manitou

Just to take a look at some mundane object in your house, or on your desk at work. To think of all the people and materials, including plants and minerals, that went into making it. To think of the families that were supported in the work. To think of the truck drivers who delivered the object to the docks. To think of the sailors on the ships and how it supports their families, how it puts their kids through college. To think of their daughter going to college, perhaps inventing a new cure for a disease. Oh yeah, and don't forget about the people who made the tires on the trucks that got the object to the docks; or the rubber plants and the men in the plantation there that made the tires. And ad infinitum. It's so beautiful.

Matrix is the operative word. Of forward, afterward, then, now, when.

backwards and forwards there's just no changing it now, it's already been

"New world trumps the old", oh please, let's hope there's no trump; no kindness, no love

of inattention the master guards against, but hope springs eternal

kept a watchful eye Boy Cat, eyeing his supper awaiting false move

In one of the countless books i've read, can't remember which, one thing has stuck with me: "All time and space is yours". This is a marvelous freedom, when this consciousness can be maintained. What's to fear, what's to have anxiety about, if we realize that yesterday, today, and tomorrow are happening simultaneously, in the now? That infers that all actions have already taken place, and we're just playing catch-up at any given time. And it explains the remnant of karma of our ancestors, handed down through the generations. It's still here, and it's still now. And to realize that all space is Here, that space is the container in which this illusion of a play is playing out, takes the anxiety out of that too. Whether we cross the room or cross the world makes no difference; it is all taking place within the same One Space. The same cosmic soup. sometimes I think our seeming 'reality' is in essence a weakened place, a bubble of air popping out on an inner tube; where Time and Space is just that little aberration of a bubble on the tube that appears as reality but really isn't....that space wouldn't be space without Time, and Time wouldn't be Time without space. Rather like the enigma of the particle and the wave within quantum physics. A particle takes up space, whereas a wave takes up time getting from point A to point B. And yet this duality is the basic building block of our existence, at least that we've found so far with the instruments of measurement that we currently have. And how strange that we must live within a philosophical duality as well. Having to live and function within this strange duality and yet our paths coming into awareness of Oneness at the same time, once the dross of this dual existence has been uncovered. Points of light, is a nice way to look at it. We're all points of the light of Essence, regardless of how covered with dross our wattage is. But sometimes when I'm out and about, I do visualize us all as points of light, some merging together, sometimes moving within a crowd - and knowing that it is all the same luminous light. Like little fireflies.... On a good day.

I often wonder if dementia isn't a gift granted to us later in life. As I watch myself, and in particular my mother, lapse into more and more forgetfulness, there arises a loss of clinging to memory, upon which to base assumption and the basis for further developed karma. The exception to this would be the paranoia that the elderly with dementia can sometimes develop; I see it in my mother. But she has never given a thought to the fact that her life has been a self created 'story'; once this is realized, then we can develop the control to not engage our stories, and in fact not create them in the first place. So her paranoia grows. But the good thing about it, is that a few minutes later she'll forget all about the thing she was paranoid about. I find myself telling myself several times during the day that 'this is just a story'. I tell myself that when I feel a loss of confidence, or a moment of fear about doing something. It takes all the fear or loss of confidence out of the situation - to realize that our attitudes about fear, or rejection, or judgment are just that - they are just stories, our attitudes. A constant mind-stream of a self-created life that is merely a lucid dream of our own projection. A dream within a dream. And now the Pokemon app has people looking down at their gizmos, walking all over the place looking for virtual critters on their little screens, being unaware of anything but what is happening on their device, and living in yet another virtual reality. A dream within a dream within a dream. Wow.

for reassurance living in the lucid dream wake up to the Now

some do it outdoors to maximize the effect to be praised by all

rest, observer...rest good and bad is illusion not cause for concern

white face paint helps; but different spin for other folks heavy hearted here

still phunology seems a most worthwhile pursuit for artists and mimes (This is getting ridiculous, lol)

some Phunology is Funology spelt wrong; better use of time

I just have to expand on this. I can't tell you how deeply this has affected me. Please forgive me for breaking the flow of this thread by introducing a personal story, but I think it is really pertinent here. It has to do with Service. Prior to our move to Ohio from Ojai, California about 8 years ago, I was a regular at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. I have been long time sober, it will be 35 years in December. Finding old-timers at AA meetings is somewhat of a rarity, and when you do find one, it is truly having a jewel in the room. Finding sobriety and beginning to work the inner dynamics of the 12 steps to recovery tends to place one's feet on this path that we are all on, here on this thread. When we moved to Ohio, I found that the meetings were a little too 'street' for my tastes, and we both stopped going. No harm done as far as our own sobriety, but I realized today, after 9th's post, that I have not been Of Service the way I used to be when I was going to meetings, giving back to the structure that had placed my feet on this path that leads to enlightenment. But it was after reading the above post that I realized just how much was missing from my life. My sense of purpose has been missing; yes, life has been good, I've been close to nature, I've been gardening, reading - but not giving back. It's as though all the blessings that were given to me by those who were there for me when I first got sober have been dammed up inside, not free flowing. I realized this the moment I read 9th's post. His words shot me like an arrow in the heart. I went down to the AA meeting house in town today, but there was nobody there, probably because it was July 4th. Because I didn't sleep well last night, I took a nap when I got back. I had an incredible lucid dream of my beautiful red Arabian horse, Tango, that I used to own and ride in Ojai. She had escaped her corral, the gate was open; but I heard her hoofbeats in the distance and sure enough she came running up to me, rubbing me with her chest. I could smell her in my dream; I could feel the warmth of her under my hand on her back. the funny thing is, she always hated having a bridle put on her. She would toss her head around and hated anybody touching her ears. But in my dream, my beautiful lucid dream, she put her head down and offered her head to me, actually opening her mouth for the bit to go in; I had no problem getting the strap over her ears, she gently allowed it. I just now realized that my horse is a representation of AA for me. She is my conveyance, my way to open the dam and let the Service return. The stage is all set for me - how simple! how wonderful! And for me to think that the meeting back here were 'too street' for my tastes? Please. Give me a break. It's not like I was any beautiful smelling rose when I walked through those doors 34 years ago. I am excited about this. I just want to go, sit there, allow healing presence, return to my roots. although I have thanked you in a PM, 9th, I thank you again here - for seeing what needed to be seen, and shooting an arrow that totally landed and hit its mark on the first shot. Service.

Thanks for the link, CT. That explains the 3 dimensional black and white bubbles.

Wow, 9th. Nice! thank you! the tumblers clicked into place on that one. (P.S. If time is the musician's canvas, elimination of potentiality is the modality)

CT - I'm only about 35 minutes in, but he mentioned a word something like 'miniters' or minitars just before he approached speaking of the Jhanas. What are those? Is it a phase of meditation? Edit: I just finished listening to the talk. E ma ho. How wonderful! It brings to mind a moment I remember, when I was maybe 8 years old, walking home from maybe the second grade in school in Hollywood. I remember stopping on a square of cement, staring down at the cement, and losing the world for a moment. All I could think was, 'my soul is tired'. What an odd thing for an 8 year old to think. My entire life has been in pursuit of the Truth, even in my chosen profession. That memory creates for me a link from there to here, how it's all been really the same dynamic. The continuation of the cycle, and how tired my soul is, and wanting it to stop. I wonder about the purpose of this, as though this is a question that can be answered. About why us beings are put into this strange life of phenomena, wherein transcending phenomena seems to be the desired result. What for? Is it, as he says, to come back, after peeling one's self through the Jhanas, to have a different perspective on life and being, as the tadpole who sprouts legs and leaves the pond for the first time, to realize what water is; to know what wetness finally is? BTW, would that be boddacitta, the moment in time where the frog is confused, has jumped onto land for the first time, and is totally open to impression, prior to conclusion? What's the point, I ask myself often? We are, at our center, perfection. Conditioning changes all that. Why must we develop will and conditioning, only to learn to lose it to return to what we had in the beginning? He says we are reborn because we want to be reborn, because we have Will to be reborn. The question that recurs is Why? Is life merely evolving? Is that the point? Evolution, and nothing more? Is love the purpose? As he says in his talk, "May all beings be happy and well". What a perfect point in time for us to practice this. In this age of instantaneous communication, where we can see and judge what is going on in all corners of the world, and even more imminently in our upcoming presidential election - how difficult it is to cut loose of opinion and judgment, particularly of those high profile people in our political circles. I cannot believe that so many people appear to be so blind, and yet that is such a judgmental thing for me to say or think. "May all beings be happy and well". What a challenge, to merge our inner life with our outer life at this point in time - to walk our talk, to not judge, to be willing to give up Will, as he so succinctly put in his lecture. To just be happy to let things go as they are going to go. I get comfort in knowing that the 3 times are Now in actuality, and that all this has already occurred, in a sense. that there is nothing to get aggravated over. I waffle between the two. And yet, if peace is to be re-found, this is what must be done. When I am in a place of peace, I realize that I am but a point of awareness moving through space; much as the spark plug is the point of awareness moving through space with a car around it. And from what he is saying, at the end of the Jhana journey, even Awareness has dissolved. And then there is a return? Is that what he is saying? Is that the point where the perspective has fully changed? Is it replaced with joy of being? Is that the point of all of it? Or is pointlessness the point?

at least I can taste, how long my soul had to yearn this moment in time

Make it sweet this time cooked with a little chutney they taste like chicken

changing from negative energy into positive energy in my opinion is a crowning achievement of a lifetime. A lifetime is not wasted, we have danced with whom we have come here to dance.

I double dare you to see these snakes as mere space they will not harm you

Do these things matter? Only to ones with senses on this dual plane

No limits? "maybe". Duality in action as the mind concludes

rainbow in a jar wants to be set free in space no limits to self