The Speaker Surprised Me

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. ... Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.

The tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crust of legends and myths and sifting the true from the false. The tough-minded individual is astute and discerning. He has a strong austere quality that makes for firmness of purpose and solidness of commitment.
Who doubts that this toughness is one of man's greatest needs? Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Softmindedness often invades religion. ... Softminded persons have revised the Beautitudes to read "Blessed are the pure in ignorance: for they shall see God." This has led to a widespread belief that there is a conflict between science and religion. But this is not true. There may be a conflict between softminded religionists and toughminded scientists, but not between science and religion. ... Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.

There is little hope for us until we become toughminded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance.The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of softmindedness. A nation or civilization that continues to produce softminded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
But we must not stop with the cultivation of a tough mind. The gospel also demands a tender heart. ... What is more tragic than to see a person who has risen to the disciplined heights of toughmindedness but has at the same time sunk to the passionless depths of hardheartedness?

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose

Is the motto of the Dillon Panthers, a Texas high school football team shown in the TV Series Friday Night Lights.

Not watching any TV these days, only movies. When I do occasionally turn on TV it seems so odd, surreal and well, just strange.

This is one series I have really enjoyed:

1. The show models grown-up, self-actualized/human adulthood behavior in almost every character, from 8 to 80 year olds. I find this rare in TV: modeling conscious, adult behavior; it's refreshing.
2. Everyone "mans up." Even the women. I mean, almost every character vanquishes their demons and egoic mind to break free. It's inspiring, to say the least.
3. Entertaining. The writing is good, characters have depth, real issues and the acting is very good. Subtleties in performance, camera technique, caught looks and glances all contribute.

And, love their motto.

What are you watching?

Playing for Change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgWFxFg7-GU&feature=channel

with love to us all...

http://playingforchange.com/

Thanks to Jeff J. for this one - I needed it exactly when it came through.

Big smile

Big hugs

Deep bow

Why Cats Don't Talk

If cats could talk, they wouldn't.

~Nan Porter

Riding the Iron Rail

My friend Sherry recently blogged. In there, the quote:

"The quality of your life is determined by the focus of your attention" — Cheri Huber

Reminded me: in motorcycle riding we go where we look. It's called "Riding the Iron Rail."

If I look at the car's bumper ahead of me - then that is where I'm going. Even if it means riding right into the bumper. Or worse.

We train ourselves to break the gaze, look away and avoid the collision.

Make a new choice instead of riding the iron rail and smashing into the car.

In grappling with the mind-ego, it seems we begin to give this anthropomorphic qualities:

• My mind is after me


• I have to kill my ego


• Satan is after me (?)


• etc...

And now it's a real thing and begins to take on a life of its own and a momentum of its own and all of a sudden we've gone from simply breaking a habit to a massive war. Something doable to something impossible. The technical term for this is: you're screwed.

I look at this aspect of mind as a conditioned reaction. A set of (now) hardwired reactions, old same tapes and old same tricks (David S writes on this).

This functioning of the mind is conditioned. It's a learned reaction, a habit.

Until we learn to ignore our egoic, conditioned mind, to create new pathways, to recognize its old tricks...we're stuck riding the iron rail to our doom.

It's so simple to unlearn.

Simply break the gaze.

What is Meditation?

Meditation is Non-doing

When people come to me and they ask, "How to meditate?" I tell them, "There is no need to ask how to meditate, just ask how to remain unoccupied. Meditation happens spontaneously. Just ask how to remain unoccupied, that's all. That's the whole trick of meditation - how to remain unoccupied. Then you cannot do anything. The meditation will flower.

When you are not doing anything the energy moves towards the centre, it settles down towards the centre. When you are doing something the energy moves out. Doing is a way of moving out. Non-doing is a way of moving in. Occupation is an escape. You can read the Bible, you can make it an occupation. There is no difference between religious occupation and secular occupation: all occupations are occupations, and they help you to cling outside your being. They are excuses to remain outside.

Man is ignorant and blind, and he wants to remain ignorant and blind, because to come inwards looks like entering a chaos. And it is so; inside you have created a chaos. You have to encounter it and go through it. Courage is needed - courage to be oneself, and courage to move inwards. I have not come across a greater courage than that - the courage to be meditative.

But people who are engaged outside - with worldly things or nonworldly things, but occupied all the same, they think ....and they have created a rumor around it, they have their own philosophers. They say that if you are introvert you are somehow morbid, something is wrong with you. And they are in the majority. If you meditate, if you sit silently, they will joke about you: "What are you doing? - Gazing at your navel? What are you doing? - Opening the third eye? Where are you going? Are you morbid? Because what is there to do inside? There is nothing inside."

Inside doesn't exist for the majority of people, only the outside exists. And just the opposite is the case - only inside is real; outside is nothing but a dream. But they call introverts morbid, they call meditators morbid. In the West they think that the East is little morbid. What is the point of sitting alone and looking inwards? What are you going to get there? There is nothing.

David Hume, one of the great British philosophers, tried once... because he was studying the Upanishads and they go on saying: Go in, go in, go in - that is their only message. So he tried it. He closed his eyes one day - a totally secular man, very logical, empirical, but not meditative at all - he closed his eyes and he said, "It is so boring! It is a boredom to look in. Thoughts move, sometimes a few emotions, and they go on racing in the mind, and you go on looking at them - what is the point of it? It is useless. It has no utility."

And this is the understanding of many people. Hume's standpoint is that of the majority: What are going to get inside? There is darkness, thoughts floating here and there. What will you do? What will come out of it? If Hume had waited a little longer - and that is difficult for such people - if he had been a little more patient, by and by thought disappear, emotions subside. But if it had happened to him he would have said, "That is even worse, because emptiness comes. At least first there were thoughts, something to be occupied with, to look at, to think about. Now even thoughts have disappeared; only emptiness....What to do with emptiness? It is absolutely useless."

But if he had waited a little more, then darkness also disappears. It is just like when you come from the hot sun and you enter your house: everything looks dark because your eyes need a little attunement. They are fixed on the hot sun outside; comparatively, your house looks dark. You cannot see, you feel as if it is night. But you wait, you sit, you rest in a chair, and after few seconds the eyes get attuned. Now it is not dark, a little more light........

You rest for an hour, and everything is light, there is no darkness at all.

If Hume had waited a little longer, then darkness also disappears. Because you have lived in the hot sun outside for many lives your eyes have become fixed, they have lost flexibility. They need tuning. When one comes inside the house it takes a little while, a little time, a patience. Don't be in a hurry.

In haste nobody can come to know himself. It is a very very deep awaiting. Infinite patience is needed. By and by darkness disappears. There comes a light with no source there is no flame in it, no lamp is burning, no sun is there. A light, just like it is morning: the night has disappeared, and the sun has not risen.... Or in the evening - the twilight, when the sun has set and night has not yet descended. That's why Hindus call their prayer time sandhya. Sandhya means twilight, light without any source.

When you move inwards you will come to the light without any source. In that light, for the first time you start understanding yourself, who you are, because you are that light. You are that twilight, that sandhya, that pure clarity, that perception, where the observer and the observed disappear, and only the light remains.
Osho - from the book What is Meditation?

Photos and text © Osho International Foundation

Theory and Practice

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

• Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut/Yogi Berra.

Flow Experience

Definition:

Getting so lost in the activity one forgets the point of why they're doing it in the first place.

A malady common to, but not exclusive of, seekers.

Example: Taking a clock apart to find out what time it is.

By the way: It's ok to lose yourself in what you do. That is not what this points to:

When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.Suzuki, Shunryu

Meditation Chuckle

As related by a new Zazen student. Having arrived at the Zendo for the first time and sitting for a few hours, got up and approached the Roshi.

Student: OK, I'm done. I'm Enlightened enough.

Roshi: Ha ha ha. Now Go Sit.

(Thanks and nod to Bob G. for this one)

Loss

Are you willing to give up all you hold dear to know what's Real, even for a moment?

This question gets asked alot along The Way and perhaps we answer semi-automatically.

Have you asked this and really let it in? More than just words or sounds or ideas?

Really let in the feeling of this? What this truly means?

Really Really?

And, lest this become too melodramatic and one more mind-knot, what's pointed to here is not necessarily literal loss, but rather loss of ones' beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and mind-knots about that thing.

The cotton-candy fluff that hardens until it seems solid and gets in the way of the Real.

Wouldn't you like to give that up, even for a moment to see what's Really there?

Postcard

Speed Bump

Learn to recognize the difference between a speed bump, a wall and your own internal resistance.

Speed Bump means slow down, proceed slowly, but don't stop.

A Wall means no further access this way, go around (or find a door...)

Internal Resistance can be faced and overcome (or ignored or melted...).

Need

The universe gives you exactly what you need every moment.

No more, no less. The universe is hyper-efficient.

Really let this in....Try it as a meditation point.

The universe gives you exactly what you need for this moment.

One example of how a shared reality might work...

Simply Celebrate

Watching the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know" reconfirmed a suspicion I've had recently that many of us walk around self-hypnotized.
I mean literally hypnotized.
Think of all the environmental factors that contribute to this:

• TV
• Media
• Radio
• iPod, iPod, iPhone
• TV (worth a double mention ;-)
• Mindless egoic babble
• Allowing Dark background into the foreground
• Mindless Tasks

Question for you: What would you add to this list?

Question for you: How do you break yourself out of this hypnotic trance?

Two dear friends of mine have a technique that works wonderfully and magically. I would like to share this with you.

The technique is called "Simply Celebrate."

In a nutshell it is:

1. Notice you are on automatic. Noticing is the first step. This can come from inside or outside.
2. Take a moment and be quiet internally and allow creativity to fill you and think about how to do what you are doing in a different, creative fashion.
3. Notice any difference this makes.

And, over time, look back and see what difference doing Simply Celebrate is making in your life.

Example: I'm driving, notice I've been on auto-pilot. I then Simply Celebrate by choosing to put on a different radio station. I usually listen to rock, so maybe I change to classical. Or I take my shoes off and drive with my bare feet. Or start singing a song.

The actual specifics of what you choose does not really matter, as long as you:

• Break the trance
• Bring in (non-local) awareness and creativity.

Why does this work?

1. Consciously breaking out of the trance actually causes the neurons in your brain to break their old synaptic patterns, thus opening you to the possibility of new choices and behaviors (FYI: this is a good thing). However, this is not sufficient by itself; or you could simply slap your own wrist, thus breaking the trance.

2. The Creative aspect is vital because this is a direct invitation to the IS to come in and "enlighten" you. Even something small can have this effect.

You can do this anywhere, anytime, with no preparation, training, resources, help, financial support, moral encouragement, support groups, snazzy accessories, zafus, zabutans, incense, books, poems, mantras, gurus, gods, etc. You can do this anytime, as much as you want and it works deeper and deeper.

One thing I like about this technique is that it supports the practice of "small breakthroughs."

By inviting in small breakthroughs, I also invite in what could become a big breakthrough. As I open to breakthrough vs. auto-pilot I open my self. My consciousness expands. My heart opens. My world improves. My experience of the world improves.

Like little ideas and Big Ideas. We can't tell what ideas will be big. So allowing in little ideas opens the door to the ones that are really Big. (Read more about this in the book: Ideas are Free).

Practicing Simply Celebrate allows the Extraordinary Life that is Right Here Right Now to break through the ordinary life you're sleeping through. It can help break through the static, unyielding bubble we place ourselves in called My Life.

Lather - rinse - repeat until mind melts

Then get on with it.

What is on your reading list?

My current reading list:

• Self-Aware Universe - Goswami
• Alice in Wonderland - Carroll
• Paradise Lost - Milton
• Leaves of Grass - Whitman
• Morning Talks - Sant Kirpal Singh Ji
• The Physics of Consciousness: The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life - Evan Harris Walker
• The Psychedelic Experience - Leary

What are you reading?

Local vs. Non-local Knowing

There appears to be three ways we know:

1. Via the Senses ( i include internal mental objects with this)

2. Reasoning (a=b, b=c, therefore a = c)

3. Direct knowing (Wolff: introception, knowing through identity)

Reading about quantum mechanics, specifically local and non-local phenomena:

When an electron quantum jumps from one energy state to another, it does so in a discrete jump, not a continuous movement (like beaming in star trek, for example, as opposed to taking an elevator between floors).

However, the big question is: where does the electron "go" during the jump?

It is said to go out of space-time. It ceases to exist.

So, it bips out of space-time-existence at one energy level and bips back in at another..

Oh, and it doesn't just bip back in...it comes back into space-times-existence when it is observed by consciousness. (Enlightenment Opportunity: if you have sufficient personal power you can use this as a portal inward...)

In a sense, consciousness grounds the possibility into reality.

OK, cool, but so what? What does that have to do with me?

Have you had an experience of reasoning? You reason out and solve a problem. It follows a series of steps and can even be said to feel or be "continuous" (in a sense, work with me here).

Compare this with the feeling of direct "Ah Ha!" insight and knowing. We've all had it. Think about a time when suddenly you just KNEW...with tons of knowing and creative energy and you are just bursting forth and you feel like you know everything at once and not in a linear way -but comes in waves and seems VAST.

So, perhaps....

Reasoning happens via the (egoic) brain-mind. And, thought, as conveyed by neurons in the brain, in space-time-existence must obey the physical laws of the universe - which means information cannot travel faster then light. Now, light is fast and this is why thinking can seem so fast. Still, the experience of reasoning seems "limited" in comparison.

But...

What if Direct Knowing (like the little electron on a jump) occurs non-locally, outside of space-time-existence...in the middle of the IS?

If this direct knowing is connecting with being the Universal Consciousness, then as this consciousness, there is direct, immediate, instantaneous (nonlocal = outside of space-time, remember?) access to all knowledge and all consciousness that is, was or will be.

(I can't testify to the last one - but nothing is impossible, so...)

This may be why direct insight feels so Vast, Fast and HUGE. Because it IS (pun intended).

So what, you asked earlier?

By allowing that direct connection to not be blocked, resisted, or slowed down by the mind, one accesses ALL. You are having a Direct Experience of the IS (aka Reality, Universal Consciousness, God, grape jam, whatever). Without leaving the comfort of your chair.

How cool is that?

(No literal truth has been presented here, it is a story, nothing more.)

Wonder and Magic Abounds

Eternal Wonder and Magic Abounds!

Don't restrict, abandon, exclude, shut out the wonder and magic.

Allow wonder and magic to fill your world.

Removing/excluding wonder from your world is not a skill you need to acquire.

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

-(William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence")



(image from: http://www.matiklarweinart.com/en/gallery/grain-of-sand-1963-1965.htm)

Thought For The Day

Clarifying

Early on, I wrote: "Everything we know via perception is a mental construct."

I had mistakenly assumed the mind creates. I would now say it does not. Not really.
Does a contractor create? Or simply build the building as designed by the Designer, Originator, Architect?

This is the point I missed. Once I let in that the mind does not create (Don Juan: The creator that does not really create) but simply passes through, filters, adds onto that Which IS - shining through, all kinds of things shifted. The filters, add ons, interpretations, stories are added by the mind but are taken as reality. This is part of the illusion.

What is Reality? Reality is what IS with no filters or interferences. Personality is a filter, Human Being is a filter, Form is a filter, Thought is a filter (not a specific thought, the "laws" of how thought works.)

Even consciousness is a filter, albeit about as minimal as one can get. Still, consciousness is movement in the IS and as such is a filter.

Reality, the IS can be experienced directly. I had not thought this possible - that all we have are mental constructs and Reality was "over there somewhere" and I had to "get to it" via practice. I took "know" to mean "conceptualize." And in that sense the statement is correct.
No.
Reality.
The IS
Is RIGHT HERE and NOW in all its blazing maelstrom energy.

Why do I not see it that way? Because I have my "filters of the mind" dialed-down so constricting and restricting.
Now, some of that is needed for the organism to survive. (It's really hard to bite an apple when it appears as a cloud of quantum bits - an electron cloud - no distinct surface..what the hell do you bite into?)

Also, The IS operates at NO TIME speed - very fast. So part of what the mind does is to "slow down" Reality so we can manage it.

By raising levels of energy-vibration we can access different realms, realities and universes.

Yet it is ALL right HERE , right NOW...If I simply knew how to dial in the right frequency or simply dial off my filters (Like Hal in 2010) the raging blazing purity and intensity would all be perceivable..

Oh, and I am That IS. So are you, So is everything.

Killing a Belief

I have a persistent belief that I can't quite kill off.

I've seen that belief is false and that what is pointed to is simpler and easier to come to than the ragged, layered, thick idea of the belief....

yet, here it is. A couple of teeth left

A wounded animal.

I look at it.

Ask it: why am I clinging to you?

What is it about you that promises some thing that sustains it and keeps it in place.

I will keep looking. Once found, and light of Truth brought to it, I know it will fade away, like a dead vampire in the sun.

Can Reality Be Known Directly?

• What is Reality?
• What is Knowing?
• Is there a difference between knowing and experiencing?
• Can Reality be known directly?
• If not, why not. If so, how is that different from "normal" perception?
• What is the Shift?

I'm not planning on posting any answers anytime soon - but thought you might benefit from what I'm working on and considering these yourself and see what answers arise.....

Modeling Behavior

When I used to teach software design I would use real-world examples in class rather than the canned case studies the course came with. I preferred to let the students watch me work a (new, unknown) problem, thus modeling the behavior that they were to use in their own software development.

This worked very well. This was also, as you might imagine, risky. There were several times when I worked myself into a design corner that was wrong and had to backtrack and redo and redesign.

Many instructors would freak out at this idea - that they could make a mistake in front of the class.

Me., I saw it as freeing and a great teaching technique:
1. I'm human and I make mistakes
2. I'm willing to own my dirty butt
3. Here's how I fix it

Same is true here. I'll share what I'm going through as I revisit and re-consider many things I've "taken for granted" since (and before ) The Shift.

This is all a work in progress - any of it may be deemed trash and redone at any time.
So, as I always suggested to my students...

Take notes in pencil.

I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque

For those of you who don't remember, Bugs would occasionally pop up in the wrong place and say it was due to his taking the wrong left turn.

There is some of that feeling arising in me this week.

Recent discussions have pointed to the need for me to re-examine some core ideas I have been thinking, saying and believing around all this.

While The Shift is The Shift, I see now there are many ideas and such that I had not done all my work on. Not fully investigated thought about or delved into deeply enough.
Sharon's posts have been immeasurably helpful in clearing out the weeds in my head.

I will say that clearing the weeds is easier, faster than before. The Shift does help there.