manitou

Mark, that was quite listenable!

Eh.

This is possibly the nicest thing anything has ever said about me. It only took 76 years.

I think it's the non sequitur nature of poetry. Too many surprises for this old lady.

I need help with this. It's intriguing. At first it looked to me that she was wanting something from him, but now I think he wants something from her. He is representing spiritual knowledge, what with his third eye and the remnants of previous masters hanging on a chain. He got her attention with the bell. She is alive, vibrant, and they are sharing breath. He wants to incarnate into the life she represents, Knowledge is taking the opportunity to go into that body. The cup in her left hand has something in it - does it represent the ability to multiply life? And what of the snake? The artist specifically and intentionally put a glow on the back of the snakes head. Is that a budding awareness of wisdom? Or the proximity of death at any time?

Why is it that poetry pisses me off?

I was reading a terribly profound book a while back. I can't remember what book it was. I recall one thing from the book that stayed with me. 'That when one reaches enlightenment, the enlightened one often retires from the world'. A cave, maybe..... I've sometimes thought about enlightenment as the physical process of the enlightened body reaching out far into the ethers. If there is anything to that, I don't think it matters whether the enlightened one is engaged or not engaged with the world. I think of the enlightened ones as the ones who are the tent poles, holding up the structure of the tent. And this wouldn't be location specific. The projection would engage with other projections of the same vibration regardless of where they are in the world. I am of the view that it's important to do what's in front of you, in the most loving manner that's appropriate to the situation. To not leave a stone unturned, to not shine things on. Personally, I think that if this is done well, there is no need to go out and look for things to make better. There is almost an arrogance, IMO, to thinking that by my going out to do-good, that I actually know what somebody else needs. Most likely that person is in exactly the right situation to develop their soul in the manner for which it is ready. And to remember that that person, too, is 'god'. "It" knows exactly what it's doing.

This is quite a dynamic, cool breeze.

I think the enlightened words spoken on the Sermon on the Mount, for example, show us that he was truly a master. I have a feeling that he didn't 'believe' in the demons, but was riding the conveyance of the beliefs of the people he was working with. This is how a healer works.

Radical acceptance. I love it. What I often go to, is that we are all actually the same entity with millions of different eyes. When things are looked at with this view, the things that humans can do to each other are pretty astounding. Especially when you realize that it's the same entity beating up the same entity. We are not separate, but we are the entity squeezed through different conditionings. Radical acceptance and Is-ness seems to be pretty much the same thing.

I think I understand what the Lama was saying. If something gets my pecker up, it's because the anger is the result of something that happened to me earlier. Much earlier. All anger is based on an original hurt some time in my young life. When I go through my emotions (anger, in this case), I notice that any little childhood memories that pop up at this same time are crucial. If there is a hurt remembered, just determining the source of it can be enough to smooth out the wrinkle, so that that particular hurt won't be something that I react to over and over, when someone grates across it. When the wrinkle is smoothed, there's nothing to grate up against. Sometimes the original hurt (physical, harsh words, perceived injustice, etc) is real deep. I've noticed that if that is the case, then I must intentionally focus on imprinting the memory to the opposite - sometimes I use a ceremony (usually for others) if the imprint is particularly strong and casts a long shadow. After participating in this process for a long while, the purpose is for the 'body' to become an enlightened body; a body of light, a transparent body. It is no longer cluttered with ridges of pain left over from when we were 5. It amazes me how long and dark the cast shadow can be. It seems like it's a snowball rolling downhill and gaining in mass as it goes further and further down. And so often the original hurt was something so simple, so forgivable, that it seems incredible that it cast a shadow that can extend to the end of a person's life. But it's the emotions, I've found, that are a real good way to take our own spiritual temperatures. The more uncluttered I get, the easier life seems to get. If a negative or painful memory gets in the way, it gets easier and easier to find the original incident; probably because there isn't as much clutter in my soul as there used to be, things can be seen easier. Negative emotions happen for a reason. They give us clues into our inner selves. And then we get transparent.

There is no good or bad, there is no should. Desire is desire whether it turns left or right, into the light or into the darkness. We human beings seem to live at the wire tips. We are the individual strands of the electric cord of desire, it is with desire that we contact each other. Whichever path desire takes you on is the right path, it knows what it wants and when it wants it, lol. It will take you through the paths it takes to make you realize who you are

'Most' being 99.9999999999999% space

but do you have a record player??

It would seem so...

Maybe not The Path, but certainly A Path. Just a few moments ago, I had a revelation into my own character. It is a repressed emotion that has finally shown itself to me. Through a particular situation (in this case, turning down an invitation to something where I know I would have a nice time) it suddenly occurred to me that I turn down things like that a lot. Denying myself pleasure because I feel guilty. This has been with me forever. Not allowing myself to have too much fun, feeling guilty if I do. I was second guessing my answer as the person drove away. A snippet of a memory came into focus, and I knew the moment I saw the memory that there was total truth to it. I saw a little girl putting a record of Oklahoma! on the record player one morning, as our family was preparing for vacation. I turned it up real loud because I was so happy. I thought my parents would love it. Problem was, it was about 6 in the morning. Dad came at me and overreacted, as always, hollering "You'll wake the neighbors up!" My extreme happiness at that moment instantly turned into guilt because I had not thought about the neighbors at all. So what I need to do is replay the opposing dynamic (anti-guilt?) I'll figure out some little reenactment where the dynamic turns to happiness, where the guilt surrenders to happiness. So, it seems to me that emotions (which are there because of your prior conditioning) can lead us back to ourselves, our pristine selves, whenever needed. It is that type of self-discovery which is crucial for allowing enlightenment to occur from within.

From The Four Agreements (Don Miguel Ruiz, Introduction) "Toltec knowledge arises from the same essential unity of truth as all the sacred esoteric traditions found around the world. Though it is not a religion, it honors all the spiritual masters who have taught on the earth. While it does embrace spirit, it is most accurately described as a way of life, distinguished by the ready accessibility of happiness and love" (italics mine)

Mark, you may be overthinking it just a bit....

Bam!!

I'm not sure there is any certainty of the real, as not everyone can agree on what real is. I think the only 'real' that can be understood with certainty is our true god-nature. And of course there's no 'understanding' that either. But the realization of who we really are is the only realization that counts, IMO. (Speaking of what's real.....I read someplace a long time ago that 'the only real thing is a shadow'. I don't know why this has stuck with me over the years, but it has - probably because I sense that it's true, but I haven't seen the connection yet) I think that excessive ego lies at the bottom of why people get angry when challenged. If a person didn't have excessive ego, there would be no challenge apparent to them. All things are respected as being the perception of other persons and their particular conditionings. Anger arises if there is too much vestment in being right, and it rubs against a point of conditioning inside us that would be best put out of its misery.

As to real or unreal, reality or illusion - I sometimes wonder if the nature of quantum physics explains that. Matter is both a particle and a wave of probability at the same time. A particle takes up space, a wave uses time. That way, the kitty makes sense.

That's actually kind of funny. An authoritative one on the nature of emptiness.

When masters speak of extinguishing the self, I think they're talking about extinguishing those things inside ourselves that prevent us from clarity. If we've been conditioned all our lives to act in a certain way, or react when something in particular hits an existing trigger inside, the trick is to get rid of the existing trigger. By 'extinguish the self', it's getting rid of excessive ego that prevents us from seeing clearly. Your words about focusing on the other souls of this world are beautiful. It almost becomes second nature when it is kept in mind that we and the other person are the same entities, but with different conditionings. Then, to focus on another is really just to focus on self after all. As to ridding ourselves of unwanted conditioning, a person could start from where they are at this moment. If and when a reaction bubbles up within, causing anger or irritation - then it is most likely that the very trait that is driving you nuts in the other person, is actually the same trait we have in ourselves. I think that's a good way to start to dissolve the unwanted inside us. The trick is to see where the reaction comes from - and most likely there is often a little memory there from childhood that is the offender. Usually it's an innocuous little memory that repeatedly comes up - maybe just a glimpse of you as a child having some experience. If these little memories remain after all these years, there's a reason we're remembering it. During shamanic healing, this is an effective method of reversing the trend - to reverse the little memory. Nice to have you back, Tom.

I recently saw a movie, something like 'Andre, the seashell wearing shoes', or something like that. It was an adorable little movie where the seashell was seeking all of his friends from the drawer from which all his friends had been removed due to a kid moving. It was just a cute movie until the very last part.....the shell discovered that if he stood on a particular window sill at just the right angle and the wind was blowing, THAT HE MADE A SOUND. He realized at that moment that he was one with everything. I was gobsmacked when I saw that. The concept he speaks of wherein karma is generated by negative or judgmental thoughts --not often do you hear discussed that 'thoughts' can produce negative karma. At least in my experience, I always thought of actions as being the generating factor. But I can attest to what happens when thinking changes. I ride my own thoughts almost continuously, being aware of any judgment or negative projections I may be making at the moment. I try to catch them and turn them around. All I can say, after doing this for some years, is that my life is so smooth now, it's remarkable - from what it used to be. It just points out to me, one more time, that it's all Mind.

It does seem like a productive technique, but with limitations. There is no mention of the ramifications that one has to deal with once the awareness is had. It's learning how to use the awareness that separates the men from the boys, IMO. Once this state of non-existence is realized, it needs to be internalized. Because there is no self, there is only I Am. Being in awareness of this during the day is the challenge. Wu wei is effective if done with non existence. Once that point is reached, the knowledge is given to us. It seems to be only a point of opening yourself up and stilling the mind, and the knowledge you need at that moment will bubble up from the deep. Sometimes you have no knowledge of what you are going to say next...but the words are mysteriously there.