage for most of the relationships in my life; my need to create situations that duplicate these feelings; these feelings of stifling the anger and rage I must have felt as a young girl after the beatings with the belt. It even explains my career - my being a cop and putting myself in very dangerous situations, yet stifling the fact that I was often terrified. What an incredible pattern. And how it has affected the choice of men in my life over the years. That's a whole different story. This is not my first realization of this yin yang. I have spoken of it before - to psychiatrists, in AA meetings, to friends. Perhaps it is cutting loose of the Prozac that is bringing it up to the level right underneath the skin - a new level, a more imminent level; one where the raging bull that lives within (one of the many animals, as the Yogi quote above) is just below the surface. I no longer have anger toward my dad about all this. I did for quite a while, but it diminished greatly when I realized one day that he was brought up exactly the same way. and so was his father. And his father, ad infinitum. Apparently this tendency is just the gift that keeps on giving through the generations. Whose to blame? Nobody, as far as I can see. But I've got to do something with this. I've got to bring it into the physical, to release it, to express it. I will take measures to do this today, within a more controlled setting. as opposed to whacking off somebody's head in a parking lot. Thanks for being here.

We speak of inner work on this forum. I guess I am questioning my own understanding. I am curious to know how others here actually do their inner work. Do you question your own motives on a daily basis? Do you make a point of looking for your own inner contortions and doing what you can to straighten them out? Do you meditate and search for the odd thought that comes to mind and question your motivation about the thought and what that tells you about you? Or do you not think about it, just trusting that Life will bring you what you need for your own evolution? My understanding is one thing. There are so many here whose opinions I respect, and whose own personal evolutions are so visible - I am wondering about other methods of achieving clarity. My own method would more closely align with a life recapitulation, wherein the past is looked at, motives are examined, changes are made. A very long process. But maybe this isn't necessary. Maybe there is a shorter way, an inner rolfing of character defects and contortions. I too am in agreement that everyone sees from where they stand in their own moccasins; but for purposes of context I will quote a passage from a book I read long ago; the passage remains with me always, for some reason: (From Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism, by Yogi Ramacharaka): "The brute instincts are still with us, constantly forcing themselves into our field of thought. Occultists learn to curb and control these lower instincts, subordinating them to the higher mental ideals which unfold into the field of consciousness. Do not be discouraged if you still find that you have much of the animal within your nature - we all have - the only difference is that some of us have learned to control the brute, and to keep him in leash and subordinate and obedient to the higher parts of our nature, while others allow the beast to rule the, and they shiver an turn pale when he shows his teeth, not seeming to realize that a firm demeanor and a calm mind will cause the beast to retreat to his corner and allow himself to be kept behind bars. If you find constant manifestations of the beast within you, struggling to be free and to assert his old power, do not be disturbed. "This is no sign of weakness, but is really an indication that your spiritual growth has begun. For whereas you now recognize the brute, and feel ashamed, you formerly did not realize his presence - were not aware of his existence, for you WERE the brute himself. It is only because you are trying to divorce yourself from him, that you feel ashamed of his presence. You cannot see him until you begin to be "different" from him. "Learn to be a tamer of wild beasts, for you have a whole menagerie within you. the lion; the tiger; the hyena, the ape, the pig; the peacock, and all the rest are there, constantly showing forth some of their characteristics. Do not fear them - smile at them when they show themselves - for you are stronger than they, and can bring them to subjection - and their appearance is useful to you in the way of instructing you as to their existence. They are an amusing lot, when you have reached the stage where you are able to practically stand aside and see them perform their tricks, and go through their antics. You then feel strongly that they are not YOU, but something apart from you - something from which you are becoming rapidly divorced. Do not worry about the beasts - for you are the master." Beautiful.

I agree, I think we're talking about book-learning vs. self realization, the outer vs. the inner. It seems to me that to get to the point that IB spoke of above, there must be a clearing out process involved first for the opening of the heart to be based on clarity rather than distortion.

Is opening the heart the same as doing the inner work? How do you remove anger and greed, arrogance and selfishness? Can a selfish person open their heart effectively? I'm wondering what methods some of the Bums use to get it so their hearts can open.

Marbles, you are my Teacher. For this I thank you.

As of late, My soul is saddened as well, BKA. Not for exactly the same reason But for one slightly different. This forum for me has been A lifeline of sorts; Kindred spirits are so very difficult to find. My everyday world doesn't seem to produce them very often. To awaken in the morning and know there are a group of souls that wonder about the same things I wonder about; that there are souls that understand that the Unexamined life is not worth living. This alone has kept my head above water many times; My ground. Perhaps The Bums is far too important to me. But the heavy change I sense in the community Is one, I believe, to be unintentional. The bickerers we can Unfollow. Just a push of the button. A 66 page thread of bickering is beyond ridiculous And is nothing more than raging egos straining to Overcome the others. My sadness is as a result of something more subtle; A result of Lack of Knowledge And perhaps Too Much Time on their hands. My heart is heavy because I don't want to hurt anyone with my words. But my own spirit must breathe out One last whisper. The ones I don't want to hurt Are everywhere, on every thread. The ones I don't want to hurt Are beloved by all, including me. The ones I don't want to hurt Don't know what they are doing; In their desire for participation They throw wet blankets and boulders Over creative thought. The stifling is constant And yet they are held in high regard. I may well be a crazy one Who needs boulders blocking my way And who needs my thoughts to be stifled. I can get out there; of this I am aware. Perhaps boulders ground me and this is why I remain here. But after some years of this, I hang on by merely a thread now. My soul is weary And the boulders seem more numerous now. There is so much more than what is in front of our eyes. Not everybody here sees this. But because there are entities that do not see this Their insistence that there is Nothing More has become tedious to me. As I'm sure that I have become tedious to them. I have a knowledge borne of personal history that understands That inner work must be done; Our own motives must be examined If we want any clarity at all. (Thump! A boulder) I have knowledge that knows that Unseen forces can be tapped into Because I've done it. (Thump! a boulder) I have knowledge that knows that Somehow Love is the cohesion that keeps everything moving toward True North (Thump! a boulder) All I have is my own knowledge Of my own inner understanding And my own years of study and readings. It all comes together, Regardless of the path And meets in the middle, At the One. (Thump! A boulder) I am weary of dodging boulders Thread after thread Thrown by entities that I love But who have no inner knowledge And have no desire for their own growth. Please understand that this is written with love And an understanding that nobody is intending to Throw boulders. But the boulders litter our threads, they do. I want so badly to remain Part of this community. But I feel the energy and the desire to do so Lessening with each day. I can only hope that those who would stifle And proudly thwart any thought that isn't linear Will recognize themselves; and will open themselves up to a new way of thinking Which doesn't require a staunch stance; But rather, fluidity of thought and open mindedness to that which has not been experienced directly in their own personal Histories.

Going back to how our view of ego was Useful, all I can add is my own experience; for those on this thread who have heard it before, please just ignore me. I was a degenerate alcoholic living a degenerate life. I found the 12 steps of recovery. Perhaps the most crucial step of all is the one where we do a fearless moral inventory. I listed every character defect known to man and assumed I had all of them to some degree. Usually, I did. I recapitulated my life and looked at it all, seeing where I had been wrong and seeing my own part in my screw-ups. Ego was squashed repeatedly when I made amends (another step) to those I had harmed. The upshot of all this was that I became Teachable and realized that every decision and point of view I had possessed and cherished up to that point had done nothing more than get me into the quagmire I was living. It was in modifying and diminishing ego to the best of my ability that has kept me sober for 32 years and has turned me into more of an outer-directed person. As opposed to an inner-directed person who was concerned only for the narrowly personal. If this scenario would qualify it as Useful, I offer it up to the OP.

If one buys into the notion that it's all Mind anyway, how can this not be true? There is something inside me that senses that the parallel universe concept is the way it is, because life is so contingent on mindset; the past, present, future all Here Now. The seeds of tomorrow are planted with mindset today; our fruits today were planted by mindset yesterday. Were my mindset different yesterday, my Now would be otherwise. I see no cement anywhere; only fluidity and a constantly rotating gyro of potentiality.

I have found the best way to deal with road kill is to honor it. to see the freddled gruntbugglies for exactly what they are; a return to the earth. to have no fear of the lurgid bee; after all, their own sustenance is merely the rancid festering inner-sphincter of a life form that is still Now. forms change, essence does not I await with anticipation the arrival of the slurping axlegrurts; I listen carefully for their frartues and unctuous slipulations; nourishing themselves on meated liverslime Once again Life emerges the Winner and my turling dromes groop with a quivering rush of excitement knowing that in nine months once again, crinkly little bindlewurdies will emerge rendering my blurglecruncheon incapable of ever doing harm again to your delicate gobberwarts

You're welcome. I think your work deserves more than one awesome comment...

Did you ever write a song before you even knew what it meant? I wrote this 40 years ago and hadn't a clue. I guess it was lying in wait. The love of life that so becomes you Your ready smile you can't disguise Your hearty laugh that so surrounds you The sunlight beaming from your eyes - Were I to love a prince of fortune And jewels and pearls he'd give to me His gifts I'm sure, they would not measure To one of your smiles you give so free - Show me the way you took to discover The beauty you see wherever you turn; Show me how far, how much, or how little Is the path stony, and how do I learn? God help me for I must remember For fear that I may stumble blind; The love that seems to glow within you Is not for me, but All Mankind.

Aurora borealis

Whatever it is, it seems to want to evolve. Or, we can resist by digging in our heels and hold firm in our beliefs. Either way, the choice is ours.