manitou

".....we no longer neglect to integrate our knowledge with our actual existence." I love that.

What a perfect message Lama Lena has. That anything new, outside of self; anything born, anything created, will deteriorate, will not last. That the only thing that is true is that which is within, our perfect nature. It always comes back to that warm, living, breathing thing inside of us that does not age. And to remember that not only I, but you as well, and all sentient beings assumedly, have this same warm, living, breathing thing inside us that does not age. On that, and that alone, can we depend. My first experience with this odd phenomena was very mundane and yet very profound at the same time. I had just gotten sober 34 years ago, and I was expounding my fears to a woman who was to become my sponsor. I realize today that she was probably close to being an enlightened one, if not an enlightened being altogether. I look back at her wisdom today and I am astounded; I was not ready for it at the time and I'm afraid I missed much. But I was going on and on about how fearful I was because my pension hearing was coming up; if I didn't get a service-connected disability pension, I didn't know what I was going to do. I was a torrent of words and tears. She kept calmly asking me, 'Yes, but how are you today?' I didn't hear it the first 2 or 3 times she said it. Finally, the words seeped through my dramatic diatribe. I stopped abruptly, and broke out laughing. I could physically feel the reverse dynamic of all that fear and drama I was putting out there, and it swooped back to a place inside of me - in the period of maybe 2 seconds - and I realized that I was just fine in the Here and Now. It was warm, it was timeless, it was within me. It was quite dramatic, and I've never forgotten it. This, perhaps, was my first exposure to Dhogzhen, without realizing it. But it was that moment that I fully realized the being-ness within that Lama Lena was talking about.

Hi Sonia - welcome to the Bums, and I look forward to your participation on the threads. I hope you enjoy your time here as much as I have. Manitou

Hi vessel - so glad you remembered that we're here! I look forward to your participation on the threads. Welcome! Manitou

Hi Kiwi - so glad you've joined us. Yes, it is generally a really nice atmosphere here, with rare exception. A nice civil community. Do enjoy your time here, and I look forward to your participation. Manitou

You are such a free spirit, CT - totally unconstrained by even a line of conversation. Thank you for the link to the information on the island of Saaramaa, lol.

I would be real tempted to go to this. But sleeping has been difficult for me with the Prozac thing - plus trying to wean off the sleepers as well. Do you think this would be a hindrance to getting benefit from this retreat? although when I was doing the practices in Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's book on Dream Yoga, I was visualizing the tigles at the forehead, throat, heart, etc. But that was before I stopped using the many sleepers. My dreams were incredible, and there was an awareness of being The Dreamer. I can only imagine how powerful this practice would be without the sleeping pills. I'm down to just one now, and it lets me sleep until 2:30 AM. Although last night, I slept till 5:30 - first time since going off the Anacin PM's to lengthen the sleep time. So there is progress. To go to that retreat, that would be, well, a dream. Rats. I just looked at the date again. I was thinking July when I first saw it. Can't do it in June.

The Beginner's Minds Anonymous meeting is at 8:00 tomorrow.

What an incredibly wonderful article, CT. "Experiencing sukha – the liberated and liberating joy of letting go that rises from within – facilitates the experience of mudita, which can be thought of as a combination of intending that others might experience that same innate joy rising within themselves, and taking delight in the recognition of that joy when you see it in others." This seems to be a nice, useful tool to use during the day. How often, when we're caught up in a maelstrom of our own bad feelings, does the joy of another irritate us? Rather, to convert the observation of the other's positive energy and joy to something useful to ourselves, contagious even, seems to be a way to convert any negativity we may be caught up in. "......of realizing that beyond all the busy-ness of self-creation and even of the busy-ness of all religious rituals and spiritual practices, there is ultimately nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to be. To fully integrate this, that there is ultimately nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to be - seems to me to be the essence of the practice. It is so easy to know these things intellectually - and yet our own feelings and demeanor belie the truth of our own essence. To know that 'there is no one to be' shouldn't be looked at as a dualistic goal - and yet - if one must, what a worthy one! I look forward to the joy that is my birthright, and the absence of any free-floating anxiety that can sneak up on me. In the meantime, may I borrow the joy of those around me. May i borrow the energy of the young child running down the aisle of the supermarket. And may we all live in the spaces between the words, between the thoughts, between the matter.

i've also noticed that being mindful of spaciousness is a great energy saver. When the concept of total space is kept in mind, there is no tension for some reason. There is no 'oh, I have to do this now'. It is merely staying in awareness that all we really have is space, and that it is unlimited. Our actions are unlimited, as though there is no differentiation between doing this or doing that. I've discovered that my own hesitations are my worst enemy in this regard - that the inner dialogue of even the slightest negativity about 'having' to do something is an energy robber. It makes no difference whether we are doing this or doing that. This is just impossible to put into words. I just figured out what it is. To stay within spaciousness also seems to serve to remove the crunch of Time, for some reason. I'm guessing they're joined at the hip.

Don't thank me. Thank Lao Tzu there's a time and a season for everything in our lives. If your passion lies with becoming very good at something and achieving wealth and fame at the same time, then that's the season for doing it. Being truly human is to engage the passions of our hearts. The passions change with the seasons of our lives. Go for it.

Not relative love, of a specific individual. Love in one's attitude toward everything, that which replaces egoic thought and action. The Sage, because of his lack of excessive ego, dwells in a type of love, bliss, or joy. This is the end result of hammering down excessive ego. Never too much - moderation, not hoarding for self, not amassing stuff to excess. Being happy with what you have (this is very contrary to Western thought, obviously). It just depends on how much you want it, as to how much you're willing to eschew; lust for things, for wealth, for success (in Western terms), for fame, etc. Never be the first - real helpful when you're in traffic and someone wants to cut in front of you, as an example. Let them go first, squash your own ego. Let someone ahead of you in line. Just day to day stuff is where you start, it takes off from there. Personally, I use all 3 of these as a mantra. The Love thing has nothing to do with a relationship with another, although it certainly does include all our relationships. It's the love that has replaced service to Self - it's been replaced by service to Others. and the end result of all this is true Humility. I fall short often, although not as much as I used to. It gets better the more one practices. I guess I could say the Three Treasures are my 'practice'. We need enough ego to stay out of oncoming traffic. Obviously, it's necessary for self preservation. Everything beyond that is subject to our desire to walk the Path. Less is more. Just depends on what you want out of this whole enchilada. To me, it's a passion. To another, maybe a pastime.

Hi JohnSherk - real nice to have you here. I look forward to seeing you on the threads. Manitou

what an interesting statement. No striving for you. Naxt!

LOL. Sorry, folks. I won't bring it up again. Let's remain dual.

Please forgive me for one more time derailing this with specific talk of a particular problem. I'll be finished here real soon, I promise. The above quote speaks of two levels: the relative, and the absolute. At the relative level, time is linear, as I see it. Steve had pet and ct scans done prior to our ceremony yesterday and this morning. It would not make sense, at the relative level, that the ceremony would have affected anything, as the testing had already been done. Both the pet scan and the ct scan results came back all clear this afternoon. No nodes or organs affected. At the absolute level, however, time is not linear. It is Present only. Is it too mind boggling to think a ceremony could be effective retroactively, at the absolute level? I don't know. But maybe Schroedinger's cat would. Could different dimensions come into play if a ceremony is done within the framework of the absolute level, wherein the words are spoken that time is not linear, that the Awareness of the Nowness is brought into the ceremony? We'll never know. He is meeting with the two foremost melanoma specialists in the country next week. The melanoma, according to the initial finding, was 'in transit'. More to come, no doubt there will be treatment. But I'm a very happy camper at this moment. Ceremony or no ceremony, it appears that my brother will be fine. There is more metaphysical stuff that I didn't mention earlier, too extensive to go into here, that was brought into the ceremony. The melanoma was the changing of shape and color of a birthmark that he has had since, well, birth. Two things at play with that; 1) he is scared to death to see blood, particularly his own, and 2) he despises the fact that his father was born a 'bastard' (his word) because his father's mother wasn't married. This goes to 'bloodline'. All of this was brought into the ceremony too. It's an ancestral resentment that runs very deep within him, given to him by our father. Lots of 'blood stuff' here.

I'd start with what's in front of you. Find your part in any disagreement or rough edges in a relationship - don't be afraid to find out just how much we're controlled by ego. Look for your part in it, be brutally honest with self. This is called developing what some would call a 'Christ consciousness' (not in a religious sense, but in a transcendent sense) My rule of thumb is in Lin Yutang's translation of the Dao De Jing, where he describes the 3 Treasures of the Sage. 1. never too much 2. never be the first 3. love This can always be held up as a mirror to ourselves, to see where we fall short. #1 and #2 go directly to diminishing ego; once that is done, #3 is there in its place. Unconditional, nonjudgmental love for all sentient life - even non-sentient phenomena.

My guess is, it'll lead you right back into Self, where you started, lol.

I've experienced a shift inside the past several days since thinking more about Space. About a week ago I listened several times to a CD by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, 'Sacred Space, the Practice of Inner Stillness'. For some reason I've been subsequently focused not only on the space within my own body and own thoughts, but also the space of the universe as being All One - with distance being only an illusion, as is the phenomena contained within. It is the Space that is the Real. This seems to have the subtle effect of making one feel 'at home' regardless of wherever we are in Space - here, there, or anywhere. This can be put to use in healings as well - Time and Space are Now and Here; and the sequence of things doesn't make any difference at all. It occurred to me this morning that I should have strained the 'blood' in the ceremony yesterday, that I had missed an important component in the ceremony. And then the thought came to me that I could just as easily do it today; to use a strainer (I still have the pure water sitting in front of Steve's picture, with the flowers in it), and I will put the strained water into the recirculating pond. The symbolism is complete; the metaphysical is brought down to the physical. the strained and cleaned blood recirculates through his system as the water circulates through the pump and beautiful fountain. It doesn't matter whether this is done today, tomorrow, or yesterday. It's not linear at all.

Hi AcEs - glad you found your way to us. This is a nice, informative site with lots of friendly people. Enjoy your time here. Manitou

The ceremony was beautiful. I had a statue of Flower Glow (my resident boddhisatva) sitting on the table in the gazebo. There was a red candle lit on his/her lap. The symbolism came to me, in the form of some weed killer (the poisonous kind) that Joe had put on the floor of the gazebo. I put a drop of that in a vial of water, symbolizing the 'bad' blood in Steve. I had another vial of clear water with flowers in it, symbolizing the 'good blood' that Steve will have/has now. I pricked my own finger with a pin and placed a drop of my own blood (the blood of my brother) in each vial. I also have a tree in the yard whose name is Flower Glow as well. It is a dogwood. I took an old leaf off this tree and placed it in the vial with the poison, saying during the ceremony that Flower Glow was 'spilling his blood' for Steve, just as I was. At that precise moment, the red candle overflowed onto the front of the statue, and down onto the table in the gazebo. Joe and I were both astounded at the synchronicity. It looked just like blood spilling. I also took a young set of leaves and placed it in the good vial; both Joe and I took a drink from the good vial with the drop of blood in it. We did several other things having to do with Steve's heart being walled off for so long, and his propensity for judgment. We burned a piece of paper with the words 'Judgment toward others', Judgment of self, Non-forgiveness, written on the paper. This we burned during the ceremony. The words that were posted on this thread this morning were central to the ceremony. We did a couple other things as well having to do with smashing a mirror (Steve's reliance on his image to others, which is real important to him). All the remnants of these things - the mirror, the bad blood, the burned words of judgment - all these were buried up at the top of our property. Flower glow was in attendance at all of this. I have a warm glow in my heart, ever since the ceremony. Results are to be expected. His heart can awaken Just Like That. Time and Space are all Here and Now, and it was in that awareness that the ceremony was performed.

I needed this this morning. I am just preparing to do a healing ceremony for my brother, who I just found out last night has stage 3b melanoma skin cancer, which has gotten into his blood (myeloma) My head is in a spin, there are so many reasons why he could be manifesting this. Death is tapping him on the shoulder, looking him in the face. He has been walled off from others since he was young, the pressure for perfection put so heavily upon him. In my moment of vulnerability, bothhichatta may emerge to find the right symbolism, as it may suddenly emerge in him as he stares this in the face. He walks around expecting to be attacked; he labels people as enemies and does not ever forgive. it is these things which I will address in a symbolic ceremony; a ceremony performed in Awareness that we are all One Mind, and all Time is here and now. May his heart awaken, and my heart awaken and See what needs to be brought from the metaphysical to the physical to try and reverse this lifelong imprint. Stranger things have happened. These words by Pema Chodron will be central to this ceremony this morning, out in my beautiful gazebo next to the pond. Please send your kind and loving thoughts to my brother Steve as he goes through this painful time in his life. This is the first painful thing of this nature he has ever had to face. His life, to this point, has been seeming 'perfection'. It seems the piper has shown up to be paid.

Aaaah. The chimney swifts are back. I do believe, if I have a favorite bird, this is it. Their aerial displays of constant twittering back and forth up high in the sky at dusk and dawn bring joy to my heart. Now, some will accuse me of anthropomorphizing on this, but I prefer to believe that they are not twittering about where the herds of insects are. Or is it prides? Instead, I prefer to think that they are communicating things like 'Hey! Come check out this updraft! It's a really cool ride' They fly like the most joyful of birds. They fly with what appears to be the balls-out joy of just flying. Their twittering is easy to miss, the aerial display is easy to miss, unless one's ears are attuned to waiting for them. They fly so high. Please. No one tell me that they're just out catching food in their wild little flutterings and their erratic flight patterns. Don't tell me they're not just joyfully swooping around on the wind currents, just for the sheer joy of it. Don't be a killdeer.

Yes, the cardinals do have the high pitched cheep thing. But they also have the purdy purdy purdy. I talk back to them all the time, doing the same thing. If he does it 4 times, I do it back 4 times, and ad infinitum The birdie switches up the amount of times he says it. Usually it's a gardening morning. It can go on forever.

Yankees: Pretty, pretty, pretty Rebels: Purdy, purdy, purdy