Long one . From Jon Kary's blog , circa 04 July 2007
Friday, December 22, 2006
Six
An increasing emphasis on security leads to an increase in perceived danger and it is that artificial and manufactured perception which creates the opening for genuine threat. Radical acts of self-protection create the very threat which they profess to protect against. The multitude of self-beneficial sins committed by the elite are most effectively covered and excused under a veil of security. Those in power know that misdirection of popular attention is the best way to distract from and cover over the truth- the most effective distraction is fear, particularly the fear of immanent danger to oneself. Fear is exhausting and leaves little energy left to desire to discover the hidden truth. In fact, put a person in a state of chronic fear and they will create a veil of denial for themselves through which nothing but the most obvious and disastrous truth can pass, and by then it is often too late. Once this veil of denial is lowered one loses the will to know the truth at all because belief in the illusions and lies that they are given is far more easy. Today the difference between democracy and oligarchy is so filmy as to hardly exist. Democracy as practiced has become merely imperialism behind a facade of illusory freedom. Both systems are now different versions of the many serving the few. The task of the elite is to cultivate sedation and despair in the populace so that they can then exercise absolute power with no accountability or responsibility for the consequences of their actions at all. This is what most threatens our survival: the conditioned mind's preference for lies over the truth and for illusion over reality.
From the seeds of desire grow the fruits of suffering.
Love can be found even to the lower limits of matter in the physical principle of entanglement: once joined, two particles of matter are forever linked and one changes as the other does when the other does no matter the breadth of distance between them once separated. For what is love but quite simply a state of entanglement between entities and forever after their identities are mutually defined and what happens to the one profoundly affects the other. Their bond has no limits in time or space; it transcends them both and is weakened by nothing for it is best defined by its negation or transcendence of the isolation that causes weakness. Love is most matured in humanity and as a consequence its absence is felt therein most profoundly. Love is found intrinsic to every part and particle of existence. Love is the place where flaws bloom into perfection in the light of unconditional acceptance.
Strength is relative to how much a person is willing to expose themselves to.
Politics was originally intended to be a method for fulfilling the needs and health of a populace. However what it has become fulfills the opposite intention: it provides a way for an elite to cover truth with lies in an effort to acquire power at the expense of the populace.
While experiences may vary among individuals and in both their objective and subjective aspects help to comprise and define identity, the Quality or One Taste of Experience itself remains the same and is a unifying thread all along the entire spectrum of Consciousness. This shows us how individual minds arise from and are linked through the medium of Universal Mind, and also where: beneath and within the interaction between the object of experience and the one who experiences it.
There is a difference between intrinsic and extrinsic meaning, that is, meaning which is applied and meaning which is discovered. Both are important, so acknowledging the validity of only one of these faces of meaning exclusively is deeply flawed. In terms of value it must be stated that discovered meaning is more significant as it is the least related to individual will and personal identity. Discovered meaning is that which exists within a manifest thing due to its relationship with Universal Being and is only known fully when an individual sufficiently transcends exclusive identification with the egoic self.
Where there is deep affection and authentic attraction there is the probability of greatness. One of the profound directives of life is to never pass by an opportunity for greatness without engaging it. Not greatness of power or glory but the greatness which flowers out of the interaction between sacrifice and relationship.
It is one of life's most frustrating and perplexing paradoxes that we must be prepared, even willing, to be unhappy in order to eventually reach fulfillment. If we are not willing to live through unhappiness then it is most likely that we will make a habit of suppressing and avoiding truths about ourselves and the world around us in preference for delusion. This avoidance of truth is what leads to enduring suffering.
There is no such thing as a perfect decision; one which guarantees no negative or unpleasant result. The choices we are given will all produce difficulty in some proportion. Our task in choosing a path in any endeavor is to travel the one with the greatest opportunity for growth. Our perpetuating confusion in times of decision most often comes from our irrational desire for a path which is entirely without flaw or difficulty. Such a path does not exist. The search for that which does not exist- this is a source of enduring suffering.
In the reigning scientific paradigm, 'rightness' is determined by how effectively a way or method or technology can manipulate or control environments. Any standard of 'rightness' must be derived from how effectively a given way or method produces wholeness and peace. With genetic technology we manipulate the very building blocks of biological life without sufficient regard for the consequences of our actions beyond the technology's ability to grant us power when we should be first examining our intentions to be sure that what we do is for the ultimate peace of one and all. We convince ourselves that with greater power, happiness will automatically come to be. However, the alleviation of suffering is not primarily dependent upon one's level of power but upon one's purity of intention. With greater power comes the need for greater responsibility. When power and responsibility are out of proportion the level of danger increases. Power in the presence of a deficit of responsibility tends toward chaos and destruction. Power is a tool and responsibility the hand that is meant to wield it.
"Through knowledge of the Self comes knowledge of the Universe."
Gentleness and kindness compose but one part of love. The most significant part, but a part nonetheless. In love there is a time for discipline and criticism, which is tempered by kindness. Love must be expressed in all its aspects otherwise it is in danger of descending into attachment.
America has become the perfect hypocrite: condemning others for what it has done, and on a far more grand scale.
The current trend in social responsibility is to do just enough to appear to be contributing to significant change yet not actually doing so. To contribute to significant change toward healing our environment or our society we must be willing to sacrifice some part of ourselves or what we think we are entitled to for the benefit of another. As long as selfishness is rewarded by society and its institutions, healing cannot begin and destruction will continue. Either we sacrifice the demand for the complete satisfaction of our desires for goodness sake and die to the egoic self or this billion-year experiment called human life will come to a sure and decisive end.
Wisdom is in experiencing the truth of Oneness and compassion is in serving that truth with all of one's heart.
The basis for any effective system of ethics must be founded in the practice of modifying intention rather than in trying to determine which behaviors to encourage and which to restrict. Authentic change must be made from the inside out.
"What you don't know can't hurt you" is without a doubt the least correct adage ever devised. Ignorance is the most harmful force in the universe.
We have spent the last several billion years evolving to the awakened potential of humanity. In the last few hundred years or so, especially in this century and more rapidly as time progresses, we have managed to erase much of this progress living our lives primarily from our basest nature and therefore mostly asleep.
One cannot achieve closure for one relationship by beginning another. This is one of the most important principles of relationship dynamics and unfortunately the one most frequently disregarded.
Learn to rest in the silence between the notes. In this way the music of one's life remains beautiful and serene.
It is unfortunate that on the grand scale things have gone so far down the destructive path that we may not be able to make enough of a difference to turn the tide. There is too much strength aligned against us. But there are small and quiet, even if too infrequent, victories and they are not all erased by the dark presence of tyranny and grotesque power. Some endure. Some have barely seen effects that only become evident far down the line of history, in generations to come. It is perhaps possible that these small changes will eventually reach a critical mass together that will be just enough to awaken the world to just the right kind of revolution that is needed for us to survive.
Depression is in essence a habitual over-indulgence in the self. Traditional psychotherapy is ultimately an inappropriate and ineffective treatment regime because it also becomes over time an over-indulgence of self-reflection and therefore comes to reinforce the condition it professes and attempts to alleviate. Since depression is an over-indulgence on selfness, only that which directs the attention outside of the restrictive self boundary can be ultimately effective as a treatment. Therefore altruism and loving-kindness must be an integral part of any treatment modality intended to alleviate neurosis.
While personal technology is accepted and advertised as a means of convenience to lift the burden of overwhelming responsibility from our shoulders, it actually comes to serve the opposite end: such devises add to the stresses of life by justifying the application of increasing demand on us and also supports the craving for accumulation. As personal technology advances, more of our intrinsic cognitive abilities are being externalized, such as memory and associative skill, thereby cultivating a dependency on technology as our natural abilities atrophy due to lack of use.
There is an ever-widening gap between truth and the public perception of truth to the point that there is a high probability in many cases that the one is the photographic negative of the other and it is somewhat reasonable and safe to assume their opposing nature. In consideration of this, it is important to emphasize the necessity for developing and maintaining the skill of limited skepticism. Without a healthy degree of skepticism we will fall into the self-perpetuating trap that most have: believing what one is told, what is most easy to obtain and that which lies on the surface as the truth beyond doubt rather than searching beneath the surface and behind the screen to make sure that there is agreement between the popular model of the truth and the truth itself. At the same time one must possess a sufficient amount of faith to balance one's skepticism. Too much skepticism and one will be incapable of receiving the truth when one comes into contact with it. No matter how much evidence one is presented with, it cannot persuade one who is not open. But too much faith and one will be likely to accept whatever one is given or is most readily available or most comforting without sufficient consideration, and this is what we have today: a tendency among the populace to an extreme measure of faith in the packaged representation of current affairs. It is ironic that we are in so many ways professing ourselves as paragons of reason so distant from 'the dark days of faith' when the common mind that so judges is deficient in the very critical faculty that defines reason. I can only imagine this to be the kind of self-deception that occurs when one represses a truth that they are ill-prepared or unwilling to face.
From the seeds of desire grow the fruits of suffering.
Love can be found even to the lower limits of matter in the physical principle of entanglement: once joined, two particles of matter are forever linked and one changes as the other does when the other does no matter the breadth of distance between them once separated. For what is love but quite simply a state of entanglement between entities and forever after their identities are mutually defined and what happens to the one profoundly affects the other. Their bond has no limits in time or space; it transcends them both and is weakened by nothing for it is best defined by its negation or transcendence of the isolation that causes weakness. Love is most matured in humanity and as a consequence its absence is felt therein most profoundly. Love is found intrinsic to every part and particle of existence. Love is the place where flaws bloom into perfection in the light of unconditional acceptance.
Strength is relative to how much a person is willing to expose themselves to.
Politics was originally intended to be a method for fulfilling the needs and health of a populace. However what it has become fulfills the opposite intention: it provides a way for an elite to cover truth with lies in an effort to acquire power at the expense of the populace.
While experiences may vary among individuals and in both their objective and subjective aspects help to comprise and define identity, the Quality or One Taste of Experience itself remains the same and is a unifying thread all along the entire spectrum of Consciousness. This shows us how individual minds arise from and are linked through the medium of Universal Mind, and also where: beneath and within the interaction between the object of experience and the one who experiences it.
There is a difference between intrinsic and extrinsic meaning, that is, meaning which is applied and meaning which is discovered. Both are important, so acknowledging the validity of only one of these faces of meaning exclusively is deeply flawed. In terms of value it must be stated that discovered meaning is more significant as it is the least related to individual will and personal identity. Discovered meaning is that which exists within a manifest thing due to its relationship with Universal Being and is only known fully when an individual sufficiently transcends exclusive identification with the egoic self.
Where there is deep affection and authentic attraction there is the probability of greatness. One of the profound directives of life is to never pass by an opportunity for greatness without engaging it. Not greatness of power or glory but the greatness which flowers out of the interaction between sacrifice and relationship.
It is one of life's most frustrating and perplexing paradoxes that we must be prepared, even willing, to be unhappy in order to eventually reach fulfillment. If we are not willing to live through unhappiness then it is most likely that we will make a habit of suppressing and avoiding truths about ourselves and the world around us in preference for delusion. This avoidance of truth is what leads to enduring suffering.
There is no such thing as a perfect decision; one which guarantees no negative or unpleasant result. The choices we are given will all produce difficulty in some proportion. Our task in choosing a path in any endeavor is to travel the one with the greatest opportunity for growth. Our perpetuating confusion in times of decision most often comes from our irrational desire for a path which is entirely without flaw or difficulty. Such a path does not exist. The search for that which does not exist- this is a source of enduring suffering.
In the reigning scientific paradigm, 'rightness' is determined by how effectively a way or method or technology can manipulate or control environments. Any standard of 'rightness' must be derived from how effectively a given way or method produces wholeness and peace. With genetic technology we manipulate the very building blocks of biological life without sufficient regard for the consequences of our actions beyond the technology's ability to grant us power when we should be first examining our intentions to be sure that what we do is for the ultimate peace of one and all. We convince ourselves that with greater power, happiness will automatically come to be. However, the alleviation of suffering is not primarily dependent upon one's level of power but upon one's purity of intention. With greater power comes the need for greater responsibility. When power and responsibility are out of proportion the level of danger increases. Power in the presence of a deficit of responsibility tends toward chaos and destruction. Power is a tool and responsibility the hand that is meant to wield it.
"Through knowledge of the Self comes knowledge of the Universe."
Gentleness and kindness compose but one part of love. The most significant part, but a part nonetheless. In love there is a time for discipline and criticism, which is tempered by kindness. Love must be expressed in all its aspects otherwise it is in danger of descending into attachment.
America has become the perfect hypocrite: condemning others for what it has done, and on a far more grand scale.
The current trend in social responsibility is to do just enough to appear to be contributing to significant change yet not actually doing so. To contribute to significant change toward healing our environment or our society we must be willing to sacrifice some part of ourselves or what we think we are entitled to for the benefit of another. As long as selfishness is rewarded by society and its institutions, healing cannot begin and destruction will continue. Either we sacrifice the demand for the complete satisfaction of our desires for goodness sake and die to the egoic self or this billion-year experiment called human life will come to a sure and decisive end.
Wisdom is in experiencing the truth of Oneness and compassion is in serving that truth with all of one's heart.
The basis for any effective system of ethics must be founded in the practice of modifying intention rather than in trying to determine which behaviors to encourage and which to restrict. Authentic change must be made from the inside out.
"What you don't know can't hurt you" is without a doubt the least correct adage ever devised. Ignorance is the most harmful force in the universe.
We have spent the last several billion years evolving to the awakened potential of humanity. In the last few hundred years or so, especially in this century and more rapidly as time progresses, we have managed to erase much of this progress living our lives primarily from our basest nature and therefore mostly asleep.
One cannot achieve closure for one relationship by beginning another. This is one of the most important principles of relationship dynamics and unfortunately the one most frequently disregarded.
Learn to rest in the silence between the notes. In this way the music of one's life remains beautiful and serene.
It is unfortunate that on the grand scale things have gone so far down the destructive path that we may not be able to make enough of a difference to turn the tide. There is too much strength aligned against us. But there are small and quiet, even if too infrequent, victories and they are not all erased by the dark presence of tyranny and grotesque power. Some endure. Some have barely seen effects that only become evident far down the line of history, in generations to come. It is perhaps possible that these small changes will eventually reach a critical mass together that will be just enough to awaken the world to just the right kind of revolution that is needed for us to survive.
Depression is in essence a habitual over-indulgence in the self. Traditional psychotherapy is ultimately an inappropriate and ineffective treatment regime because it also becomes over time an over-indulgence of self-reflection and therefore comes to reinforce the condition it professes and attempts to alleviate. Since depression is an over-indulgence on selfness, only that which directs the attention outside of the restrictive self boundary can be ultimately effective as a treatment. Therefore altruism and loving-kindness must be an integral part of any treatment modality intended to alleviate neurosis.
While personal technology is accepted and advertised as a means of convenience to lift the burden of overwhelming responsibility from our shoulders, it actually comes to serve the opposite end: such devises add to the stresses of life by justifying the application of increasing demand on us and also supports the craving for accumulation. As personal technology advances, more of our intrinsic cognitive abilities are being externalized, such as memory and associative skill, thereby cultivating a dependency on technology as our natural abilities atrophy due to lack of use.
There is an ever-widening gap between truth and the public perception of truth to the point that there is a high probability in many cases that the one is the photographic negative of the other and it is somewhat reasonable and safe to assume their opposing nature. In consideration of this, it is important to emphasize the necessity for developing and maintaining the skill of limited skepticism. Without a healthy degree of skepticism we will fall into the self-perpetuating trap that most have: believing what one is told, what is most easy to obtain and that which lies on the surface as the truth beyond doubt rather than searching beneath the surface and behind the screen to make sure that there is agreement between the popular model of the truth and the truth itself. At the same time one must possess a sufficient amount of faith to balance one's skepticism. Too much skepticism and one will be incapable of receiving the truth when one comes into contact with it. No matter how much evidence one is presented with, it cannot persuade one who is not open. But too much faith and one will be likely to accept whatever one is given or is most readily available or most comforting without sufficient consideration, and this is what we have today: a tendency among the populace to an extreme measure of faith in the packaged representation of current affairs. It is ironic that we are in so many ways professing ourselves as paragons of reason so distant from 'the dark days of faith' when the common mind that so judges is deficient in the very critical faculty that defines reason. I can only imagine this to be the kind of self-deception that occurs when one represses a truth that they are ill-prepared or unwilling to face.
posted by Jon @ 2:48 PM 0 comments
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Five
It is precisely the vivid realism of dreams and their power to convince the mind that indicates their value and as well the illusory nature of 'reality'. One is not more authentic or substantial than the other for they both share quality and the weight of observing experience between them. Dreams and the waking world are the light and shadow of the realm of Mind.
If addressed with the question, "What would you do if you knew your death to be immanent?", many people would give an answer describing their personal image of ultimate, yet still somewhat accessible, fulfillment in an attempt to fully appreciate life in the time that remained. As it is we know not when the moment of our death will come. Given this truth the only sensible way to live is to live fully every moment as if it was our last...The most fulfilling way to live is to live every moment present and awake that when we die we will die in serenity and not regret.
"If you put someone in a position of being disabled by not feeding them, or not allowing them to sleep, or overwhelming them with sound, if you use massive shock treatment and you give people massive doses of drugs such as PCP or Mescaline or LSD or Amphetamines and if you put them in periods of darkness where they can't predict from one moment to the next what is going to happen so they are always dreading, there's no consistency in what's going to happen, any body can be put into a position of being open to brainwashing ('To indoctrinate so intensively and thoroughly as to effect a radical transformation of beliefs and mental attitudes.')"
-Dr. Harvey Weinstein, social psychologist, UC Berkeley.
Notes on real-world correlates to factors of brainwashing present in modern society:
1. a. decreased nutritional value of food due to genetic manipulation, soil degradation and pollution caused by over-production and fertilization toxicity, water and air pollution, etc.
b. promotion of poor food choices with low nutritional value and high quantity of detrimental additives and molecules such as manipulated sugars (high fructose corn syrup) and artificial sweeteners (aspartame, Splenda, sucralose, Nutrasweet), saturated fats, carcinogens, phosphates and nitrates, etc.
c. due to a busier and stressful lifestyle people increasingly seek escape by making the more harmful yet more convenient choices of diet, such as those based on fast-food.
2. Sleep- and rest-depravation are increasingly pandemic and chronic among the populace. Several factors contribute to this:
a. quantity of sleep is decreased by an increase in the manufactured craving for material wealth and the correlative increase in the need to work in order to produce and maintain that wealth which also leads to-
b. a decrease in the quality of sleep due to impairment in one's ability to relax in an environment, both inner and outer, that is more and more based on the unpredictable and frequent alternation between the forces of fear and craving.
c. as individuals feel an increased need to function through and beyond their need for rest they use products such as caffeine, simple sugars and other stimulants to maintain an artificial state of alertness which over time has both diminishing returns or addictive quality and a detrimental and cumulative effect on the mind's and body's ability to sleep and rest.
3. Due to society's increased emphasis on quantity and productivity, the skill of multi-tasking is most valued. Because of the ubiquitous nature of the multi-tasking mentality it has become a goal to be achieved and is more and more habituated which causes this mentality to spill over into all of one's endeavors, i.e. recreation. A more accurate description of the habit of multi-tasking would be sensory overload/over-stimulation. Through constantly layering stimulation on our minds through internet, television, radio taking a larger role in our lives we lose more of the silence/space/interval which is necessary to accurately and critically examine and process the information that we receive from these media and elsewhere, i.e. relationship interaction. In this way our minds become exhausted and sedated and therefore most susceptible to either subtle or gross suggestion and manipulation.
4. Shock treatment is not a method which is used on the general populace or on a broad scale in the therapeutic community, though it has unfortunately come back into vogue in treatment for neurosis in some modalities, we are immersed in an ocean of electromagnetic energy/radiation and there has been a reliable quality and significant quantity of research done on its deleterious effects on human health. It is entirely plausible that some or all of this variety of radiation could have neurological/psychological effects which ease the path to the human mind's susceptibility to suggestion. (To further speculate, the government program HAARP, in which an array is powered to produce directed electromagnetic energy up to and including the multi-gigawatt range which has many applications including weapons-grade use, weather control and neurological mimicry, has been verified to be capable of reproducing every frequency of brain wave activity which if applied could be used to control the mood and mental stability range of a populace.)
5. There has been a significant increase in the diagnosis of psychiatrically-defined disorders in the past 30 years, particularly of depression. This is partly due to societal factors such as the culture of fear promoted by industry to increase people's desire for a consumerist form of compensatory comfort and by government as a means to keep the populace vulnerable, the emphasis on exclusive self-interest which intensifies one's defensiveness and thereby their underlying fear, and generally living in a world fraught with suffering and despair. Another general factor in the increased diagnosis of mental illness is the relentless promotion of the drugs which have become the preferred treatment for said conditions. The principal motivation in the promotion of psychotropic drugs is the insatiable desire for wealth that the pharmaceutical companies thrive upon. The scientific proof for the effectiveness of these drugs is limited at best and artificial in some cases. Methods such as false advertising (such as the popular use of the analogy that using psychotropic drugs to treat depression is the same as a diabetic using insulin treatment), lobbying and pay-offs to regulatory bodies or the populating of such bodies with former executives of the companies that the bodies are charged to regulate, and the falsifying (also known as 'ghost-writing') of scientific papers in journals of referral. Psychotropic drugs have many potentially harmful effects on human health which often, but not always, outweigh the benefits. But one proven and obvious effect is most relevant to this discussion: almost all psychotropic/psychiatric drugs intended to treat the neurotic disorders ( i.e. depression, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, etc.) have a profound sedative and pacifying effect on the human brain/mind which makes one more susceptible to suggestion and more easily manipulated, less able to properly advocate for oneself, decreases one's ability to function and engage in activity which could be progressive, meaningful, purposeful and supportive, and potentially affects brain chemistry irrevocably.
6. Since the dawn of the industrial revolution and the birth and spread of capitalism, sociopolitical motivation has been universally concentrated on the accumulation of material wealth. The means and motivation have grown exponentially even at great expense to the many in preference to the gross benefit of an elite few. It did not take long for the elite to realize that gross profit comes at the expense of the suffering and depravation of the many, but that is a price the corporations were and are willing to pay. The most productive stimulus to be used in the effort to manufacture consumerist need in the populace is fear: when those of the common mind fear they seek comfort and the most accessible comfort is material consumption. Fear is also a tool which is used by the government to distract the population from the hidden truth that they use the people to provide them with power. Since fear is the primary weapon of government and the principal product of corporations, we the people live immersed and saturated within a matrix of it; as one who lives all of their life in a darkened room. One of the primary effects of living in the shadow of fear is the exhaustion and pacification of the mind, thereby making it more susceptible to suggestion and far more easy to deceive. An exhausted mind is ill-prepared for the effort necessary on the path to hidden truth; it is mostly capable only of receiving that which is given to it and it is most unfortunate since what is mostly given today is fear and deception.
The modern mind is ripe for manipulation and immersed in deception.
The spiritual path, in whatever tradition, at the heart, can be explained as the effort to navigate through the multitude of illusory salvations outside of ourselves to clear the way for the awakening of the seed of salvation within.
Suffering endured broadens our minds, opens our hearts and awakens the spirit within.
As the weapons of war have become more advanced, so has the distance increased between the one's using those deadly instruments and the victims of them. The terrible increase in the destructive power of weapons of war should greatly concern us and motivate us to stop, for it is no longer an individual, or an army, but entire cultures and the whole of humanity itself that is in danger with the ignition of one single conflict. But more than this, the distance between the wielders of weapons and their victims allows for a disturbing ease in making the decision to use them, for the damage becomes closer to invisible and therefore the conscience of the wielder need not be engaged. Even the most violent mass acts of aggression can appear benign or even graceful from a distance. There was a time when war could be considered honorable or relatively civilized because in order to kill with sword or stone one must be close enough to engage one's conscience.
One of the most striking indicators of the gross inequity in the elite's value of human life is the narcissistic mathematics of their politics: one of their lives is worth more than 3000 American soldier's lives, which are worth more than 100,000 Japanese lives, which is worth more than 500,000 Iraqi's lives, which are worth more than 1,000,000 Rwandan lives, which are altogether worth more than the lives of the children of our future and the lessons of the lives of our ancestors. Every life is equally valuable and until we, especially the artificial entities known as governments who claim to represent us, acknowledge this truth and live it we cannot call ourselves civilized and have little hope for the future.
The motivation of those who prefer to argue is to persuade the other to change their views and preferences in a way that would better conform to those of the arguer. However since arguing raises the defenses of the parties involved, it also decreases their receptivity and therefore also lowers the probability that they will be persuaded. Arguing is a self-defeating and contradictory activity.
A great irony of the human condition is that what the common mind calls progress is better described as the sustained and strenuous effort to remain still and resistant to change.
All true strength comes through humility.
"There are no verifiable truths but I AM."
One cannot consider oneself a rational being until they can consistently discern and acknowledge the distinction between what is 'different' and what is 'wrong'.
Contrary to popular pursuit the objective of life is not to acquire objects of comfort but to become comfortable with discomfort, to live adaptively with the unfamiliar, and to identify with nothing manifest for all is transient.
Most often modern mind therapies emphasize a need for their patients to focus their energy on serving themselves in some way in order to soothe the suffering of neurosis when in fact an over-emphasis on self(-absorption) is what perpetuates and gives energy to the illness. An integral part of the healing process in psychology must be a greater focus on serving the needs and peace of others in addition to our own. Development is about continuing to broaden our boundaries of self to include more and more of that which we previously considered 'other'. Great healing comes through taking the focus off of oneself.
If addressed with the question, "What would you do if you knew your death to be immanent?", many people would give an answer describing their personal image of ultimate, yet still somewhat accessible, fulfillment in an attempt to fully appreciate life in the time that remained. As it is we know not when the moment of our death will come. Given this truth the only sensible way to live is to live fully every moment as if it was our last...The most fulfilling way to live is to live every moment present and awake that when we die we will die in serenity and not regret.
"If you put someone in a position of being disabled by not feeding them, or not allowing them to sleep, or overwhelming them with sound, if you use massive shock treatment and you give people massive doses of drugs such as PCP or Mescaline or LSD or Amphetamines and if you put them in periods of darkness where they can't predict from one moment to the next what is going to happen so they are always dreading, there's no consistency in what's going to happen, any body can be put into a position of being open to brainwashing ('To indoctrinate so intensively and thoroughly as to effect a radical transformation of beliefs and mental attitudes.')"
-Dr. Harvey Weinstein, social psychologist, UC Berkeley.
Notes on real-world correlates to factors of brainwashing present in modern society:
1. a. decreased nutritional value of food due to genetic manipulation, soil degradation and pollution caused by over-production and fertilization toxicity, water and air pollution, etc.
b. promotion of poor food choices with low nutritional value and high quantity of detrimental additives and molecules such as manipulated sugars (high fructose corn syrup) and artificial sweeteners (aspartame, Splenda, sucralose, Nutrasweet), saturated fats, carcinogens, phosphates and nitrates, etc.
c. due to a busier and stressful lifestyle people increasingly seek escape by making the more harmful yet more convenient choices of diet, such as those based on fast-food.
2. Sleep- and rest-depravation are increasingly pandemic and chronic among the populace. Several factors contribute to this:
a. quantity of sleep is decreased by an increase in the manufactured craving for material wealth and the correlative increase in the need to work in order to produce and maintain that wealth which also leads to-
b. a decrease in the quality of sleep due to impairment in one's ability to relax in an environment, both inner and outer, that is more and more based on the unpredictable and frequent alternation between the forces of fear and craving.
c. as individuals feel an increased need to function through and beyond their need for rest they use products such as caffeine, simple sugars and other stimulants to maintain an artificial state of alertness which over time has both diminishing returns or addictive quality and a detrimental and cumulative effect on the mind's and body's ability to sleep and rest.
3. Due to society's increased emphasis on quantity and productivity, the skill of multi-tasking is most valued. Because of the ubiquitous nature of the multi-tasking mentality it has become a goal to be achieved and is more and more habituated which causes this mentality to spill over into all of one's endeavors, i.e. recreation. A more accurate description of the habit of multi-tasking would be sensory overload/over-stimulation. Through constantly layering stimulation on our minds through internet, television, radio taking a larger role in our lives we lose more of the silence/space/interval which is necessary to accurately and critically examine and process the information that we receive from these media and elsewhere, i.e. relationship interaction. In this way our minds become exhausted and sedated and therefore most susceptible to either subtle or gross suggestion and manipulation.
4. Shock treatment is not a method which is used on the general populace or on a broad scale in the therapeutic community, though it has unfortunately come back into vogue in treatment for neurosis in some modalities, we are immersed in an ocean of electromagnetic energy/radiation and there has been a reliable quality and significant quantity of research done on its deleterious effects on human health. It is entirely plausible that some or all of this variety of radiation could have neurological/psychological effects which ease the path to the human mind's susceptibility to suggestion. (To further speculate, the government program HAARP, in which an array is powered to produce directed electromagnetic energy up to and including the multi-gigawatt range which has many applications including weapons-grade use, weather control and neurological mimicry, has been verified to be capable of reproducing every frequency of brain wave activity which if applied could be used to control the mood and mental stability range of a populace.)
5. There has been a significant increase in the diagnosis of psychiatrically-defined disorders in the past 30 years, particularly of depression. This is partly due to societal factors such as the culture of fear promoted by industry to increase people's desire for a consumerist form of compensatory comfort and by government as a means to keep the populace vulnerable, the emphasis on exclusive self-interest which intensifies one's defensiveness and thereby their underlying fear, and generally living in a world fraught with suffering and despair. Another general factor in the increased diagnosis of mental illness is the relentless promotion of the drugs which have become the preferred treatment for said conditions. The principal motivation in the promotion of psychotropic drugs is the insatiable desire for wealth that the pharmaceutical companies thrive upon. The scientific proof for the effectiveness of these drugs is limited at best and artificial in some cases. Methods such as false advertising (such as the popular use of the analogy that using psychotropic drugs to treat depression is the same as a diabetic using insulin treatment), lobbying and pay-offs to regulatory bodies or the populating of such bodies with former executives of the companies that the bodies are charged to regulate, and the falsifying (also known as 'ghost-writing') of scientific papers in journals of referral. Psychotropic drugs have many potentially harmful effects on human health which often, but not always, outweigh the benefits. But one proven and obvious effect is most relevant to this discussion: almost all psychotropic/psychiatric drugs intended to treat the neurotic disorders ( i.e. depression, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, etc.) have a profound sedative and pacifying effect on the human brain/mind which makes one more susceptible to suggestion and more easily manipulated, less able to properly advocate for oneself, decreases one's ability to function and engage in activity which could be progressive, meaningful, purposeful and supportive, and potentially affects brain chemistry irrevocably.
6. Since the dawn of the industrial revolution and the birth and spread of capitalism, sociopolitical motivation has been universally concentrated on the accumulation of material wealth. The means and motivation have grown exponentially even at great expense to the many in preference to the gross benefit of an elite few. It did not take long for the elite to realize that gross profit comes at the expense of the suffering and depravation of the many, but that is a price the corporations were and are willing to pay. The most productive stimulus to be used in the effort to manufacture consumerist need in the populace is fear: when those of the common mind fear they seek comfort and the most accessible comfort is material consumption. Fear is also a tool which is used by the government to distract the population from the hidden truth that they use the people to provide them with power. Since fear is the primary weapon of government and the principal product of corporations, we the people live immersed and saturated within a matrix of it; as one who lives all of their life in a darkened room. One of the primary effects of living in the shadow of fear is the exhaustion and pacification of the mind, thereby making it more susceptible to suggestion and far more easy to deceive. An exhausted mind is ill-prepared for the effort necessary on the path to hidden truth; it is mostly capable only of receiving that which is given to it and it is most unfortunate since what is mostly given today is fear and deception.
The modern mind is ripe for manipulation and immersed in deception.
The spiritual path, in whatever tradition, at the heart, can be explained as the effort to navigate through the multitude of illusory salvations outside of ourselves to clear the way for the awakening of the seed of salvation within.
Suffering endured broadens our minds, opens our hearts and awakens the spirit within.
As the weapons of war have become more advanced, so has the distance increased between the one's using those deadly instruments and the victims of them. The terrible increase in the destructive power of weapons of war should greatly concern us and motivate us to stop, for it is no longer an individual, or an army, but entire cultures and the whole of humanity itself that is in danger with the ignition of one single conflict. But more than this, the distance between the wielders of weapons and their victims allows for a disturbing ease in making the decision to use them, for the damage becomes closer to invisible and therefore the conscience of the wielder need not be engaged. Even the most violent mass acts of aggression can appear benign or even graceful from a distance. There was a time when war could be considered honorable or relatively civilized because in order to kill with sword or stone one must be close enough to engage one's conscience.
One of the most striking indicators of the gross inequity in the elite's value of human life is the narcissistic mathematics of their politics: one of their lives is worth more than 3000 American soldier's lives, which are worth more than 100,000 Japanese lives, which is worth more than 500,000 Iraqi's lives, which are worth more than 1,000,000 Rwandan lives, which are altogether worth more than the lives of the children of our future and the lessons of the lives of our ancestors. Every life is equally valuable and until we, especially the artificial entities known as governments who claim to represent us, acknowledge this truth and live it we cannot call ourselves civilized and have little hope for the future.
The motivation of those who prefer to argue is to persuade the other to change their views and preferences in a way that would better conform to those of the arguer. However since arguing raises the defenses of the parties involved, it also decreases their receptivity and therefore also lowers the probability that they will be persuaded. Arguing is a self-defeating and contradictory activity.
A great irony of the human condition is that what the common mind calls progress is better described as the sustained and strenuous effort to remain still and resistant to change.
All true strength comes through humility.
"There are no verifiable truths but I AM."
One cannot consider oneself a rational being until they can consistently discern and acknowledge the distinction between what is 'different' and what is 'wrong'.
Contrary to popular pursuit the objective of life is not to acquire objects of comfort but to become comfortable with discomfort, to live adaptively with the unfamiliar, and to identify with nothing manifest for all is transient.
Most often modern mind therapies emphasize a need for their patients to focus their energy on serving themselves in some way in order to soothe the suffering of neurosis when in fact an over-emphasis on self(-absorption) is what perpetuates and gives energy to the illness. An integral part of the healing process in psychology must be a greater focus on serving the needs and peace of others in addition to our own. Development is about continuing to broaden our boundaries of self to include more and more of that which we previously considered 'other'. Great healing comes through taking the focus off of oneself.
posted by Jon @ 8:19 PM 0 comments
Friday, November 24, 2006
When The Walls Fell
Either/or arguments are the best way to stagnation and, in an existence where all is change and the stagnant are guided towards de-evolution, onward to destruction. Since our preferred culture is founded on the either/or philosophy, we are in danger and will forever be until we found a more true philosophy. It strikes me as hypocrisy that so many feel so passionate about the truth of Darwinian evolution, that is the truth that 'the most fit survives', and yet no species on earth has better proven its incompatibility with the principles of life and thusly its unworthiness to survive than humans have. We are at war with the earth itself. It doesn't have to be this way but the pattern of habit is etched so deep that nothing short of devastation will spark us to change. Devastation is inevitable at this point. It is not a matter of if anymore, we long ago passed that point, but when. We are addicts, addicted to the methods of our own destruction, and most addicts must hit rock bottom as a necessary prelude to their transformation to healing when they refuse to awaken by any other way. We have refused to awaken so our rock bottom must come. Our hope now should be that when it does it will not be so devastating as to lead to our extinction. One of the greatest misconceptions is that the truth must be something that is pleasant or comfortable. This is the primary hallmark of the mind of denial. Truth is truth whether it is pleasant or not. Our culture thrives on denial and avoidance so it is so easy and comfortable to just fit in, go with the crowd, and slip into walking sleep. But the comfort of the addict is no different. Catch a heroin addict in the midst of intoxication and he will tell you that all is perfect. But is it? Of course not. We cannot measure the rightness of a situation or choice by how pleasurable it is. If I were to go to the doctor with a broken bone and he were to give me an anesthetic the pain would dissipate but it would be foolish of me to then interpret that as a cure or just treatment. Covering a pain or a trauma or an evil is not healing it but hiding it. This is our way; from psychotropic medications that slip us into living soma to advertising and PR we hide our evils under silken sheets and hope that they go away on their own. We are infants who cover our spilled milk with newspaper and hope that our mother doesn't notice. None of this is pleasant to hear or to know but it is the truth just the same and we have hidden from it for long enough and this hiding is the reason we are where we are. It is understandable. There is so much struggle, so much pain. We must work more and more, harder and harder to just get by. Our relationships wax and wane and true happiness becomes harder to come by. Who has the energy left to waken to the awful truth? Who would want to? That's their weapon and it is working. The trick of denial is that it only works for so long before the backlash begins. How long can a stone hold back the river? The pressure builds until the breaking point. The spilled milk seeps through its cover but now it is curdled and rotten and stinking and it has irreparably stained the floor beneath. I wonder...what would we do if someone came into our house and began relieving themselves in the closets and dumping out the trash all over the place and wiping their soiled shoes all over the carpets and dumping out the contents of the cupboards and refrigerator onto the floor? I think the answer is obvious. What if that person gave us a gift in the aftermath? Would that make it alright? Would our anger be any less? It certainly shouldn't. Why is our reaction so different, so passive, when the same type of destruction and pain is heaped upon our earth, our home? We are compensated and distracted with the campaign of fear and consumption, but does that make it alright? These are questions whose answers are now obvious but why does our behavior so completely violate the truth of it? I can only think that we prefer sleep. I can only think that we feel the cumbersome weight of despair and we crumble. It is understandable but not acceptable. Something disturbing...if looked at as a single entity (which in many contexts is entirely rational), our society, this present world system, fits every single one of the official criteria of the World Health Organization and the DSM-IV for diagnosing one psychopathic. This world is crazy, literally crazy. Can we really implicitly trust what we are told, what we are sold, by a psychopath? Of course not. I read recently that we should have "...a pessimism of the intellect and an optimism of the will". This is our Middle Way. Our waking life and clear perception and our balanced perspective. This should be our guiding motto in a world gone completely mad.
posted by Jon @ 10:07 AM 0 comments
Thursday, October 26, 2006
The Message
The meaning of life is to be of service to that which is higher than ourselves.Every one of our thoughts, words and deeds are ripples in the waters of existence that extend out through eternity affecting and irrevocably altering everything in their path -- nothing that we do and no part of who we are is insignificant.Our every choice and living moments are seeds which grow to flower. It is not a question of whether fruit will be born of our intentions and behavior, for the simple fact that we exist makes that inevitable; But what quality of fruit will we bear?We are meant to be instruments of the Truth that we are all One and to allow the energy of that Truth be the origin of all that we seek to become.We are unified by our mutual propensity for suffering, but also through our intrinsic thirst for peace and happiness.If we are to find joy and serenity we cannot search for them outside of our deepest selves or within a dependence on things or the satisfaction of primal hungers -- none of these paths leads to our freedom and salvation.The Way is neither found in the dying past nor in the fictional fields of the distant future but resides in the Ever-Living Presence of the Here and Now. We must feel our way through to the beating heart of Universal Being.Look within and find the light which shines beyond pain, beyond fear, beyond all separation and division. Here you will find the profound Silence your soul has longed for since drawing its first breath.Here in the recesses of Emptiness there is a Radiance, a comfort of Creation that certifies hope in the midst of despair, faith in the midst of fear, joy and equanimity in the midst of tragedy.This is the source of the voice of God which whispers so persistently and promises warmth as the petals of every instant softly opens.Quieten your mind every day so that this Voice may become your closest companion.Remember your Original Face before you were born of blood and bone.Live your life in the gap, that fertile space between worldly moments and be constantly born anew.As humans of fleshly confinement we possess base urges and egoic desires that regularly threaten to overtake us. But our greatest capacity and highest purpose is to overcome our conditioning and transcend our habitual minds, even while preserving its care.Reality is but a dream and an illusion whose substance is given structure by our beliefs and perceptions. We are all co-creators of the world that we live in so we must take responsibility for its health and sustenance.The complex brain which inhabits this fathom-long body is neither the source of the mind nor its container but is a conduit for the energy of mind just as a lens focuses the light which passes through it thereby directing its illumination but not producing it. There is far more than this sleeping world of concrete and manifest things, regardless of what we are covertly encouraged to believe by those who wish to profit from our ignorance and gain power at the expense of our freedom. Behind the curtain of waking death there is an eternal life waiting to be won in a vibrant new world of ever-emerging green -- There is surely more than this from which this all comes.By gradually opening the eyes of Mindful Awareness we let freely flow our innate reserve of Wisdom and Compassion -- accept the invitation to become what we Always Already Are.Enlightenment unfolds in the grand explosive birth of every conscious universe,just as it does in the laughter of a child innocent and free from want or tear.Enlightenment unfolds through the entire spectrum of life's evolution from particle to man,just as it does in the scent of a single rose on the first day of Spring.Enlightenment unfolds in the liberation of this world of people from the bonds of war and fear,just as it does in every small act of kindness in a life of suffering.Spirit surely and so patiently waits to Awaken with each and every breath which keeps the multitude of beings alive and calls us forth to open these Eyes.So let the wings of your most true Potential unfurl and growFeel the full heat of the midday sunand willingly receive every drop of healing moisture from the airthat is so generously given through Nature's abundant grace.There is a clear reflection in this morning's dewthe very same that shines inside of youa mystical and elegant pattern tracedin the most basic fabric of lifeAs it blooms to its fullest expressionand reveals the features of its long hidden facewe come to know what we were always meant to be:Servantsof the Universal Will to Love.
posted by Jon @ 6:05 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Four
It is the task of any true patriot to justly and even vehemently criticize the country of their residence when that nation has lost its way. It is the people who are meant to be the judges over the principalities and powers.
Materialism stifles originality because it selects for that which has been previously proven most successful. It is in this way that materialism violates the evolutionary process and therefore life itself. Novelty is the result and fundamental purpose of evolution and existence.
"All thoughts vibrate eternally in the cosmos…Thoughts are universally and not individually rooted; a truth cannot be created, but only perceived. The erroneous thoughts of man result from imperfections in his discernment. The goal of yoga science is to calm the mind, that without distortion it may mirror the divine visions of the universe."—Paramhansa Yogananda.
A person's intrinsic quality is the core of all significance, that light inside of us which resonates with the universe, a gateway to authentic peace. Love waits patiently in these annals of time and eternity.
No evidence of any quantity or kind can convince one who is unwilling to believe in the possibility of the existence of the Great Unseen. Belief and reason are not diametrically opposed. The open and receptive space that belief creates in awareness prepares one for the evidentiary pursuits of reason.
We struggle to fit extraordinary truths into and within the boundaries of the ordinary when what we are meant to do is challenge our habitual boundaries of acceptance and awareness and let those extraordinary truths broaden our minds until they can go no further. Then and only then do reason and spirit meet within the individual consciousness as they are already wed in Universal Mind.
A bountiful forest of intellectual beauties cannot compensate for the perfect seed of contemplation. The Tree of Wisdom is simple and meanly adorned but its grace and subtle power is unsurpassed in all the worlds. It only grows in the soils of silence and the open air of Pure Awareness. Its fruit nourishes all hungers and quenches all thirst unto Eternal Peace.
The subtle power of Spirit ever guides all things toward balance as gravity pulls all manifest objects together. But the common mind seeks to achieve balance by leaping from one distant extreme to the other or by dividing one's mind into two that each extreme may have its own space and the whole individual then exists in a state of conflict. True balance is a force of its own, the fundamental force of the Middle Way; a practice of profound moderation. Life is not black and white but a spectrum of light and color.
No system of belief or thought is entirely wrong; they all contain, to variable degrees, portions of the truth. Right and wrong, good and bad are values which exist on a spectrum of quality. So all things are valuable but all things also have varying levels of quality. Thus the Absolute and the relative coexist.
Pity is compassion in embryo.
Personal health is intended to be based on the principle of prevention rather than treatment. But when treatment is necessary the minimum or least invasive action required to effect the change needed to bring the bodymind back to wholeness should be the guiding principle. Both prevention and minimal invasiveness are the most efficient options which also most effectively succeed in arising from and encouraging the greatest level of awareness.
Quality should always be considered over longevity. No matter how long someone lives, that life will eventually end. Meaning is not dependent upon time but on one's level of living wakefulness and that can occur in only a moment.
"The deeper the self-realization of a person, the more they influence the whole universe by their subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less they themselves are affected by the phenomenal flux."—Sri Yukteswar.
The brain is a receiver or lens of mind not the container or producer of it for the mind is far more akin to light than it is to conventional matter. From matter through to body and to mind, existence in its many levels of quality is spirit in various phases of condensation, just as matter is raw energy habituated and condensed through patterns of Quality. Matter is a concentrate of energy and energy is a concentrate of Mind. All manifest existent things are forms of Universal Mind.
Words and thoughts manifest into reality in one's life in congruence with and direct proportion to the truth with which they speak and the authenticity they live by. Deception of any sort corrupts and sours the creative process and power of the mind even unto impotence.
Resistance to forgiveness typically arises from the misperception that it is intended to absolve the offending party of guilt or free them from responsibility. But the primary function of forgiveness is its capacity to liberate those who have been wronged from the shackles and weight of bitterness.
Egoic desires are reductions of the pure thirst for Spirit. Sex, food, intoxication, material acquisition and accumulation—they are all, in their extreme manifestations, pale substitutions of the heart's hunger for God in disguise.
While imposed poverty is a tragedy in as much as it imprisons one within suffering, voluntary poverty can be liberation from the prison of material wealth and attachment and further, from the walls of our own egos.
The core problem in conventional attempts to reconcile the duality between subject and object in the realm of concept comes about as a result of the strict belief that one must necessarily cause the other. But in truth the closest conceptual representation is summarized in saying that subject and object arise together and are mutually correlative.
Art and language are ways of dancing the circumference of the Absolute Beauty—in the center always lives the Unnamable Source.
Maturity of mind is accomplished through the cultivation of three skills: from discernment to belief to activity or habituation. One must come to be able to discern wholesome from unwholesome thoughts and feelings. One must then invest the creative power of belief in those factors known to be wholesome. And finally one must cultivate those wholesome mindstates into the seeds of consistent activity.
The creative power of belief and thought can only be exercised when the skill of concentration is present. It is through the concentration of individual consciousness that Universal Mind creates the world in which we live; that is the womb of manifestation. Since more and more society conditions us to move away from concentration and toward sensory overload and 'multi-tasking', the quantitative and materially productive processes, the world loses its cohesion through the loss of the binding power of Order.
There are two kinds of resistances which inhibit the reception of spiritual presence. The first is the denial of the possibility of supernatural existence. The second is characterized by a base hunger or desire for a perceived power which one believes will come as a result of spiritual grace. Both of these are egoic resistances as they focus on the individual self far and away above how one may serve others with a new level of gifts. So it is then clear that one may most accurately know the authenticity of one's spiritual awakening or ability by whether or not that individual is liberated from exclusive identification with the ego. Genuine spiritual awakening comes about when one is profoundly open and believes in the existence of 'More Than This---From Which This Comes', but also acknowledges Spirit as the Great Mystery by not constraining it within one's egoic parameters, desires or expectations. We must at once be humble and also know with certainty that we are all of us agents of God and have enlightenment as our birthright. We must at once be diligent and disciplined in the way we travel the Path yet also be flexible enough to change our direction the moment the winds of Intuition call us to do so. We must strive and be at peace. We must be ever wakeful and know life as an illusion and a dream of immeasurable beauty in the mind of God.
Rules are good and even necessary to have in life when they are appropriately used as general guides. They help to form the foundation of our future creativity and improvisation. But when rules become static forces of restriction outside of which we refuse to operate we guarantee ourselves a life of relative insignificance which is undervalued and defined by missed opportunity and a vague and persistent feeling of regret and emptiness. The best and brightest things in life, the most golden and beautiful opportunities, the quintessential and transformative experiences come to us only from outside and above our present perspective and set of boundaries. That is their defining feature. If we don't challenge these boundaries and keep them malleable the door to greatness and grace will remain closed to us.
In order to understand love one must come into the awareness that one can only know it in part for at the heart of love lies Mystery. Mystery is where love comes from and it is essentially unknowable but by self-transcendence it can be experienced through unification. Love is defined by sacrifice and egolessness, that condition in which one both forgets the self and finds it again in the exchange of the one for another.
By far the best things in life are the surprises…Those moments in life when we throw caution to the wind, take a leap of faith and do something that our conventional wisdom tells us to avoid because it lies outside of the boundaries of our opinions, values and prejudices. Herein resides life's most beautiful moments, most precious opportunities and its most exceptional gifts of grace. This is when our minds open and our spirits flower into a new state of being and becoming. It is in these moments that the conduit between us and Universal Mind clears and the destiny of evolution unfolds from what is possible and meant to be into what is real.
Nothing justifies the subjugation of an entire people or class of living beings.
Anger, and all primal emotion, lacks one vital quality that only the higher form of rationality can provide: discernment. Anger is raw power untempered and is incapable of discriminating right from wrong on its own. It builds continuously and constantly waits for a gap in reason through which it can escape. It cares not where it goes or what it corrupts because it is incapable of caring. Anger is a blade in the 'hands' of a machine cleaving everything in its path until an attentive mind wields and redirects it into something helpful.
Attention and Awareness are the two fundamental bases of experience. Attention progresses experience toward the particular and Awareness progresses experience toward expansiveness. Attention is the one-pointedness of the particle and Awareness the ubiquitous expanse of the waveform.
An orgasm is the most excellent experience one can have in the physical body. Falling in love is the deepest and most profound experience which exists in the realms of the mind and heart. What if every time you saw a sunrise you felt just like you were falling in love? What if every time you heard the movement of the ocean or touched the untrampled ground you felt the liberation of sexual congress? What if every sensory experience blossomed into such perfection within you? This is the bliss of the Enlightened Mind.
Experiencing and enduring adversity is what provides meaning and value in life. The reward of opening to difficulty is growth. Without this receptivity to challenge we stagnate and contentment must come from the denial of vulnerability. This is why modern conveniences and a reliance on technology and materiality are potentially dangerous: because when excessively indulged in these things become increasingly sophisticated ways of avoiding adversity and therefore we lose our opportunities for growth and value.
People rely on evidence to discern what choices are best to make. But what most consider evidence comes from secondary or tertiary sources such as mainstream media or hearsay. Even evidence and the 'truth' it indicates can often change with time. They are maps of the territory and not the territory itself. All things change and our representations of the world we live in are no different. What was considered certainly and unequivocally true in one age or paradigm can be clearly untrue or partial in another. These shifts not only occur in the dimension of time but space as well. Often a truth which is 'proven' through one set of evidence is disproved through another set of contemporary evidence. In such cases, which occur with great frequency, it is belief and preference which determines one's personal truth because the evidentiary facts point in many directions and one feels compelled to make a choice. While conventional evidence is important our primary source and guide for discernment should be direct perception and personal experience. This is the evidence that we can most consistently rely on.
Materialism stifles originality because it selects for that which has been previously proven most successful. It is in this way that materialism violates the evolutionary process and therefore life itself. Novelty is the result and fundamental purpose of evolution and existence.
"All thoughts vibrate eternally in the cosmos…Thoughts are universally and not individually rooted; a truth cannot be created, but only perceived. The erroneous thoughts of man result from imperfections in his discernment. The goal of yoga science is to calm the mind, that without distortion it may mirror the divine visions of the universe."—Paramhansa Yogananda.
A person's intrinsic quality is the core of all significance, that light inside of us which resonates with the universe, a gateway to authentic peace. Love waits patiently in these annals of time and eternity.
No evidence of any quantity or kind can convince one who is unwilling to believe in the possibility of the existence of the Great Unseen. Belief and reason are not diametrically opposed. The open and receptive space that belief creates in awareness prepares one for the evidentiary pursuits of reason.
We struggle to fit extraordinary truths into and within the boundaries of the ordinary when what we are meant to do is challenge our habitual boundaries of acceptance and awareness and let those extraordinary truths broaden our minds until they can go no further. Then and only then do reason and spirit meet within the individual consciousness as they are already wed in Universal Mind.
A bountiful forest of intellectual beauties cannot compensate for the perfect seed of contemplation. The Tree of Wisdom is simple and meanly adorned but its grace and subtle power is unsurpassed in all the worlds. It only grows in the soils of silence and the open air of Pure Awareness. Its fruit nourishes all hungers and quenches all thirst unto Eternal Peace.
The subtle power of Spirit ever guides all things toward balance as gravity pulls all manifest objects together. But the common mind seeks to achieve balance by leaping from one distant extreme to the other or by dividing one's mind into two that each extreme may have its own space and the whole individual then exists in a state of conflict. True balance is a force of its own, the fundamental force of the Middle Way; a practice of profound moderation. Life is not black and white but a spectrum of light and color.
No system of belief or thought is entirely wrong; they all contain, to variable degrees, portions of the truth. Right and wrong, good and bad are values which exist on a spectrum of quality. So all things are valuable but all things also have varying levels of quality. Thus the Absolute and the relative coexist.
Pity is compassion in embryo.
Personal health is intended to be based on the principle of prevention rather than treatment. But when treatment is necessary the minimum or least invasive action required to effect the change needed to bring the bodymind back to wholeness should be the guiding principle. Both prevention and minimal invasiveness are the most efficient options which also most effectively succeed in arising from and encouraging the greatest level of awareness.
Quality should always be considered over longevity. No matter how long someone lives, that life will eventually end. Meaning is not dependent upon time but on one's level of living wakefulness and that can occur in only a moment.
"The deeper the self-realization of a person, the more they influence the whole universe by their subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less they themselves are affected by the phenomenal flux."—Sri Yukteswar.
The brain is a receiver or lens of mind not the container or producer of it for the mind is far more akin to light than it is to conventional matter. From matter through to body and to mind, existence in its many levels of quality is spirit in various phases of condensation, just as matter is raw energy habituated and condensed through patterns of Quality. Matter is a concentrate of energy and energy is a concentrate of Mind. All manifest existent things are forms of Universal Mind.
Words and thoughts manifest into reality in one's life in congruence with and direct proportion to the truth with which they speak and the authenticity they live by. Deception of any sort corrupts and sours the creative process and power of the mind even unto impotence.
Resistance to forgiveness typically arises from the misperception that it is intended to absolve the offending party of guilt or free them from responsibility. But the primary function of forgiveness is its capacity to liberate those who have been wronged from the shackles and weight of bitterness.
Egoic desires are reductions of the pure thirst for Spirit. Sex, food, intoxication, material acquisition and accumulation—they are all, in their extreme manifestations, pale substitutions of the heart's hunger for God in disguise.
While imposed poverty is a tragedy in as much as it imprisons one within suffering, voluntary poverty can be liberation from the prison of material wealth and attachment and further, from the walls of our own egos.
The core problem in conventional attempts to reconcile the duality between subject and object in the realm of concept comes about as a result of the strict belief that one must necessarily cause the other. But in truth the closest conceptual representation is summarized in saying that subject and object arise together and are mutually correlative.
Art and language are ways of dancing the circumference of the Absolute Beauty—in the center always lives the Unnamable Source.
Maturity of mind is accomplished through the cultivation of three skills: from discernment to belief to activity or habituation. One must come to be able to discern wholesome from unwholesome thoughts and feelings. One must then invest the creative power of belief in those factors known to be wholesome. And finally one must cultivate those wholesome mindstates into the seeds of consistent activity.
The creative power of belief and thought can only be exercised when the skill of concentration is present. It is through the concentration of individual consciousness that Universal Mind creates the world in which we live; that is the womb of manifestation. Since more and more society conditions us to move away from concentration and toward sensory overload and 'multi-tasking', the quantitative and materially productive processes, the world loses its cohesion through the loss of the binding power of Order.
There are two kinds of resistances which inhibit the reception of spiritual presence. The first is the denial of the possibility of supernatural existence. The second is characterized by a base hunger or desire for a perceived power which one believes will come as a result of spiritual grace. Both of these are egoic resistances as they focus on the individual self far and away above how one may serve others with a new level of gifts. So it is then clear that one may most accurately know the authenticity of one's spiritual awakening or ability by whether or not that individual is liberated from exclusive identification with the ego. Genuine spiritual awakening comes about when one is profoundly open and believes in the existence of 'More Than This---From Which This Comes', but also acknowledges Spirit as the Great Mystery by not constraining it within one's egoic parameters, desires or expectations. We must at once be humble and also know with certainty that we are all of us agents of God and have enlightenment as our birthright. We must at once be diligent and disciplined in the way we travel the Path yet also be flexible enough to change our direction the moment the winds of Intuition call us to do so. We must strive and be at peace. We must be ever wakeful and know life as an illusion and a dream of immeasurable beauty in the mind of God.
Rules are good and even necessary to have in life when they are appropriately used as general guides. They help to form the foundation of our future creativity and improvisation. But when rules become static forces of restriction outside of which we refuse to operate we guarantee ourselves a life of relative insignificance which is undervalued and defined by missed opportunity and a vague and persistent feeling of regret and emptiness. The best and brightest things in life, the most golden and beautiful opportunities, the quintessential and transformative experiences come to us only from outside and above our present perspective and set of boundaries. That is their defining feature. If we don't challenge these boundaries and keep them malleable the door to greatness and grace will remain closed to us.
In order to understand love one must come into the awareness that one can only know it in part for at the heart of love lies Mystery. Mystery is where love comes from and it is essentially unknowable but by self-transcendence it can be experienced through unification. Love is defined by sacrifice and egolessness, that condition in which one both forgets the self and finds it again in the exchange of the one for another.
By far the best things in life are the surprises…Those moments in life when we throw caution to the wind, take a leap of faith and do something that our conventional wisdom tells us to avoid because it lies outside of the boundaries of our opinions, values and prejudices. Herein resides life's most beautiful moments, most precious opportunities and its most exceptional gifts of grace. This is when our minds open and our spirits flower into a new state of being and becoming. It is in these moments that the conduit between us and Universal Mind clears and the destiny of evolution unfolds from what is possible and meant to be into what is real.
Nothing justifies the subjugation of an entire people or class of living beings.
Anger, and all primal emotion, lacks one vital quality that only the higher form of rationality can provide: discernment. Anger is raw power untempered and is incapable of discriminating right from wrong on its own. It builds continuously and constantly waits for a gap in reason through which it can escape. It cares not where it goes or what it corrupts because it is incapable of caring. Anger is a blade in the 'hands' of a machine cleaving everything in its path until an attentive mind wields and redirects it into something helpful.
Attention and Awareness are the two fundamental bases of experience. Attention progresses experience toward the particular and Awareness progresses experience toward expansiveness. Attention is the one-pointedness of the particle and Awareness the ubiquitous expanse of the waveform.
An orgasm is the most excellent experience one can have in the physical body. Falling in love is the deepest and most profound experience which exists in the realms of the mind and heart. What if every time you saw a sunrise you felt just like you were falling in love? What if every time you heard the movement of the ocean or touched the untrampled ground you felt the liberation of sexual congress? What if every sensory experience blossomed into such perfection within you? This is the bliss of the Enlightened Mind.
Experiencing and enduring adversity is what provides meaning and value in life. The reward of opening to difficulty is growth. Without this receptivity to challenge we stagnate and contentment must come from the denial of vulnerability. This is why modern conveniences and a reliance on technology and materiality are potentially dangerous: because when excessively indulged in these things become increasingly sophisticated ways of avoiding adversity and therefore we lose our opportunities for growth and value.
People rely on evidence to discern what choices are best to make. But what most consider evidence comes from secondary or tertiary sources such as mainstream media or hearsay. Even evidence and the 'truth' it indicates can often change with time. They are maps of the territory and not the territory itself. All things change and our representations of the world we live in are no different. What was considered certainly and unequivocally true in one age or paradigm can be clearly untrue or partial in another. These shifts not only occur in the dimension of time but space as well. Often a truth which is 'proven' through one set of evidence is disproved through another set of contemporary evidence. In such cases, which occur with great frequency, it is belief and preference which determines one's personal truth because the evidentiary facts point in many directions and one feels compelled to make a choice. While conventional evidence is important our primary source and guide for discernment should be direct perception and personal experience. This is the evidence that we can most consistently rely on.
posted by Jon @ 12:56 PM 0 comments
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Three
A just criticism of a world that has gone mad yet thinks itself entirely sane: Perhaps one quality which characterizes the narcissistic personality is that those who possess it make an occupation out of judgment with a disproportionate amount of anger. The focus of their judgment is most often those things that they find in others (or think that they find in others) that they are unable to accept in themselves. I think that in the case of homophobia, and certainly to the degree of animalistic behavior represented in fundamentalism, they are either frightened of their own femininity, which we all possess whether female or male, or simply naturally attack those that they view as most vulnerable as a means to release the rage they have about problems in their own lives. Anybody who is honest with themselves must admit that the amount of suffering present in the world is the thing which is most disturbing to them. There is no easy answer or way to alleviate one's confusion over this. I have wondered what the use would be of having children for bringing them into such a world would only add to the candidates awaiting their inevitable measure of suffering. But in truth there is another perspective. The world will not change for the better until some critical mass is reached in quality and quantity of those who have the will and compassion to contribute to the world's healing. One of the most effective ways of ensuring this is to create new life and to nurture it to grow into an entity of peace. If enough of us do this and what we can to set things right perhaps one day we will have the world that we all are looking for deep within our hearts.
What if I die having loved but never having been loved?
'Arigato gozaimasu-"In this relative world of illusion and suffering, what you have done is very rare, I am before you as a humble goza mat."'
It is not just we who are a part of nature but more importantly nature which is a part of us.
At the level of biology competition is the driving force of evolution while at the level of culture it is cooperation and harmony. The carrying-over of competition as the motivational power from the biosphere to the cultural realm is the bane of our regressive existence and source of our own destruction. Evolution itself evolves just as we do.
The most troubling step in spiritual development is learning to discern between emotion and intuition.
The quality of a gift is to be determined by the degree to which the giver had to sacrifice in order to provide it.
Knowledge comes through the creation of a new expression of objective truth while wisdom is the discovery and restatement of that truth which has always been.
Our task as mature beings is to first and foremost look for where we may be at fault or incomplete, to search for our areas of opportunity and to be primarily concerned with taking responsibility, to be humble and receptive; an open door of perception.
If one needs to lie and deceive in order to be humble then it is not humility at all but a veil which hides a dangerous pride within. This pride is fed by denial and it is denial which is the great sickness of our age. We are manipulated, controlled and encouraged with extreme prejudice at every opportunity into the living shadow of denial which produces the state which is most vulnerable and susceptible to the suggestion of those who wish to profit off of the suffering and suppression of others.
Society's standard for discerning a person ill is quantitative in that if they fit into the character of the majority, even if the quality of character of the majority itself is ill and maladaptive, the person is deemed well. Such a standard must necessarily fail the test of truth and accuracy because it is not only the individual that needs to be determined well or not but also that which he or she is meant to conform with.
Functionality cannot be the only standard used to determine the quality of a thing or person. A blade can be used to kill just as effectively as it can to heal. A thing's quality is found in how it is applied and that is determined by the depth and maturity of they that wield it.
The degree of a person's comfort is directly proportional to the degree to which they are able to be their authentic selves in the company of others. So it is not necessarily how a person presents when with others that indicates the quality of their character but how comfortable they are in their presence and with themselves. Anxiety enshrouds the authentic self.
In our ordinary minds it is the truth which is most difficult to accept.
As long as we persist with patience through all opposition and even in the absence of hope continue on, there will remain the promise of the fulfillment of meaning.
We need not understand a thing to gain liberation from it. In fact it is most often our stubborn struggle to understand that intensifies our suffering and extends our distance from peace. We are meant to let go and rest in acceptance, if only just enough to smile again and open a small space through which warmth may be felt once again. Acceptance is meant to come first and then understanding will come naturally on its own. It is only through acceptance that enduring peace may come.
The real test a person's value comes through what radiates from them even and especially in the midst of silence.
"More tears are shed over answered prayers than over unanswered ones"—Truman Capote.
"You cannot wake up a man who is pretending to be asleep."—Somali saying.
Suffering grows in the barren space where empathy is meant to be.
Sometimes pain is healthier than pleasure,
Sadness more appropriate than happiness.
Both tears and joy have times of their own
We are not meant to pursue one over the other
But to welcome them with acceptance when they come.
Through thought and reason alone one cannot access the Unity which is the ultimate truth of reality beyond all duality. It is only through the intuitive eye of direct experience that one may do so for no matter how intricate or sophisticated the thought or skill of reason there will always be the first division between thought and thinker.
One should not attach oneself to that which is transient, for to do so ensures that at some point when the transient object changes or ends so to will the identity which has been attached to it. Since all manifest things are transient, one should attach oneself to no-thing. In liberating the self from all attachments one becomes all and becomes truly free.
All of the many pains and multitude of troubles in this world can be reduced to one cause: a lack of empathy.
Through pride we deceive ourselves into believing that we are invulnerable and not susceptible to suggestion. But in truth pride makes us more vulnerable and susceptible to dishonorable forces because without humility we have not the awareness to discern those elements which seek to injure or control us and therefore have not the will to evade them. We cannot resist what we do not see and we cannot see that which we deny existence to.
Life persists through the adversity of negligence but may not be able to survive in the presence of the wholesale animosity and aggression which necessarily accompanies narcissism.
We are all occupied with searching for happiness. The question we must ask ourselves is whether or not our search harms or hinders anything or anyone, including ourselves. When all is said and done we will discover that true happiness is not something attained in searching. It is always there waiting for us to see it ever-present and welcome it in. Like the sun after it sets—though we may not see it there it is just the same burning and shining through the darkness of space.
In any war it is ultimately those who possess the strongest capacity for belief who win.
The fundamental flaw in the theory that the universe and life arose out of randomness is not necessarily due to a lack of experimental weight or faulty logic but in the fact that there is no such thing as randomness. That which we presently view as random or chaotic only appears so because we lack the perspective from which to see the higher order which lies beneath. Similarly, there are events in the world and our lives which may appear to be without purpose or meaning but they only appear so because of the limited perspective that we hold and cling to. The presence of suffering has the ability to reduce our awareness to a pinpoint and remove us from objectivity, and so does the avoidance of suffering. All events have purpose and meaning just as all manifest things arise from and exist in order.
The most dangerous form of suffering is that which one is unaware that they are experiencing.
What if I die having loved but never having been loved?
'Arigato gozaimasu-"In this relative world of illusion and suffering, what you have done is very rare, I am before you as a humble goza mat."'
It is not just we who are a part of nature but more importantly nature which is a part of us.
At the level of biology competition is the driving force of evolution while at the level of culture it is cooperation and harmony. The carrying-over of competition as the motivational power from the biosphere to the cultural realm is the bane of our regressive existence and source of our own destruction. Evolution itself evolves just as we do.
The most troubling step in spiritual development is learning to discern between emotion and intuition.
The quality of a gift is to be determined by the degree to which the giver had to sacrifice in order to provide it.
Knowledge comes through the creation of a new expression of objective truth while wisdom is the discovery and restatement of that truth which has always been.
Our task as mature beings is to first and foremost look for where we may be at fault or incomplete, to search for our areas of opportunity and to be primarily concerned with taking responsibility, to be humble and receptive; an open door of perception.
If one needs to lie and deceive in order to be humble then it is not humility at all but a veil which hides a dangerous pride within. This pride is fed by denial and it is denial which is the great sickness of our age. We are manipulated, controlled and encouraged with extreme prejudice at every opportunity into the living shadow of denial which produces the state which is most vulnerable and susceptible to the suggestion of those who wish to profit off of the suffering and suppression of others.
Society's standard for discerning a person ill is quantitative in that if they fit into the character of the majority, even if the quality of character of the majority itself is ill and maladaptive, the person is deemed well. Such a standard must necessarily fail the test of truth and accuracy because it is not only the individual that needs to be determined well or not but also that which he or she is meant to conform with.
Functionality cannot be the only standard used to determine the quality of a thing or person. A blade can be used to kill just as effectively as it can to heal. A thing's quality is found in how it is applied and that is determined by the depth and maturity of they that wield it.
The degree of a person's comfort is directly proportional to the degree to which they are able to be their authentic selves in the company of others. So it is not necessarily how a person presents when with others that indicates the quality of their character but how comfortable they are in their presence and with themselves. Anxiety enshrouds the authentic self.
In our ordinary minds it is the truth which is most difficult to accept.
As long as we persist with patience through all opposition and even in the absence of hope continue on, there will remain the promise of the fulfillment of meaning.
We need not understand a thing to gain liberation from it. In fact it is most often our stubborn struggle to understand that intensifies our suffering and extends our distance from peace. We are meant to let go and rest in acceptance, if only just enough to smile again and open a small space through which warmth may be felt once again. Acceptance is meant to come first and then understanding will come naturally on its own. It is only through acceptance that enduring peace may come.
The real test a person's value comes through what radiates from them even and especially in the midst of silence.
"More tears are shed over answered prayers than over unanswered ones"—Truman Capote.
"You cannot wake up a man who is pretending to be asleep."—Somali saying.
Suffering grows in the barren space where empathy is meant to be.
Sometimes pain is healthier than pleasure,
Sadness more appropriate than happiness.
Both tears and joy have times of their own
We are not meant to pursue one over the other
But to welcome them with acceptance when they come.
Through thought and reason alone one cannot access the Unity which is the ultimate truth of reality beyond all duality. It is only through the intuitive eye of direct experience that one may do so for no matter how intricate or sophisticated the thought or skill of reason there will always be the first division between thought and thinker.
One should not attach oneself to that which is transient, for to do so ensures that at some point when the transient object changes or ends so to will the identity which has been attached to it. Since all manifest things are transient, one should attach oneself to no-thing. In liberating the self from all attachments one becomes all and becomes truly free.
All of the many pains and multitude of troubles in this world can be reduced to one cause: a lack of empathy.
Through pride we deceive ourselves into believing that we are invulnerable and not susceptible to suggestion. But in truth pride makes us more vulnerable and susceptible to dishonorable forces because without humility we have not the awareness to discern those elements which seek to injure or control us and therefore have not the will to evade them. We cannot resist what we do not see and we cannot see that which we deny existence to.
Life persists through the adversity of negligence but may not be able to survive in the presence of the wholesale animosity and aggression which necessarily accompanies narcissism.
We are all occupied with searching for happiness. The question we must ask ourselves is whether or not our search harms or hinders anything or anyone, including ourselves. When all is said and done we will discover that true happiness is not something attained in searching. It is always there waiting for us to see it ever-present and welcome it in. Like the sun after it sets—though we may not see it there it is just the same burning and shining through the darkness of space.
In any war it is ultimately those who possess the strongest capacity for belief who win.
The fundamental flaw in the theory that the universe and life arose out of randomness is not necessarily due to a lack of experimental weight or faulty logic but in the fact that there is no such thing as randomness. That which we presently view as random or chaotic only appears so because we lack the perspective from which to see the higher order which lies beneath. Similarly, there are events in the world and our lives which may appear to be without purpose or meaning but they only appear so because of the limited perspective that we hold and cling to. The presence of suffering has the ability to reduce our awareness to a pinpoint and remove us from objectivity, and so does the avoidance of suffering. All events have purpose and meaning just as all manifest things arise from and exist in order.
The most dangerous form of suffering is that which one is unaware that they are experiencing.
posted by Jon @ 12:41 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Two
Suffering and opportunity are the same in that they are both openings into the space of development. The difference between them is that opportunity is an opening that we accept, receive and move through at its perfect time of ripening and first arrival. Suffering is such an opening that though it once was an opportunity, through being ignored and avoided became something unpleasant. This unpleasantness is meant to shock us out of our habitual pattern of avoidance so that we will be free to make the right choice.
Science and technology are tools; objects of analysis and function. No matter how masterful or finely crafted the instrument or complex the concept they can not compensate for unwholesome intention or a deficiency in moral achievement. It is not the tool but the hand that wields it, and further, the mind that moves the hand, which makes the object either an instrument of death or one of compassion.
"Having seen his own self as the Self, he becomes selfless and in virtue of selflessness he is to be conceived as unconditioned. This is the highest mystery, betokening emancipation; through selflessness he has no part in pleasure or pain, but achieves absoluteness."--Maitrayana Upanishad.
A tragic life is one which has emptiness where love was meant to grow.
A true agnostic is one who is wise enough to acknowledge the ultimate importance of the Great Mystery, humble enough to admit that we don't have all the answers and that resolution can not come through either faith or reason alone, and open enough to be ready and receptive if and when revelation comes.
When we eat meat we consume the animal's fear.
The question that we typically ask when confronted with a view which differs from our own is, "In what way is this perspective wrong or incomplete?" thereby subtly placing the emphasis on non-acceptance and narcissism. But all views and perspectives have some measure of truth in them, even if it seems infinitesimal in amount or significance. Our task is not to find what is incorrect in the views of others and cancel them out in preference to our own but to seek out that portion of another's view which is right and good and true and then integrate it with our own in an effort to progressively broaden the space in which we exist and operate until all things in their pure essence are included and made whole. It is in the service of this principle that we should condition ourselves to ask, "In what way is this other's view good and true?"
The road leading to the Gate of Truth is difficult but straight. If one relies solely on the conceptual mind to reach it, they will draw near but never through to cross over. Upon encountering the guardians of the Gate, Paradox and Confusion, the conceptual mind will always detour and draw away.
The river of Truth flows perfectly. Cease to struggle for there is no reason to understand it; just flow with it.
The resolution of all duality can never be attained in the domain of understanding of one side or the other alone. Its solution can only be found in the direct experience of the Unity which exists within, between and beneath.
"The Truth is to be lived; it is not to be merely pronounced with the mouth...
There is really nothing to argue about in this teaching;
Any arguing is sure to go against the intent of it.
Doctrines given up to controversy and argumentation lead of themselves to birth and death."--Hui-Neng.
The evidence for the validity of spiritual truth is not whether it conforms to a particular religious dogma or image of God or even if it derives from a holy scripture or sacred teaching. The one and only certain criteria for discerning spiritual truth is whether or not it encourages, supports, cultivates and supplies the way of Love. If a given way originates from Love and aims to produce unity and compassion, truth must of necessity be some part of its nature. Spiritual truth must be that which is in some way accessible to all. Therefore it cannot be wholly dependent upon the intellect, nor on one religious choice over another (as long as it reflects the light of Love), nor on lineage or entitled birth, nor on knowledge or position, status or role. Since spiritual truth must be that which is accessible to all, even if to varying degrees, and only Love fits that criteria since all of humankind that has ever existed, does exist, and ever will exist has some capacity for Love, Love is found to be the way of spiritual truth.
"What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awake, you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?"--Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
We can know that we have found our calling, our destined way, our path, in any category of endeavor when we enjoy and feel fulfillment from the process of the practice at least as much as we do from the promise or attainment of any goal that may come as a result of that process and/or our expectations of it. A path that is driven by desire for the goal alone is one that is based in some measure on force and not on fulfillment, purpose or meaning, or on appreciation and acceptance. The former, force, is a highly exhaustible resource; the later qualities of inspiration are ultimately limitless.
We are all of us always both one another's students and teachers. It is crucial that we give space to both of these roles in our lives; to bring a balance between and out of their harmonious combination. For when we conceive of ourselves as primary or only another's teacher, we feed and cultivate pride, arrogance. When we believe we are only another's student we contribute to insecurity. It is out of the union of these two roles that both humility and confidence can together be sustained and grown.
We are reflections of those we are with.
The fundamental intuition of the human spirit is the awareness of the unity which lies beneath the multiplicity of all manifest things. Deeper than the mind, deeper than the heart, we know that all is one. Any teaching, way, thought or action which contradicts this must be either superficial or overwhelmingly false. Conversely, any teaching, way, thought or action which is aligned with this truth must be overwhelmingly good and authentic. Unity-in-diversity is the ultimate standard against which all things should be tested.
Misery, or to put it in its now ubiquitous term depression, is a natural and reasonable reaction when one is in an environment of overwhelming self-destruction and chaos. It is a rational and just response for anyone who lives in truth in a world, this world that more and more has gone mad. Despite melancholia's increasing rate of occurrence it is still viewed as an aberration. But in truth the psychological aberration is to live in a condition of blinded happiness, which springs from habitual denial, when the world is given over to suicidal behavior. In the world as it is today we can get a better idea of who is authentic and reasonable by determining if they are susceptible to depression for if they are it is likely that they are not living in the overwhelming state of denial that characterizes what has become the ideal of ordinary humanity. Happiness should never be purchased at the price of denial.
No matter how intrusive or burdensome it is to do the right thing, no matter how much sacrifice it requires, the quality of its rightness does not change only our will to do it does. We can try as we might with all of the intricacies and complexities of conceptual thought that we can muster to deny the validity of the right choice, these machinations can not change the goodness of a thing only cover it that we may continue to survive in the sleep of denial.
Corporations are the dominant form of organization on earth, not governments. Governments are, in their intended form, composed of people and values and are therefore living systems that can integrate with their environment. Corporations on the other hand, in their present preferred form, are opposed to life for while they may be composed of people, its guiding principle places its own survival far above the survival of the environment upon which it depends. It is much like a person who makes choices which systematically destroys the body upon which he or she depends for survival, such as the choice to smoke or engage in drug abuse. Therefore corporations in their present preferred form and based upon current practice are not only harmful but also intrinsically suicidal. Since they are also based upon the principles of imperialism they represent a regression from the more evolved and preferable form of socio-political organization, democracy. It is this regressive trend which indicates that the current form of corporation is an instrument of destruction. It is not recommended or necessary to eliminate corporations entirely but to change the foundation and principles upon which they are built and operated so that instead of being enemies of life they can become powerful forces for healing a world which is sick with self-destruction and suffering.
The importance of the Middle Way is that it illustrates and transcends the limited nature of duality. By practicing the Middle Way in all endeavors and categories of quality we have the opportunity to integrate all of those things that were previously separated and in opposition. Therefore when we live in the Middle Way we live in a way which is most reflective of the unitary nature of existence.
Our habitual tendency should not be to search for others to blame when things are wrong but to seek and find what our responsibility is or might be and then to ask ourselves what we can do to make things better. Blaming yields nothing positive because ultimately we cannot change others (our attempts to do so often increase their resistance to change thereby making things worse), we can only change ourselves.
Though a path may be right and good and true, the way that it is practiced or the method of interpretation may be less evolved and therefore less inclusive than is intended in the original form. It is important to discern the difference between individual interpretation and original form. The former relies primarily on one's intellect or in far less evolved interpretations on one's emotional attachments, while the later is to be experienced above and beyond what reason alone has access to. So as we evolve in our ability to experience ultimate truth we move from emotion and faith, to reason, to the realm of intuition and direct experience each later one including the previous. As one moves forward through these states of being and experience the self-sense expands to include more as one's narcissism decreases. So how do we know where we are in development or even if we are moving in the right direction? Humility. For the more humble an individual is, the greater liberation they have from the self.
"There is a teasing irony: we spend our lives evading our own redemption. And this is naturally so because something in us knows that to be fully human we must experience pain and loss. Therefore, we are at ceaseless effort to elude this high cost, whatever the price, until at last it overtakes us. And then in spite of ourselves we do realize our humanity. We are put in worthier possession of our souls. Then we look back and know that even our grief contained our blessing."--Gordon Sherman, the founder of Midas Muffler.
The true reason why it is so crucial to identify a problem is not that we might right away eradicate it but because every problem contains a solution in code, not just for its own resolution but for our transformation through continued maturity as well.
As we live moment-to-moment encountering thoughts, feelings, objects and all living things we should always have one question in our minds through which to experience radical grace and truth: "How am I one with this?"
We must learn to regard nothing as meaningless, insignificant or without purpose for the fundamental substance of all manifest things is significance.
Science and technology are tools; objects of analysis and function. No matter how masterful or finely crafted the instrument or complex the concept they can not compensate for unwholesome intention or a deficiency in moral achievement. It is not the tool but the hand that wields it, and further, the mind that moves the hand, which makes the object either an instrument of death or one of compassion.
"Having seen his own self as the Self, he becomes selfless and in virtue of selflessness he is to be conceived as unconditioned. This is the highest mystery, betokening emancipation; through selflessness he has no part in pleasure or pain, but achieves absoluteness."--Maitrayana Upanishad.
A tragic life is one which has emptiness where love was meant to grow.
A true agnostic is one who is wise enough to acknowledge the ultimate importance of the Great Mystery, humble enough to admit that we don't have all the answers and that resolution can not come through either faith or reason alone, and open enough to be ready and receptive if and when revelation comes.
When we eat meat we consume the animal's fear.
The question that we typically ask when confronted with a view which differs from our own is, "In what way is this perspective wrong or incomplete?" thereby subtly placing the emphasis on non-acceptance and narcissism. But all views and perspectives have some measure of truth in them, even if it seems infinitesimal in amount or significance. Our task is not to find what is incorrect in the views of others and cancel them out in preference to our own but to seek out that portion of another's view which is right and good and true and then integrate it with our own in an effort to progressively broaden the space in which we exist and operate until all things in their pure essence are included and made whole. It is in the service of this principle that we should condition ourselves to ask, "In what way is this other's view good and true?"
The road leading to the Gate of Truth is difficult but straight. If one relies solely on the conceptual mind to reach it, they will draw near but never through to cross over. Upon encountering the guardians of the Gate, Paradox and Confusion, the conceptual mind will always detour and draw away.
The river of Truth flows perfectly. Cease to struggle for there is no reason to understand it; just flow with it.
The resolution of all duality can never be attained in the domain of understanding of one side or the other alone. Its solution can only be found in the direct experience of the Unity which exists within, between and beneath.
"The Truth is to be lived; it is not to be merely pronounced with the mouth...
There is really nothing to argue about in this teaching;
Any arguing is sure to go against the intent of it.
Doctrines given up to controversy and argumentation lead of themselves to birth and death."--Hui-Neng.
The evidence for the validity of spiritual truth is not whether it conforms to a particular religious dogma or image of God or even if it derives from a holy scripture or sacred teaching. The one and only certain criteria for discerning spiritual truth is whether or not it encourages, supports, cultivates and supplies the way of Love. If a given way originates from Love and aims to produce unity and compassion, truth must of necessity be some part of its nature. Spiritual truth must be that which is in some way accessible to all. Therefore it cannot be wholly dependent upon the intellect, nor on one religious choice over another (as long as it reflects the light of Love), nor on lineage or entitled birth, nor on knowledge or position, status or role. Since spiritual truth must be that which is accessible to all, even if to varying degrees, and only Love fits that criteria since all of humankind that has ever existed, does exist, and ever will exist has some capacity for Love, Love is found to be the way of spiritual truth.
"What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awake, you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?"--Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
We can know that we have found our calling, our destined way, our path, in any category of endeavor when we enjoy and feel fulfillment from the process of the practice at least as much as we do from the promise or attainment of any goal that may come as a result of that process and/or our expectations of it. A path that is driven by desire for the goal alone is one that is based in some measure on force and not on fulfillment, purpose or meaning, or on appreciation and acceptance. The former, force, is a highly exhaustible resource; the later qualities of inspiration are ultimately limitless.
We are all of us always both one another's students and teachers. It is crucial that we give space to both of these roles in our lives; to bring a balance between and out of their harmonious combination. For when we conceive of ourselves as primary or only another's teacher, we feed and cultivate pride, arrogance. When we believe we are only another's student we contribute to insecurity. It is out of the union of these two roles that both humility and confidence can together be sustained and grown.
We are reflections of those we are with.
The fundamental intuition of the human spirit is the awareness of the unity which lies beneath the multiplicity of all manifest things. Deeper than the mind, deeper than the heart, we know that all is one. Any teaching, way, thought or action which contradicts this must be either superficial or overwhelmingly false. Conversely, any teaching, way, thought or action which is aligned with this truth must be overwhelmingly good and authentic. Unity-in-diversity is the ultimate standard against which all things should be tested.
Misery, or to put it in its now ubiquitous term depression, is a natural and reasonable reaction when one is in an environment of overwhelming self-destruction and chaos. It is a rational and just response for anyone who lives in truth in a world, this world that more and more has gone mad. Despite melancholia's increasing rate of occurrence it is still viewed as an aberration. But in truth the psychological aberration is to live in a condition of blinded happiness, which springs from habitual denial, when the world is given over to suicidal behavior. In the world as it is today we can get a better idea of who is authentic and reasonable by determining if they are susceptible to depression for if they are it is likely that they are not living in the overwhelming state of denial that characterizes what has become the ideal of ordinary humanity. Happiness should never be purchased at the price of denial.
No matter how intrusive or burdensome it is to do the right thing, no matter how much sacrifice it requires, the quality of its rightness does not change only our will to do it does. We can try as we might with all of the intricacies and complexities of conceptual thought that we can muster to deny the validity of the right choice, these machinations can not change the goodness of a thing only cover it that we may continue to survive in the sleep of denial.
Corporations are the dominant form of organization on earth, not governments. Governments are, in their intended form, composed of people and values and are therefore living systems that can integrate with their environment. Corporations on the other hand, in their present preferred form, are opposed to life for while they may be composed of people, its guiding principle places its own survival far above the survival of the environment upon which it depends. It is much like a person who makes choices which systematically destroys the body upon which he or she depends for survival, such as the choice to smoke or engage in drug abuse. Therefore corporations in their present preferred form and based upon current practice are not only harmful but also intrinsically suicidal. Since they are also based upon the principles of imperialism they represent a regression from the more evolved and preferable form of socio-political organization, democracy. It is this regressive trend which indicates that the current form of corporation is an instrument of destruction. It is not recommended or necessary to eliminate corporations entirely but to change the foundation and principles upon which they are built and operated so that instead of being enemies of life they can become powerful forces for healing a world which is sick with self-destruction and suffering.
The importance of the Middle Way is that it illustrates and transcends the limited nature of duality. By practicing the Middle Way in all endeavors and categories of quality we have the opportunity to integrate all of those things that were previously separated and in opposition. Therefore when we live in the Middle Way we live in a way which is most reflective of the unitary nature of existence.
Our habitual tendency should not be to search for others to blame when things are wrong but to seek and find what our responsibility is or might be and then to ask ourselves what we can do to make things better. Blaming yields nothing positive because ultimately we cannot change others (our attempts to do so often increase their resistance to change thereby making things worse), we can only change ourselves.
Though a path may be right and good and true, the way that it is practiced or the method of interpretation may be less evolved and therefore less inclusive than is intended in the original form. It is important to discern the difference between individual interpretation and original form. The former relies primarily on one's intellect or in far less evolved interpretations on one's emotional attachments, while the later is to be experienced above and beyond what reason alone has access to. So as we evolve in our ability to experience ultimate truth we move from emotion and faith, to reason, to the realm of intuition and direct experience each later one including the previous. As one moves forward through these states of being and experience the self-sense expands to include more as one's narcissism decreases. So how do we know where we are in development or even if we are moving in the right direction? Humility. For the more humble an individual is, the greater liberation they have from the self.
"There is a teasing irony: we spend our lives evading our own redemption. And this is naturally so because something in us knows that to be fully human we must experience pain and loss. Therefore, we are at ceaseless effort to elude this high cost, whatever the price, until at last it overtakes us. And then in spite of ourselves we do realize our humanity. We are put in worthier possession of our souls. Then we look back and know that even our grief contained our blessing."--Gordon Sherman, the founder of Midas Muffler.
The true reason why it is so crucial to identify a problem is not that we might right away eradicate it but because every problem contains a solution in code, not just for its own resolution but for our transformation through continued maturity as well.
As we live moment-to-moment encountering thoughts, feelings, objects and all living things we should always have one question in our minds through which to experience radical grace and truth: "How am I one with this?"
We must learn to regard nothing as meaningless, insignificant or without purpose for the fundamental substance of all manifest things is significance.
posted by Jon @ 1:02 PM 0 comments
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posted by Borrowed Wisdom at 12:25 AM
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