16 December 2006

But there's one thing I know
The blues they send to meet me
    won't defeat me
It won't be long till
    happiness steps up to greet me....
(Hal David & Burt Bacharach)

The Dinosaur Club
(no pun intended)

KAY -- if you recognize THAT song, raise your hand -- you and I are in the Dinosaur Club, my friend! If you DON'T recognize it, you're a "young whippersnapper [alt. snippersnapper]" -- who probably doesn't recognize that, either! And, likewise, who probably knows nothing of the movie the song came from, nor anything about its portrayal of Butch and Sundance; and ditto for any knowledge of the original duo themselves!!

(WOW, I guess THAT'S tellin' 'em!!! : ^ )

I clearly remember, as a high-school kid, lying on the green carpet in our living room, one Sunday afternoon, watching a TV show about the making of that movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Goggle-eyed at seeing how they did explosions and gunshots, and the famous scene of Butch and Sundance jumping off the cliff -- WOW!! -- the kinds of special-effects that were so impressive in those days, and which a 10-year-old with a laptop could probably duplicate today (while on his/her cell-phone, talking quantum physics with his/her personal coach!)....

Ah, those were the days, indeed! Television had made its entry into our house no more than two years before. Television! Three channels -- ABC, NBC, CBS -- and, on a good day, we could likely get 2 of the 3; at least some representation of them; maybe one would be just the sound, and the other just the picture. It helped to go outside and twirl the great, long, aluminum pole that held the antenna (way up above the roof); twirl it slowly, 360 degrees, while someone in the house kept their eyes glued to the TV screen, to yell, at the moment of best reception, "Right there!" (followed inevitably by, "Back just a little--" because, of course, by the time our ears had registered their first yell, we had already twirled the antenna just a bit past the optimum point).

***
By the time that show about Butch and Sundance came along, the TV situation had improved dramatically, though -- and there they were, on that Sunday afternoon, in "living color" on the screen in front of me. I may have taken an especially keen interest in them just because where I grew up was not very far from where the two of them had spent a lot of time -- and, even during my childhood, it was, to a great extent, the Wild West (the nearest town to me was Craig, Colorado -- and, throughout my growing-up there, I would see, once in a while, on the streets of Craig, an old cowboy named Mills Craig, who looked like he had just stepped out of a turn-of-the-century photo album). Having heard stories of Butch and Sundance well before that particular movie was made -- and having visited their Brown's Park territory -- I felt kind of like they were buddies of mine, like I already knew them, in the way that kids know such things.

*** photo courtesy Museum of Northwest Colorado: Cowboys (Jim Robinson and Ted Hughes), west of Craig, Colorado, circa 1900; photographed by D.W. Diamond.

ANYWAY, it just happened that I was out walking a few days ago in the sunshine, when some big drops of rain started falling. BIG drops-- though there were very few of them; they lasted just a couple minutes -- and they brought to mind that song. It was the first time I had thought of it in many years! It made me happy to sing it again. In fact, I was happy already, and the song made me even happier! It brought back the memory of that Sunday afternoon, and of seeing the movie itself, in the West Theater, in dear old Craig, Colorado.

I've been especially happy lately, precisely because I've been successful at Being Here Now. It seems, in fact, that my Be-Here-Now-ness has taken a quantum leap! I've been so unusually PRESENT, almost all the time -- and my lifestyle has once again become One-continuous-day: no predictability of sleeping-times or eating-times (no need for the "security" of those); I just GO, full-blast, until I can't go anymore, and then I sleep awhile, and then I get up and GO again. Just like when I was a little kid! : ^ ) And, in this Be-Here-Now-ness, everything has been flowing so beautifully: without the need for thinking, the awareness of everything has just been coming to me, everything at just the right moment, almost as if by "magic" -- only I realize, this is not magic, this is just the way Life was designed to be lived!!

It's so simple. Why do we complicate it? Why do we live in the past and the future, instead of the present? (And, here I am, at this very moment, re-living the days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and of my own childhood encounters with them!! : ^ ) The very act of writing something -- or even thinking something -- puts us in the past, because writing or thinking takes time...! By the time we write or think something, what we're writing or thinking about has already passed.

I wonder: is it merely that writing and thinking take time ... or is it that the act of writing or thinking, the action itself, indeed creates Time?? Is it fair to say that any kind of doing creates Time, and that timelessness comes only with not-doing? No, that's not quite right, either -- in fact, most of my "timelessness" (except for sleeping) comes when I am fully, intently, occupied with doing something! So fully occupied that I have no sense of the passage of time, no sense of anything but what is occupying me....

Hmmmmmmmm.... The mystery of Life continues....

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Vicky Warren - 10:16 AM 12/27/2006

Dearest Don,
as usual? you made me smile.. so you think that you belong to that club? Because you remember that song? I had to smile and chuckle reading your blog. Tis only this am, that I have time a bit that isn't demanding.
Even though I can remember that song, and some I suspect are even older than the Dinosaur Club members... does this now? make me a collectable or an antique? had to smile at your days never ending and coming and going as you please! Good for you. I was longing for it, since Xmas business has ended and am thinking now what to really, really do for the New Years eve dinner, for 2 ladies, who are spending that evening with us.. I didn't really want all that work.. but ala, I invited them.. and they are looking forward to it.. And here is your blog, about living in everlasting relaxation! I think that I will take the phone off the hook this am and put up me feet and just watch that movie which I picked up from blockbusters yesterday... what a good time to have opened your blog this am! Keep as best you can, with hugs and greets from Vicky (that almost Old Timer)

11 December 2006

"To choose not to love is
like walking into a desert only to die.
To not be able to love is like
living in a desert with no water."
(author unknown)

Con/Fusion

usion: the act or process of fusing; the state of being fused.
< L fusion- (s. of fusio) a pouring out, melting.

Confusion: disorder; upheaval; tumult; chaos. lack of clearness or distinctness. perplexity; bewilderment. Archaic: defeat, overthrow, or ruin.
< L confusion- (s. of confusio).

What started me thinking about these 2 was a new razor. It arrived in the mail one day -- a free sample. It's called "Fusion". Remember, some years back, when someone invented the twin-blade razor? Two parallel blades, very close together. The idea was, the first blade would hook into the whiskers and, before it could cut entirely through them, the second blade would hook into them further down (because the first blade would be pulling on them) and would cut them at that point. And our faces would end up as smooth as a baby's!

Well, that was great. Twin-blade shaving became the order of the day. Then someone invented the triple-blade razor. Then the quadruple-blade razor. And now -- you guessed it! -- the famous "Fusion" razor has FIVE blades!! I'm really eager for the 20-blade razor, because that will cover so much area, my whole face will be shaved in about 4 strokes! I hope I can afford it, though; I bought some blades for the famous "Fusion" machine, to replace the set that came with it ... and 4 cartridges of blades cost me about 12-and-a-half dollars, plus tax (and that was at Walmart!). Good thing I don't shave more than every 5 or 6 days!

Anyway, this razor started me thinking about the words "fusion" and "confusion". It seems, from the Latin root for "fusion", that the word means literally a melting-together of things -- which seems to have good connotations. For instance: America being a "melting pot", a fusion of many different cultures. We see that as a good thing!

And the word "confusion" is just "con" + "fusion" -- literally, "with fusion" -- but the connotation is totally opposite! The word means disorder, upheaval, tumult, chaos -- all of which we take as bad news!

There may be nothing profound in all this; it just engaged my curiosity. It does seem that confusion and fusion may be 2 sides of the same coin; that confusion often precedes fusion (that America was born in just that way, in fact); and that fusion may then degenerate into confusion again (which may be a fair description of where America finds herself right now). Just order and chaos, eternally dancing with each other....

Here are 2 pictures, both of which came to me quite serendipitously, at about the same time I was contemplating this subject. Don't they seem appropriate?

F · U · S · I · O · N

(thanks to a piece of spam email)

C · O · N · F · U · S · I · O · N

(thanks to diana, one of my new friends at zaadz.com)

Insanity is a form of confusion. Here's some insanity.

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26 November 2006

If ever you got rain in your heart,
someone has hurt you, and torn you apart,
am I unwise to open up your eyes to love me?
(Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb)

The Tao That Can Be Spoken

"BY THE WAY, the Tao that can be spoken of is *Love*...."

Words of wisdom from my dear friend Steve: right on-target, as usual!

HE WAS writing in response to my latest blatherings here. I wrote back to him, then he to me, etc. -- and pretty soon we had created a long dialog about all this. I'm posting much of it here -- an amalgamation of our email back-and-forthing -- in hopes that others will find bits of wisdom in it, or at least food for thought, or at the very least a chuckle or two:

Anyway your writing was spot on for me and reminded me of perhaps the most liberating thing I ever learned, I didn't learn it from a book or anyone else, it was an insight resulting from meditation and watching myself. The insight was simple, it was -- there is absolutely nothing you can do to make someone like you, plenty you can do to make them dislike you but nothing to like you. Once that was understood the freedom was automatic, live from the heart and be truthful and honest, if someone doesn't like you then that is a reflection of themselves, their problem not mine. No further need to people please, lovely! :^)

#### AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN!!!!!! i remember myself also coming to that same realization....

It works as I am sure you know because we all see life through the filters of our own experiences, we become slaves to our own past and it is a cruel existence for many.

#### yes! this is another thing Ruiz talks about -- and how he freed himself from his past, from his 'identity', through a toltec method called 'dreaming'.... he says, because of that, he now lives in a state of constant bliss, conscious of the bombardment of Love from everything in his environment....!

We can only imagine....

#### but, if he can get there, so can we....!

Oh yes indeedy and I am beginning to understand that faith in that very notion is a key ingredient ... see you in the Holy of holies ... or rather I won't, because there will be no one to see ... and no one to see it. What the heck, see you there anyway.

The clearest example I can give is that if I cast my mind back a lo..o..o..o..ong way to when I was at school, if an independent person were to ask all of the kids in my class what they thought of steve, then everyone would come up with a different answer even though I had behaved exactly the same before them all. Some would like me, some dislike and others be indifferent. They are all viewing through the filters of their own experiences. Freedom at last!

#### yes....

Regard[ing] the business of "choice" and so called "free will", I have given much thought and inquiry to this very subject and the result of that inquiry is that both concepts are total poppycock. There is no such thing. Sorry, but that is the verdict, if one does the inquiry honestly it will be seen. At best the decisions we supposedly make are binary ... yes / no ... left / right ... 0 / 1 ... and the dice are loaded against us. Filters again, conditioning both individually and collectively.

#### which seems to be also what Ruiz is saying....

Even when we silence the storyteller within we are not entirely free, the majority of the work is done yes but we are still shackled by the bonds of genetics and astrological influences.

#### not so sure about that.... it seems to me, when we reach the point he's talking about -- where we have disconnected from all the lies (that is, everything that can be thought or said!) and are living only in the realm of Truth/Reality, which is to say, absolute LOVE -- that we have also freed ourselves from genetics and astrology, and are able to re-make ourselves in any way we choose....! (because genetics and astrology are just more "stories" we have agreed to believe)

That's very interesting.

And of course there is a question we must ask ourselves and that is "who is in here to make a decision anyway?" I've looked and I can't find anyone, at first glance thinker and thought appear to be separate entities but on closer examination it can be seen they are one and the same whilst that which watches this process take place appears to be entirely passive though I reserve the right to change my opinion :^)

#### i definitely agree that thinker and thought cannot be separated. our whole personal identity is nothing but a collection of thoughts. it seems to me, this is also what Ruiz is getting at ... and, once we dissolve that body of thoughts, we are simply one with the undifferentiated life-force, and then we are free to focus that force in any way we choose....!

Yes and without question Mani is absolutely correct as are you. I tend to think of it as the limitations we allow ourselves to believe. Mighty powerful they are too. Universal mind with conditionings becomes personal mind, personal mind free of conditionings becomes Universal mind perhaps.

I know this has been quite a long mail but having just read your last post at Beyond there was much talk of love. It reminded me of one of my favourite poems, I'll paste it below, you may enjoy it.


The Lover and the Beloved

Indeed, no lover seeks union without his Beloved seeking him.

But the love of lovers makes their bodies into bowstrings,
while the love of Beloveds makes them happy and plump.

When the lightning of love for the loved one flashes in this heart,
know that there is also love in that Heart.

When love for God has doubled in your heart,
without doubt God has love for you.

You have never heard one hand clapping without the other.

The thirsty man laments, "Oh sweet water!"
The water also laments, "Where is the drinker!"

This thirst in our souls is the attraction of the Water --
we belong to It and It belongs to us.

---- Jalaluddin Rumi

HOW BEAUTIFUL!

The line about love for God doubling in your heart, brings to mind one of my new friends at zaadz -- a young woman (remarkably wise for her 21 years, it seems!) who calls herself Star. I very much liked one of her blog entries, titled L = ta², or Love = (truth)(acceptance)². The only quibble I had with it was that her definitions of truth and acceptance seemed the same; in other words, her equation reduced to Love = acceptance³ -- and I wrote to ask why it needed to be cubed, or even squared! Her answer was to remind me that "The goal is to multiply the acceptance in our life double each day" -- which sounds so very much like Rumi's line about doubling our love for God.

Anyway, here is Star's take on it....

And more from Steve....

Dear Don,

Amen!

I'm glad you awoke with that revelation, that the arrow sank deeply. The very point I was alluding to in the mail entitled The Storyteller Within, at the beginning. Nothing we can do to make someone like / love us, nothing at all for they can only ever see me through the filters of their own experience. So long as I live my life from the heart, with honesty and do not harm others by word, thought or deed, then any negative attitudes or thoughts they have towards me are a reflection of them rather than I. It's not their fault, they can't help it any more than we can.

But we can step out of it.

#### you're right, it's the same, whether a case of someone disliking us from the start, or of someone love-love-loving us from the start, and then suddenly turning against us! how strange, that i had come to grips with the first case, a long time ago, and it was easy for me to accept and understand; but i hadn't even realized that the second case (a betrayal) is really no different!! in the second case, the initial love of the other person for us, as well as the later animosity toward us, actually has nothing to do with us (except that we serve as a target for it)...! wow -- these realizations are making me feel more alone than ever....

Indeed, but they are important realisations aren't they...

#### yes ... but it ain't easy [to "step out of it"]!! every time i think i've gotten out of it, i seem to tumble back in for a while.... i think i've completely disconnected from her ... and then i'm haunted by thoughts and feelings of her again (today is one of those days).... and the mystery of all mysteries -- how could someone who had felt such oneness with me, such total love ... betray that so completely and suddenly and cavalierly??? again, that's not "my" question to answer -- but i sure would like to know the answer!!!! because the question keeps haunting me....

No it isn't easy, but simply trying to step back and let it go is the important thing. And I would guess that the honest answer to that question is that you probably wouldn't get an honest answer. We must understand the ego mechanism and how it will respond in the knowledge we have hurt someone, unless it is housed in true honesty and the accompanying humility which for the vast majority it isn't, then it will seek to justify its actions by victimising itself and blaming others, after a while it makes the previous actions easier to live with. It's a cunning beast, all this done by a thought, an idea, for the ego identity in truth is nothing more than that, but it is a mighty powerful thought form. I tend to think, having looked at this from all angles, that I do not so much possess an ego rather I am possessed by the very idea of one.

It is sad to say that the closest you will get to the truth on this is these very important revelations which you have had. ....

#### and lately, a line from the Bible (UGGHHH!!!!) keeps coming to mind: the one about "the peace that passeth understanding".... i think it's trying to tell me, there are some things we just cannot understand ... and that we can surpass the whole realm of understanding, just by achieving a feeling of peace-without-understanding.... for me, that's a really tough thing to do; understanding is so essential to me; i proceed by understanding...!

Ughhh :^)   Not sure that is what it is referring to though, would have to see the whole quote in context. I think it likely refers to the state that can be achieved and experienced and eventually becomes a permanent condition ... the real meaning of enlightenment or Self realisation. St John of the Cross who undoubtedly lived in this state referred to it as entering the Unknowing beyond all knowing -- and in that place there is Peace and the deepest of silence. Until then we live by the concepts of understanding unless we have the IQ of a mollusc. The Sages say that the real Knowledge is that there is nothing to know. I have contemplated this and I confess I do not understand it, I guess it has to be experienced. Nisargadatta said something like "anybody and everybody can gather and collect concepts but it is a rare man indeed who can let them all go". Boy I would have loved to have met that guy.

#### remember Richard Nixon's famous "peace with dignity" in Vietnam? maybe i'll start a movement for "peace without understanding" !!!!!! : ^ )

AND, WAY OFF in the distance, I can almost hear Vicky saying, "Good Grief, how much longer is he gonna beat this dead horse???" Sorry, Vicky -- I know you're right, but it's one of those yin-yang differences between women and men. Women generally seem able to let go of things more quickly and easily than do men. Simple yin and yang; sorry, it's the way we're made; please submit all complaints to the factory! : ^ )

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Vicky Warren - 07:40 PM 11/28/2006

hihi, you have me in royal stitches! with your comments at the end!

and eeeh, you are quite wrong if you think? that women get over 'things' quicker than men! They NEVER forget!! And many have those proverbial brains that elephants have? Didn't your mother ever tell you that? OR? didn't you ever noticed that at home? between your parents?

Dearest Don! I expect this whole matter to take its own course. So at least one whole year perhaps.. Maybe even shorter, since you are getting a good feedback from all your friends.. which is, as you well know, the best way of getting over things.

besides, you really are causing me a great deal of amusement! Not that I am laughing at you.. you're just very humourous! that's all! and I happen to have a sick sense of humour!

oh by the way? the directions of the lazy eight and the lovehearts are coming!

Vicky Warren - 12:40 PM 12/7/2006

(re: "lovehearts" procedure)
One can use it towards people and situations.. although I must say, I have never used it for situations, but for people who caused me a great deal of problems, I have.

What I do, is I just give myself the time and the space to do this.

I visualize the person who is causing me grieve or trouble... anger whatever? Then I position them in front of me.. I have even used photographs.

Then I visualize that hearts are coming out of my own heart area and these are going/heading toward the person they are intended to of for. I always send them as a sheet. very large in other words. I wrap these sheets in the form of a red heart around the person who has either hurt me, or angered me, or frustrated me or whatever they have done?
Tis something that I do every day... I find myself truly crying my heart out. But funnily enough? After a number of weeks even months? Somehow? I am feeling a whole lot better. In any case it has changed a lot for me, until I learned the sending of light from Rick Rivard on his website and now the Ho'oponopono.
If I am short of time? I do this method while walking my dog in the nature reserve, in the morning. It has had some remarkable results!

The Light method is different. Rick says on his website, that one calls the light to oneself. When one thinks that one has enough light gathered around oneself? Then one visualize oneself to be a clear piece of crystal. Or even better a glass of water.
Then one visualizes oneself (meaning only one's own face) in the crystal or the water and sends the light which has gathered around oneself (it only takes seconds) with a burst to the other person.

20 November 2006

The Voice of Knowledge 2

"If there is a Universal Mind,
 must it be sane?"
(Charles Fort -- thanks to Steve!)

I LOVE this Don Miguel Ruiz! I keep waking up with revelations, after reading his words.... I read his book The Four Agreements several years ago ... and, in The Voice of Knowledge, he talks about using the Four Agreements as a tool for unlearning the lies we have come to believe in, which run our lives and imprison us. And, this morning I awoke with a great, liberating revelation, arising from his Second Agreement.

The Four Agreements are:

1. "Be impeccable with your word."
2. "Don't take anything personally."
3. "Don't make assumptions."
4. "Always do your best."

For some time, I've been feeling betrayed by someone. Totally, absolutely betrayed. I remember feeling this betrayed only one other time in my life, and the situation then was exactly the same as this one. I've been suffering terribly from this betrayal. I've been driving myself crazy, trying to understand the other person, trying to understand how anyone could betray anyone to such an extent! And suddenly, this morning, I awoke with the crystal-clear realization that there is nothing to understand here! (See, Vicky, just as you advised, I'm becoming more brainless every day!! : ^ )

I awoke with Don Miguel's Second Agreement in my head: "Don't take anything personally." And I realized that, anytime people betray me or hurt me in any way, their action has nothing to do with me! It's not about me, it's about them! It's a perfect reflection of who they are in that moment -- nothing more, nothing less. As long as I have kept the Fourth Agreement -- "Always do your best." -- then I know their betrayal has nothing to do with me. (In fact, even if I've broken all agreements and acted terribly, whatever other people do in response is still only a reflection of them!)

And ... the flip side of this coin is that my response to their actions has nothing to do with them -- it's purely a reflection of me! So, why should I even choose to feel betrayed by them in the first place? Why choose to make myself feel terrible? Once I realize that their actions are only a reflection of who they are, I can see the reality that there IS no betrayal -- there are only the two of us, each being who we are! If there is any betrayal, it's a self-betrayal by the other person; it's a betrayal of Love itself (which, come to think of it, makes me feel rather terrible also)....

Hmmmm..... Anyway, a bit less terrible than when I was taking the whole burden upon myself.... I realize, at least, that I cannot control other people; if they choose to betray themselves, to betray Love, then I simply have to accept that. I have to go on, just doing my own personal best. I don't have to understand how anyone could betray me -- because no one did betray me! The only thing there is to understand is that someone, in a particular moment, is not acting from Love, but from fear -- which is self-evident.

Another thing Don Miguel says, which caught my attention especially, is that, anytime we feel hurt by someone, in reality we are using that person to hurt ourselves! No one has the ability to hurt us -- except we ourselves, by choosing to feel hurt! And why would any of us choose to feel hurt, when we could just as well choose to feel HAPPY? It seems to me, the only possible reason is that we are momentarily insane; we are not in control of our own choices, we are being run by the "program" of lies in our head, as Don Miguel points out.

As he also points out, anytime we choose to feel hurt, it's because we are believing the lie that we don't deserve to feel happy, that we're somehow "not good enough" or not lovable, that we must have done something "wrong", for which we need to be punished! So we punish ourselves by feeling, incorrectly, that someone else has hurt us, or just by feeling guilty....

This is where the First Agreement comes in:

The first agreement, be impeccable with your word, means you never use the power of the word against yourself in the creation of your story. Impeccable means "without sin." Anything you do that goes against yourself is a sin. When you believe in lies, you are using the power of the word against yourself. When you believe that nobody likes you, that nobody understands you, that you will never make it, you are using the word against yourself.

Please allow me to share 2 more excerpts, they're just so beautiful...!

Well, said, Brother!

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18 November 2006

LoveHearts

Nothing you can do but you can
learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.
(J. Lennon / P. McCartney)

T'S OCCURRED to me so many times, that the Fab Four truly did say it all with that one!

Yes, I'm back on my favorite topic, L-O-V-E -- and mainly because of the following comments submitted by my friend Vicky (posted here with my responses interspersed):

eh eh, I was rereading your posting on the subject of: The Greatest Thing Revisited, as there was something that was bothering me... What bothered me was the fact that Love also means, going TOGETHER through difficult times; as that is what makes love and the relationship with each other, strong and grow and tight.

Last but not least? Send lovehearts to your ex beloved and to yourself as well, do this for a time until you know that your emotions and feelings are healed.

SPEAKING OF new butterflies -- I haven't seen any of those yet ... but I have been making some new friends lately. Do the rest of you know about zaadz.com already? In case you don't, it's one of those social networking sites -- but "Social networking with a purpose." And the purpose is no less than "to change the world."

Well, hey, somebody's gotta do it! The zaadzsters figure, just by bringing together a whole lot of people who are into personal transformation, spiritual awakening, and the quest for Self-realization ... that something good is bound to happen! Oh, sure, there will always be some people who just sit and talk about changing themselves and changing the world -- bloggity, bloggity, bloggity -- but I've been finding some people at zaadz who, in addition to being personally intriguing, actually seem to be doing some worthwhile things.

If you're reading this (and you are, right? : ^ ), consider yourself invited to join me and all my friends at zaadz.com! (Click the "Join Now" link, at the top-right of the page.)

Rane introduced me to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (NOT the sitar player, but a renowned spiritual teacher) -- who brings us back to the subject of love, with the following words:

"Here are the signs of love.
When you love someone,
you see nothing wrong with them."

"The only true security
that can be found in this world,
is in the very process of giving love."

"Love is not an emotion.
It is your very existence.
It is what you are made up of."

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15 November 2006

The Voice of Knowledge

What a day this has been
What a rare mood I'm in
Why, it's almost like being in love....
(Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe)

H, WHAT A DAY indeed! Started out with an 8.1 earthquake north of Japan ... which generated tsunami several feet high in places on O'ahu and Kaua'i...! Meanwhile, here in the magical kingdom of Hilo, I was having an absolutely SUPER day. Weather-wise, it was totally spectacular: blue sky, bright sun, a few puffy white clouds, and gorgeous deep-blue surf topped with brilliant white!

I was also having a great day internally -- even though I had been up working till 3:00 a.m., and had gone to bed and shivered the rest of the night, unable to sleep (I know, this is Hawai'i, it's not even cold here ... but, when I go to bed that late, my body heat is totally gone, and the bed will not get me warm!). I was having such a great day. I went downtown on the bike, first thing, reveling in the gorgeous weather, and got a dollar's worth of baby bok choy at the Farmers' Market. But the main reason it was such a good day was ... just that it was! A very good Be-Here-Now day for me....

The main reason for that was because of what I had read the day before in The Voice of Knowledge (Don Miguel Ruiz). What the book calls "the voice of knowledge", it also calls "the liar in your head". The premise of the book is that, when humankind first ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil) ... we let the voice of this great Liar into our heads. It's the voice of worry and fear and guilt, lecturing and judging; the voice of Good and Evil; the voice of Duality ... and it's been running our lives ever since that day in the Garden of Eden!

Señor Ruiz advises us to keep in mind that we each create our own world, our own reality. And we do that, he says, by telling ourselves a story: the story that is always being dictated in our heads, by the Voice of Knowledge. He advises us simply not to believe the story. Don't believe that anything anyone tells you is the truth, he says, and don't believe that anything you tell yourself is the truth! -- because nothing that can be put into words is ever the truth! ("The Tao that can be told is not the real Tao"?)

You can listen to what people tell you, he says, and you can listen to what you tell yourself -- just realize that those things are not the truth, they are just stories. And everyone tells a different story, that's all. Once we realize that, and we realize that our lives are controlled by this Voice of Knowledge (the storyteller) in our heads ... then we can begin to free ourselves from its control.

We can do that, he says, by letting the Voice know that WE know what's going on ... and that we no longer believe what the Voice tells us ... and that we are no longer even going to listen to the Voice!

THAT'S WHY I was feeling so good inside today -- I had turned off the Voice of Knowledge! Don Miguel suggests that we do this by replacing the Voice with music -- and that's what I did. I just cued up a nice, instrumental piece of music there in my head, and let it play and play and play. "Look, Ma -- no thoughts!" Just music. Peaceful music. And the world became a beautiful movie, with background music. Everything was so peaceful and beautiful, I had to nudge myself, to get a few words out of my mouth, when it came time to speak to someone at the Market!

None of this was tremendously different than my usual way of being: I don't usually talk much, and I almost always have music playing in my head. The difference was, usually the music has lyrics! So, almost always, in addition to the music, I have some predetermined set of words playing in my head ... telling me their story!!

SO ... today I made sure the music had no words ... and it made all the difference in the world! What an astoundingly simple thing, and what a huge difference it made!! I know there have been other days when the music in my head was wordless; I don't know why it made such a difference today ... but it must have been just from reading that book, and therefore making a conscious decision to shut off the Voice.

I practiced doing it all day. Whenever the Voice would start at all, I just shut it off by replacing it with music! Making this a conscious thing also helped greatly to keep me in the present. Whenever a memory would start to arise -- even a wordless one -- my focusing on the music would bring me immediately back to Here and Now. It made SUCH a wonderful day! I was also consciously using it against my tendency to be impatient. Sitting here waiting for web pages to load (yeah, some of us do still have dial-up!), I normally get impatient; but today, as soon as I started feeling that way, I was very conscious of it, and I shut it off, right away, just by focusing on the music. Why would I choose to spend any time at all feeling impatient??? It's not a good feeling -- and I have the power to shut it off! So I did.

According to Don Miguel Ruiz, the things we can trust, the things that ARE true, are our feelings. A feeling of impatience is an undeniable truth. A feeling of happiness is an undeniable truth. And it's really not that hard for us to shut off the impatience, and to open the tap on happiness....

Ruiz says that humankind is literally possessed by the Voice of this liar in our heads; that we are not even the ones making our decisions, the Voice is making them for us -- and it seems to me, he's right about that.

Here's an excerpt:

I LOVE it so, how life always delivers exactly what we need, when we need it! All this information that's been coming to me lately -- about just being happy (from Joe Vitale and Jan Spiller); about ho'oponopono (from Steve and Nina); about loving the breath (from Peter); and now this book from Don Miguel Ruiz -- is teaching me perfectly how to really Be Here Now....

Something else that has come to me, from several people, is the awareness of a book and movie called The Secret -- which is about how we all (consciously or unconsciously) create the world around us, by the Law Of Attraction (attracting/creating everything in alignment with our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs). In case you haven't seen it yet:

• here's the movie (to watch it online [$4.95/broadband] or buy a DVD);
• here's an online (free) version of the book The Secret of Success;
• here's the book Secret of Success (1996);
• here's the book Suggestion and the Secret of Success (2005);
• by the way, the author, William Walker Atkinson, wrote about 120 books on subjects related to this!

Here's a quote I like, from the movie:
"When you realize your potential to feel good, you will ask no one to be different in order for you to feel good. You will free yourself from the cumbersome impossibilities of needing to control the world, your friends, your mate, your children...."

I'VE NOT finished reading The Voice of Knowledge yet, but here's my very favorite quote from it so far:

"But the goal is not to save the world. No, the only mission that you have in life is to make yourself happy.
That's it. It's that simple."

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13 November 2006

Heart, Head and Hands

Some folks' lives roll easy as a breeze
Drifting through a summer night
Heading for a sunny day
(Paul Simon)

'M NOT SO SURE about that. It makes a nice song, but it seems to me that nobody really breezes through life on Earth. It just ain't that kind of place. We all come here with work to do on ourselves: challenges to grapple with, fears to overcome, problems to solve. Nobody gets a free ride -- no matter how much it may look that way from outside. Inside, it's a whole different story!

I used to be quite a bit into divination systems: numerology, astrology, cards (both Tarot and Destiny cards), I Ching, 9-Star Ki.... Then, a few years ago, I felt I was limiting myself by even consulting those things -- because I would absorb whatever they said about me, and would create that as my reality ... when, if I didn't know what they said, I might create a very different reality. But, just recently, while putting myself back together after surviving a love affair that hit a brick wall, I was drawn to read the description of me in Astrology for the Soul (Jan Spiller).

I must say -- though my contact with astrology has been fairly minimal -- this is the most remarkable astrology book I've ever read (thanks to Cathy for introducing me to it!). It focuses entirely on a single aspect of one's astrological chart -- the position of the Lunar North Node -- and, from this one aspect, it derives a lengthy chapter of material about each of us! It tells the kinds of qualities we'd best develop in this lifetime, and the ones to leave behind; it tells the kinds of effects our recent lifetimes have had on us -- what we developed in them, and what we need to do differently this time; it shows how our developments in the past can keep us from seeing our true path in this lifetime. It points out the tendencies in ourselves that we need to beware of; the unconscious mistakes we're likely to make, and how to avoid them!

I had read all this, years ago, and seen how remarkably accurate it was for me. Then I had decided not to limit myself by taking on any such "baggage" -- that I was ready to be free of all such things, that my new mantra "Be Here Now" was all I needed!

Maybe I would have been wiser to pack just a little of that baggage after all. Just a tiny, overnight case, maybe : ^ ). I thought I was being progressive and self-realizing -- but maybe I was also (a little arrogantly) getting ahead of myself....

BOY OH BOY -- if only I had re-read that chapter about me in Astrology for the Soul, before diving into the aforementioned love affair!! Had I done that, and had I any sense, I would not have jumped in so quickly, and would not have made the blunders I made. I would not even have gone near the diving board!! I would have understood that it wasn't time for that yet! I would have made sure that my prospective mate and I, both of us, read the chapters about ourselves and each other, and talked them over at length, and got a really good bearing on exactly where we were and where we wanted to go, and how to get there.

Ah, well ... could-a, would-a, should-a !!

SO ... just in case I get another chance at such a relationship ... I'm packing this book with me from now on, wherever I go!

It even explains why I have more affinity with a "just be happy" approach to life, than with the "deliberate creation" strategy of intentionally manifesting particular things. The book says it's because I've developed a super-strong will in previous lifetimes: no need for more of that. It says, "In this lifetime their job is simply to be receptive, to see what life brings; they will discover that this will actually make them happy."

Maybe I should have that tattooed on my arm, so I can always remind myself of it....

Something else that came to me -- just a little gift of intuition -- is that I tend to be overly heart-centered. As soon as my heart gets a glimpse of something it wants -- LOOK OUT, there's no reining it in!! And it's very hard for me to realize that other people are not this way!

It seems to me, we are actually put together to operate best in the following manner:

• the heart tells us what we desire;
• the head tells us how to get it;
• the hands allow us to carry out the plan.

Gee, all these years I've been acting in a headless way -- going straight from heart to hands! But not exactly the "headless way" mentioned by Peter and Graham -- eh, guys?

But, I'm learning....

"When I look inside and see that I'm nothing,
that's wisdom.
When I look outside and see that I'm everything,
that's love.
And between these two,
my life turns."
---- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

thanks to Karuna for the lotus image and the quote from Nisargadatta

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8 November 2006

We burst the pretty balloon
That took us to the moon
Such a beautiful thing
But it's ended now
It sounds like a lie
If I say I'd rather die
Than live without her
(Harry Nilsson)

The Greatest Thing, Revisited

UESS WHAT! That gem of wisdom from eden ahbez -- "The greatest thing you will ever learn / Is just to love and be loved in return" -- which I was praising so highly...? Well, it is a gem alright ... but it's not quite the greatest one, because here's one even greater....

The problem with the one from mr. ahbez is that it's dualistic: it depends on giving love and then getting love in return. The giving love, we can do; the getting love -- well, maybe, and maybe not.... That makes us dependent on someone else, to give us love. And it brings up the question: Is dualistic love even REAL love in the first place?

Here comes the greater gem. The crazy thing is, I knew this before! I even wrote about it, an embarrassingly-short time ago. And then ... I let myself be seduced into forgetting it. I forgot that, no matter how deeply and totally I love someone, I never need that person to complete me! I started out determined not to forget it; I started out knowing I didn't need the other person, that it would just be very nice to share my life with her.... But somehow both of us got spellbound with each other; we had both been alone for so long, and both had prayed for a partner, and both had then seen the other as the perfect answer to our prayers. And then it was so wonderful, and so spellbinding, suddenly to have each other -- that we both lost ourselves in the other. We lost sight of the reality of being complete in ourselves. We started feeling that we could not live without each other!

But the universe always has a way of bringing us back to Reality. It took the very dedicated and unpleasant work of our family members (and even a dog!) to forcibly rip the 2 of us apart.... And even then, my would-be partner had to throw me out of her life, and then had to rub salt in my wounds -- not once, but twice! -- in order to make me remember what I had known before!! Which is, very simply, this: We never need a certain thing or situation or event or person in our life, in order to be happy and complete!

SO ... my deepest and most genuine gratitude to those family members and that would-be partner, for doing (whether knowingly or not) what had to be done, to bring me out of my self-hypnosis and back to Reality! Back to what I had already known.

Let me say it again (so I'm less likely to forget it again): We never need a certain thing or situation or event or person in our life, in order to be happy and complete! We are BORN complete (no matter how different we may be from what is considered "normal"), and we have the power to create our own happiness, from within, at every moment, just by DOING it!! (Again, great thanks to Joe Vitale for teaching me this!)

SO ... here's the drill:
(1) Be Here Now
(2) Be HAPPY Now

Whenever you're not feeling happy, stop what you're doing (if safely possible), go inside yourself as deeply as you can, see what's causing the unhappiness, and take action to deal with it. And ... the action may be only to talk to the part of yourself that is unhappy -- acknowledge the unhappiness, acknowledge what SEEMS to be the cause of it (a lack of money, the way someone has treated you, etc., etc.) ... and then realize that this is a faulty perception!

Realize 2 things:
(1) that we are each totally, one-hundred-percent responsible for every aspect of the world we live in (and that what we perceive as the world is totally our own projection, and different than the projection of anyone else); and
(2) that only what is eternal is REAL.

Is your lack of money eternal? All joking aside, No -- it isn't! The terrible way someone has treated you -- is that eternal? No, it isn't! Keep going down the list, and you will see that every one of the things you thought was causing your unhappiness ... is not even real, because it doesn't last! (I have taken this definition of Reality from Ramana Maharshi, who was universally recognized as fully "enlightened", one of the greatest sages ever [thanks to Dragan and Steve for making me aware of him!] -- and it's my understanding that Ramana himself said there is no such thing as a moment of "enlightenment"; that enlightenment is our eternal condition, there is no beginning and no end of it, and that anything that begins and ends is NOT REAL.)

SO ... whenever we feel a lack of happiness, here's what we can do: get absolutely still ("Stop the world!"), go inside ourselves, and tinker with the projection equipment! Go to the projection of each individual thing or person that we feel is causing our unhappiness, and acknowledge it, and then acknowledge its unreality. Acknowledge that the only thing real, anywhere, anytime, is pure, unconditional LOVE (a.k.a. Oneness). Then, direct that LOVE to dissolve or sweep away the illusionary projection of the thoughts or words or deeds or people or situations or events, which we had erroneously perceived as the cause of our unhappiness.

Dissolve those things in total, eternal LOVE, by offering them peace and forgiveness. This may not be lasting with the first application; we may need to repeat it many times, even. But each application will further our own healing, and eventually we reach the point where all those illusionary projections are replaced with projections of Reality; that is, with LOVE. And then we are totally at peace, having taken complete responsibility for our own projections, our own creation of the world. We are then at peace, and free to create and project HAPPINESS! We can do this by merely feeling happiness, in the present; and one of the best ways to feel happiness is to find something to be grateful for. It can be anything at all (just being alive, for example!). Just pick anything in your life right now, and feel as grateful as you can for it!

Again ... anytime you feel a lack of happiness: go inside yourself and sweep away everything that's not real (which is everything but LOVE), and then fill everything with the total feeling of Love and Peace and Happiness. Just stay there and feel it for as long as you dare. Fill yourself with it, fill your projections of "others" with it.... You will immediately feel happy yourself ... and you will very soon begin to notice happy changes materializing around you.

When you're acknowledging those projections of people, events, etc., which you had erroneously perceived as the causes of your unhappiness ... it seems important to ask the forgiveness of (your projection of) these "others", for anything you have ever done -- both knowingly and unknowingly, in this lifetime and all other lifetimes -- that has hurt them in any way. Ask their forgiveness, and truly feel contrition for whatever harm you have ever caused. And then forgive each of them for anything they have ever done (both knowingly and unknowingly, in this lifetime and all other lifetimes) that has hurt you in any way. And then fill everything with Love and Peace and Happiness....

SO ... is THIS the greatest thing we will ever learn? I'm not going to say. But, it's enough for now, at least.... : ^ )

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Peter - 07:08 PM 11/9/2006

http://1breath.com
When I read your first article, I had George Benson running through my head with, 'Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all' and then you wrote 'To love and be loved in return'. I've got my songs mixed up somewhere, but to me they mean the same thing.

You cannot love without loving your self. When you love yourself, you have enough love overflowing to splash onto someone else. But then we get attached, just like you describe, and before we know it, we've lost the real love.

I suppose many people would view 'love and be loved in return' as meaning willingly getting attached. I think many people advocate that and refute that there is another kind of purer love, and that just by loving the breath we breathe we can feel that love. The breath gives us the love to love the breath and also loves us in return - to love and be loved in return. Ultimate recycling Agree?

Peter - 10:42 PM 11/11/2006

http://1breath.com
Continuing from what you say about nothing outside yourself except projections from within you: have you realised that your hands, legs and whole body is external to you too? That you don't have a head? That when you look in a mirror you see something but it is not you? That you are in fact consciousness that is free from restriction, not bound within a head? That other people appear to look at you but are also looking at themselves? And they they themselves are consciousness too? And all you really can know is that you are alive and you are breathing and if you can't find your own fulfilment you have nothing? So you need to dive into your own fulfilment, into your own breath, into your own consciousness? And by doing that you dive into all consciousness, all breath, all fulfillment, because that is all that really exists? That the ultimate experience of true love is self-existent, self-generating and complete and is there just (waiting) for you?

Well, I haven't actually real-ised it, but it sure feels that way! Another breath, another opportunity. Phew!!!

Vicky Warren - 10:37 PM 11/13/2006

This announcement came just as I was about to go into the bush with my hub to close up our cabin for the winter... I started to answer you, but something went funny and it all went into cyberspace. So tonite, I decided to read it all again!

and oooh, dearest Don, you gave me a real smile!! It is something I have actually done for years and years, just wasn't able to put the right words to my instinctive actions.
Having said this, I also want to tell you, that you made me smile because what came across to me? was as I see you right now! the inveterate Romantic.. who's picking up himself, dusting himself off and in the meantime giving himself encouragement to go on and to see the bright side of life!
aaah, dearest dearest Don.. Right now, as I see it? you are reacting as millions of people must do, after a deep disappointment, especially after a romantic disappointment.
BUT!! DO keep heart! as your soulmate getting together hasn't worked out in this lifetime, as of to date.. Your life isn't over yet and miracles do happen.. (here's me the inveterate optimist! and romantic myself!) and who knows what will happen tomorrow or next year!
AND? IF in this lifetime, your getting together with your soulmate hasn't occurred? imagine? that there still is a chance! That you will re incarnate again and your soulmate too and the two of you might get it together the next time around!

The path of love is never easy... and please stay as you are.. my dearly beloved inveterate romantic!! You give me cheer and pleasure and am deathly curious for your next Enlightment!
Kindest regards and selamets from
Vicky Warren!

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