manitou

It's strange that the desire to articulate diminishes more and more over the years. Heart-space feels the same here as it does there, or anywhere. Vast.

thank you for that wonderful link, CT. PAT ! There is a void that can be sensed within, I sense it as dark and warm and vast; it is comforting to know that this void is within everyone else too, within every thing. Rendering the universe as a friendly place. Like a womb, where wherever you are is home.

Space is where it's at.

Maybe approach it from a different direction to get the desired result instead of nuts and boltsy. I read the most wonderful thing in Vasistha's Yoga that stayed with me. If a pot is sitting on a table, there is space inside the pot. If you move the pot, the space inside doesn't go with it. It stays right there, and the pot now contains new space. For some reason, that really resonates with me. As we walk through space, although it seems like we're taking it with us, we're not. It's as if we're a ghost moving through air. When viewed from a perspective like this, it seems easier (to me) to realize that matter isn't solid at all, that it's all the same substance, that it's not necessary to differentiate between this thing and that thing, to label it as good or bad. It's all the same thing, the same no-thing. This state of mind in and of itself is a Practice. To remember to remember this throughout the day, as often as possible, so that one day that is the default mindset and differentiation is defunct. We become capable of straddling either world.

We're keeping the car because it has a real nice hydraulic lift for Joe's geezer scooter. Cars up in the snowy states tend to rust out a lot in the undercarriage because of the snow and salt on the streets - actually, the transmission itself is okay, it's everything around it that's bad. thanks for asking... Okay, now back to nature.

Yeah, you're right. While it was pouring, I saw nary a bird.

Marbles, you're probably used to stuff like this, being from Florida - but I'm just new to the area and the other day here in Ocala it was bright blue, nice and sunny. I was playing the keyboard out in the lanai when suddenly I noticed a huge flying saucer shaped black cloud over our area, and it immediately started pouring. No lead-up, just pouring from the first drops. It rained so hard for about 30 minutes I couldn't believe it. I'll be we got nearly an inch in that half hour. Unbelievable. The next couple days were horribly humid - you could see the mist rising from the grass in the mornings and the humidity was horrible all day. The weather's getting a little oppressive in central Florida right now - looking forward to returning to Ohio next week. Right after the $2400.00 transmission repair....aaaargh.

One or two figs makes for a mighty small figgy pudding.

the world over seek meaning for the meaningless chop wood tote water

I think you may be imposing a moral question onto an amoral reality. In the big picture - no, it doesn't matter who lives and dies. It doesn't matter if one kills another. Once the guy is dead, he's just fine, consciousness remains. It's all the same thing - like a huge monster with a zillion appendages, losing one and gaining another. There is no good or bad attached to it, no moral judgment. This is a component of enlightenment. The dream in which we live, we have imposed morality. And there are consequences to our choices. You will sit in prison for a very long time if you kill another. And if you think of reincarnation as a possibility, then certainly the intent of the killing action will have consequence as to how you will return. It's neither good nor bad if you return as a worm. It just is. Even the idea of chloroform in print is adding a value judgment.

What an excellent point, Steve. And I must admit that I have wondered about my own isolation in recent years - how differently my life has shaken out to be in contrast to the abilities I once possessed - and yet I have to say that the deepest and most profound philosophical and spiritual growth has taken place during this time of non-movement and non-participation. I am often conflicted about this gap between 'what could have been' and 'what has turned out to be' - and yet, had I had a more adventurous life, the time and inclination for spiritual inquiry wouldn't have been needed. I burned out early, I guess. Life is odd.

I think there are two different ends of the spectrum. At one end is our sentient experience, the dream within which we have become fully engaged, the experience that has evolved to a societal code of conduct. This matter that we think we actually are, in reality, is a dream. Matter breaks down into atoms, atoms into the nothingness of ideation. For some unknown reason, we are the experiencers experiencing the experience in a mutual fashion. It is within this paradigm that such things as compassion and good and evil exist. The other end of the spectrum is the void. It is not linear, it's all here and now, it underlies all ideation and sense of what we think of as reality. It does not contain separation, and it does not care which of us lives and dies, as it is all the same thing anyway. It is the nothingness underlying potentiality. In this sense, things like compassion are not relevant. To use nature as a guide, nature is cruel in the sense that things eat and live on other things. Compassion in the wild is an aberration, perhaps a coincidence. I think we're talking about apples and oranges. Like quantum physics -we are both the particle and the wave. We are here and we are not here. We are all of it and we are none of it. In that sense, both aspects of morality are valid.

in so many ways the problem is underfoot worms have feelings too

straw dogs

exit, coming up leaving the forest below clarity at last

'of my dit da jow' total enigma to me I'll keep my Smooth Move

I think a good parallel in nature is a fish who grows according to the size of its container. It's the amount of space that's dictating the size of the fish.

Wow, CT - that was incredible. And then is it so that the Space (in which Time is inherent) is the very thing that provides the borders for which things may have their form? i.e. Why the atoms of, say a chair, don't just fly apart, and it stays in the form of a chair? That space in a way prohibits further expansion? If this is so, my guess is that what we might call 'intent' is contained within Space. The chair is a chair because there was an intent at one time for it to be a chair, and it remains in that form until Time works its magic on it, or there is an overriding intent for the chair to be turned into something else.

But maybe looking at it from the point of view of the maya of life, the rock is consciousness too, albeit insentient. And even if the rock is just sitting there, there is movement in even the slightest bit of erosion at any given moment. It seems analogous to there being no difference between the seer, the seeing, and the seen. It's all one action.

If this bullying thing is affecting her repeatedly, there is something there for her to work out. she may have to experience this over and over until she ceases the need to replay that which probably happened to her in a family situation long ago. Strangely, that victimization is actually a comfort zone for us - I call it our personal bathtub ring.

This is exactly why I think it is such a good time to Practice, at this point in history. So often I feel repugnance as my first instinct when turning on the news. And yet to feel the sentiment change from repugnance to compassion is to actually feel the heart soften - and the realization that it is yet just another aspect of Self.

Gotcha. The 10,000 dense cosmic vegetables float around in the cosmic soup, but the cosmic broth always remains crystal clear. It's about the space.

CT - I see where everyone is coming from. And I do remember the light of love at the beginning of this incarnation - before all the darkness started, the pain, the alcoholism. I see it more today as a lotus rising up from the mud to the pond surface. But yes, I do see where there is a return to light. I just needed reminding. I guess I was just putting it into too personal a context.

How can one be like the first if one started from darkness? Is that anything we have control over in this lifetime? Or am I reading this wrong?

(An excerpt from Vasistha's Yoga, translated by Swami Venkatesenanda) VISISTHA continued (speaking to Rama) The illusory notion of the existence of the mind, etc., persists only as long as the sublime realization of the truth is not experienced through the company of the wise, who are totally unattached, and as long as wickedness has not been weakened. As long as the experience of this world as a reality has not been shaken by the energy derived from the clear perception of the truth, so long the existence of the mind etc., seems to be self-evident. Such a notion continues as long as there is blind dependence, on account of craving for objective experience, and as long as there are wickedness and delusion as a consequence. But in the case of one who is not attracted by pleasure, whose heart is cool because of its purity and who has shattered the cage of desires, cravings and hopes, the deluded notion of the existence of the mind ceases to be. When he sees even his body as the deluded experience of a non-entity, how can a mind arise in him? He who has the vision of the infinite and into whose heart the world-appearance has merged, does not entertain the deluded notion of a jiva, etc. (P.S. I have gotten through my first reading of this 725 page tome. This I will read and reread again - it is one of those books that is seen through different eyes, different things are seen upon each reading - as consciousness is at a higher level every time the book is finished). Metaphysics at its very best.